Just like any other time I’ve lived by myself, I had little to feed my social self except music in Austin, 2019. I lived in my aunt’s neglected condo on the south side, and despite all the room it had, I rarely shared it with anyone except a few sporadic instances of parties and an old relationship. I filled these long moments of alone time with music—more specifically, the type of music that had the space and airiness to feel as if it floated across the space without any particular direction. Something more ambient and light compared to the dance and heavy atmospherics most of my music provides. I set up a wireless speaker system so that I would hear music emanating from every corner of the condo—even the garage!
Thus, I ran into h hunt’s “Playing Piano for Dad”, a quiet and personal record that delights itself not only in the melodies of piano compositions, but the pulses and movements of the keys itself—the microphones pick up the foot pedal and other ancillary sounds that aren’t typical of a clean piano recording. Sometimes there are mutterings and breaths being taken. With my speaker setup, I felt like I was hiding in someone’s piano as they play around with it.
I fell as sleep and woke up to this album for weeks—it left my consciousness at times and returned to bits of delight. It never commanded attention, but gained attention when it could. Repeating this album so many times completely messed with the algorithms of Spotify and Apple Music, who futilely recommended more piano compositions that could never hold a candle to the experience of Playing Piano.
The label “tasty morsels” appears to produce and release humble records such as this. Though some artists have released several pieces through the label, h hunt hasn’t done anything since 2016. The minimalism of sound, label, and releases remind me of those artists on Spotify who only have emojis or ANSI code as names, making them nearly unsearchable on the internet. They don’t ask to be discovered by human agency but only by algorithms—and they disappear from existence as quickly as someone forgets to add it to their playlist (because who knows how one will search for it afterwards!). Luckily h hunt uses recognizable, searchable characters—and I’ve remembered to search for Playing Piano every time it seems to leave my music collection.
Since the discovery of this album, I’ve been much more comfortable repeating tracks or albums ad nauseum, until the tracks blend into each other and there is no beginning or ending. I come back home in the middle and enjoy it just as much as I may from the start. It is the music of wallpaper—unnoticed except when the time calls.
Thus, I ran into h hunt’s “Playing Piano for Dad”, a quiet and personal record that delights itself not only in the melodies of piano compositions, but the pulses and movements of the keys itself—the microphones pick up the foot pedal and other ancillary sounds that aren’t typical of a clean piano recording. Sometimes there are mutterings and breaths being taken. With my speaker setup, I felt like I was hiding in someone’s piano as they play around with it.
I fell as sleep and woke up to this album for weeks—it left my consciousness at times and returned to bits of delight. It never commanded attention, but gained attention when it could. Repeating this album so many times completely messed with the algorithms of Spotify and Apple Music, who futilely recommended more piano compositions that could never hold a candle to the experience of Playing Piano.
The label “tasty morsels” appears to produce and release humble records such as this. Though some artists have released several pieces through the label, h hunt hasn’t done anything since 2016. The minimalism of sound, label, and releases remind me of those artists on Spotify who only have emojis or ANSI code as names, making them nearly unsearchable on the internet. They don’t ask to be discovered by human agency but only by algorithms—and they disappear from existence as quickly as someone forgets to add it to their playlist (because who knows how one will search for it afterwards!). Luckily h hunt uses recognizable, searchable characters—and I’ve remembered to search for Playing Piano every time it seems to leave my music collection.
Since the discovery of this album, I’ve been much more comfortable repeating tracks or albums ad nauseum, until the tracks blend into each other and there is no beginning or ending. I come back home in the middle and enjoy it just as much as I may from the start. It is the music of wallpaper—unnoticed except when the time calls.