Ben Hackett

Ben Hackett’s Songs for Sleeping Dogs is a study in subconscious beauty. Hackett didn’t set out to make an album of meditative flowstate sonics when he began recording the various pieces that eventually revealed themselves to be a collective whole. In fact, he didn’t set out to make an album at all. The title Songs for Sleeping Dogs is a quite literal reference to the conditions these songs grew in, with Hackett working softly during quiet hours in his home studio space, trying not to wake the slumbering dog or the rest of the household. Sometimes starting with composed arrangements, but just as often building on melodic figures he realized he’d been absentmindedly playing while thinking about something else, Hackett slowly assembled a private collection of unobtrusive, observational grandeur. The final product reaches the unlikely nexus point of whisper-thin subtlety and profound musical depth, with Hackett playing each of the dozens of different woodwinds, acoustic instruments, electronics, and other components of the songs. Every sound dissolves into the next for an album that breathes, reacts, and considers, and all of it happens within an atmosphere so soft that the experience itself feels almost accidental.

Somewhere between a post-dusk neighborhood full of warmly lit porches and a foggy, curious dream landscape is where Hackett architects Songs for Sleeping Dogs. At times, the album feels like a less nervy reading of the possible musics conceptualized in Jon Hassell’s Fourth World series, with the melt of the woodwinds making more space for authentic exploration and a decidedly non-academic approach gifting the proceedings with a glowing, open feel. In other stretches, the songs can echo by turns the patient simplicity of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s ambient naturalism, the playful flutter of Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Robert Stillman’s deftly orchestrated wandering, or the organic feel of Haruomi Hosono’s pre-Yellow Magic Orchestra solo material. Ultimately, Songs for Sleeping Dogs exists within a liminal space of its own, one stripped of ego and void of the now-expected swells and silences of modern ambient music. The sounds are thoughtful and strange, saturated with quiet contentment that never overstates its message or raises its voice for fear of waking the dozing dog. It’s a world of multiple paths that all lead to the same destination, with signs along the way reassuring us in new languages. All of it smiling and grateful, every sublime moment born of chance. 

This Athfest Ben Hackett will be joined by Mason Davis and Erik Olsen. The trio will be creating music inspired by the moment of creation and the energy of the day. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that must not be missed!!