STEFANO GUZZETTI & IAN HAWGOOD – HERE
Due to serious health issues, Ian Hawgood has been somewhat off the radar in the past year. He’s back – and started 2024 with a bunch of new releases. Some were released physically and others digitally.
This hopefully marks the beginning of a brighter future for Ian personally.
Here is a short EP featuring the musical collaboration of Ian Hawgood with Stefano Guzzetti. Guzzetti and Hawgood knew each other for 12 years, sharing their love for ‘the romanticism of electronic-ambient music’. This is their first work as a duo, and it is a celebration of ‘the romantic nature of the present moment and the mindfulness therein’.
However hard the times must have been for Ian, this music shows nothing of that struggle. Quite the opposite: this music radiates appreciation for the beauty of life. It’s ‘a note of love between friends and passion for the romanticism of life, memories and deep acceptance to the present moment’.
The limited 3″ CD version has unfortunately sold out at the speed of light. A second (and final) edition is in the making at the moment – so keep an eye on the Bandcamp page. And of course, there’s also the download version to treasure. It’s available from 2020 Editions as well as from Home Normal.
IAN HAWGOOD & DAVID CORDERO – WILD AIR
Another collaboration in the batch of new Home Normal releases is this one called Wild Air, by Ian Hawgood and David Cordero. Cordero previously released some albums on Home Normal, but this is his first collaboration with Hawgood.
The tracks on this (32-minute) album are simply presented as ‘eight Hohner Pianet pieces in a small modular framework’.
The Hohner Pianet is an early electronic piano that was very popular in 60s and 70s pop music. It has a distinct sound due to how the tones are generated (read more about that on the wiki page): ‘brighter than the Rhodes, but somewhat less bright than the Wurlitzer’. You may know its sound from hits like The Zombies’ She’s Not There, Richard Berry’s Louie Louie, or from The Beatles’ I Am The Walrus. Out of production since the early 80s, the Pianet became popular again recently, mainly due to its ‘retro’ sound.
But Wild Air is no ‘retro’ album – on the contrary! And no ‘pop’ hit here, either. The bright, bell-like sound of the Pianet perfectly fits the ‘modular framework’, and creates a lovely – contemporary – atmosphere of summer evening freshness filled with windchime-like sounds.