Hammock – Silencia – Album Review
by Killian Laher

Prolific instrumental composers Hammock have released their third album in three years, the third part of a trilogy.  For those unfamiliar with their music, it’s largely an exercise in serenity, with shades of post-rock but without any of the jarring musical turns that go with that genre.  The seven-minute blissful drift of Circular As Our Way opens the album seeping gently into your ears, ultimately drenching them in sound with a mixture of electronic and more traditional instrumentation, rounding off with a wintry choir.  It sets a suitably epic tone for the album.  A lonesome cello introduces the title track, which starts off sparsely, swelling gradually.  Many of the tracks have an almost meditative effect, particularly When It Hurts To Remember, with strings undulating back and forward, or the majestic swirls of glacial strings on Saudade, this latter one with echoes of Peter Gabriel.

When they change up the formula there are mixed results.  Afraid To Forget overdoes it a little on the angelic choirs, but We Try To Make Sense Of It All fares better, based around piano and strings with a little guitar introduced to back up the choir.  A late highlight is Life Is Life, with muted brass giving it a seasonal feel.
It’s a real “headphones” album for want of a better word.  It doesn’t quite reach the heights of Universalis but definitely worth several listens if you enjoyed that.

Track List –

1. Circular As Our Way
2. Silencia
3. When It Hurts To Remember
4, Afraid To Forget
5. Saudade
6. In The Shattering of Things
7. We Try To Make Sense of It All
8. Slowly You Dissolve
9. Fascinans
10. Life Is Life
11. Without Form and Void

Circular As Our Way