Hallock Hill

The Union | A Hem of Evening. Double LP + book of prose poems/photographs on MIE Music. Released August 20, 2012. Mastered by James Plotkin.  

“In a  world overpopulated with acoustic guitar players, Lecky’s increasingly refined and focused experiments with such shifting, half-repeating, subtly accreting textures makes his music stand out as having courage and vision where far too many only have technique and tradition.” — Nick Southgate, The Wire, November 2012.

“This is an important distinction between Lecky and many other contemporary musicians: like James Blackshaw, Lecky approaches the acoustic guitar in unconventional and new ways, treating it as a kind of orchestral instrument, psychedelic in the sense that through its use a composer is able to call up profound mental impressions, of a deep opacity, in the listener’s consciousness.” — Jordan Anderson, Foxy Digitalis

“Lured by the warm tonality, Hallock Hill’s music is all too easy to fall into but, once immersed, you discover that it is never straightforward, never predictable. In The Union you will find frictions and sharp edges among the gentle turns. A Hem of Evening is a gentler, more overtly seductive affair but carries with it a sense of longing too which adds dimension and punch. The upshot, taken together, is a record which will continue to tug at you, which insists on your attention, your engagement. It is a record to which you might want to make something of a commitment. It is confounding, thought provoking and will enrich your life. It is a record you might find yourself loving, if never quite fully grasping.” – Calum Neil, The Liminal 

“And though, as stated, the collection does offer a feast for six-string devotees, it’s important to emphasize that Lecky’s no self-indulgent soloist, but rather someone who uses his instrument to realize and give voice to a state of being. In one sense, there’s zero soloing on offer; on the other hand, the argument could be made that there’s never anything but soloing in play, given that every moment of the recording documents Lecky’s spontaneous expression. In that regard, his approach to music-making recalls Ornette Coleman’s harmolodic concept as applied to group interaction, the critical difference being that Lecky accomplishes the feat by himself using multi-tracking—a remarkable feat indeed.” - Textura, September 2012.

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The Union. Released May 2, 2011. Original CD edition available at the Hundred Acre Recordings shop. For the vinyl issue on MIE Music, see above.

“Echoes of Connors also show up at the beginning of The Union, the first album by Tom Lecky, who records under the name Hallock Hill. The opener, “I began to lose myself within a wonder”, has the halting, spare feel of Connors’s Airs period. But as the album progresses, Lecky’s playing becomes busier and prettier. He creates a bucolic tone that could easily become saccharine new age (a style Fahey has been accused of spawning). But his music has an unpredictable edge that avoids over-sentimentality. In that way, he reminds me of someone we interviewed recently, Michael Jantz (aka Black Eagle Child), who plainly declared he’s not afraid of nostalgia. Neither is Lecky, and The Union shows that wistful emotions and fond memories can be as deep and complex as darker themes. It’s my favorite solo acoustic album of the year so far, and if it indicates a new direction for this kind of music. I think Fahey would approve.” –Marc Masters, “Beyond Fahey,” The Out-Door

“[The Union] is an album that elucidates poetic concepts of self and memory and yet sidesteps the normal modes of communication. It deserves your attention.” – #4 Album of the Year by The Liminal

“Rural upstate New York musings that are as weighty as they are gentle.” — #8 Solo Guitar Recording of the Year by The Out Door.

There He Unforeseen. Released July 11, 2011. Mastered by James Plotkin. Available directly from Hallock Hill:

US: CD $12 including shipping:

International: CD $20 including shipping:

“It’s difficult to talk in terms of influences, as the material is so acutely personal and idiosyncratic. There are hints of Loren Connor’s airs rising damply out of the murk, and moments that are redolent of Scott Tuma’s meta-commentaries on the American (and, more specifically, the Appalachian) tradition, particularly on “Needing Bones.” At other times, in static crackles and strange high ringing tones, I’m reminded of some of Alan Lamb’s recordings of telegraph wires in Western Australia. Yet those only function as pointers, ways in to what is a strange and fecund palette of sound.” — Matt Poacher, The Wire, December 2011.

“Hallock Hill’s second album of 2011, There He Unforeseen, diverges from the rolling, arpeggiated guitars that littered his brilliant experimental debut The Union earlier this year. Though Hallock Hill’s creator, Tom Lecky, now incorporates a wider variety of sounds into his material (including a piano and a banjo), there is somehow now more space to be found amongst the six tracks that comprise this foreboding follow-up. Where The Union was a peaceful series of flowing, deconstructed meditations, There He Unforeseen feels like its angst-ridden twin – the shadow of its brother.” — Ash Akhtar, The Quietus. Read the interview.

“unpacking 100-year old handtools, bird’s nests, alfalfa hay, heirloom jewelry, and a 300 page manual on joinery techniques from inside the soundhole of a single acoustic guitar” — Dan Bodah, WFMU Best of 2011.

Found Objects: a limited edition of 12 copies released October 10, 2011, comprising six photographs on archival fine-art paper and six tracks on CD-R. Each individually numbered and housed in an illustrated Arigato pack. Read more about Found Objects.

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