Hiram: Yucca Music

Over the past couple of years, there have been several self-professed environment-based artists who have emerged from the scrublands from all parts the world. The paradigm of experimental composition is always interesting, simply because the terrains are borderless which, in essence, makes it timeless; the rise of environment-based music yet another chapter in this endless story.

Under the Hiram moniker, Matthew Hiram Himes is one of these artists. The Minnesota native explores vast terrains both locally and afar, and he does it via meditative soundscapes that offer a contrast to the chaos of consumerism. Typically, Hiram’s creations underline the fact that open space and the realm of Mother Nature not only conquers all, but also holds the key to inner peace.

Following last year’s Air Songs, Hiram’s third long-player in Yucca Music was created with the frequencies of living plants from the natural environment. Recorded in the Joshua Tree National Forest and the nearby Yucca Valley in Southern California, Hiram’s latest works seek to connect humanity and nature, with soundscapes that oscillate between the spiritual nuance and deep meditation.

While Air Songs undulated with soft drones and gliding dreamscapes, Yucca Music offers a hopeful resolution through the kind of sound portals that are resistant to conflict. Two compositions reaching 35 minutes, side-A’s First Light is the calm after the storm. A slow-motion, soothing long-form piece that expands on the minimalism of Steve Reich, but maintains the soft glacial moodscapes of, say, Christian Fennesz.

On second composition, The Great Unseen, Himes orchestrates a piece that functions in various ways. With a series of woodwind echoes and swelling synths that slowly rise from the canyon, it’s the track’s title that provokes the most thought. Is it territory not yet seen or, indeed, what will be the great unseen for our future generations? Because if climate change didn’t exist, would we have environment-based artists at all? And that begs another question: is this political music? By definition, perhaps it is, however it’s also escapist, and it’s no coincidence that the two coexist.

In a world that moves at lightning speed, we all need space to gather our thoughts. It’s purveyors like Himes that are the necessary agent to unlock this part of the mind. Soundscapes can be whatever the listener chooses them to be, once again feeding into the borderless notions of experimentalism. And on Yucca Music, Himes unveils another chapter into the great unknown.

Yucca Music is out now. Purchase from Bandcamp.