Jack Hertz

Treetrunk Records  (Label) says:

Even if you've only been paying slight attention to the world of netlabel ambient music, podcasts, radio, and artists the past few months, the name Jack Hertz has probably crossed your reading and listening paths.

Jack approached me and Thomas in the early part of 2012 with an idea for the Complex Silence Series that we listened to and liked, but didn't feel fit the CS concept exactly right. I encouraged Jack to try again, thinking that I might hear back from him a few months later. Instead, I heard back from him in a matter of days with the submission you are about to enjoy.

I can only describe these four tracks as sublime and meditative. You can simply soak into them and relax and let the music do the rest, the way pure ambient music is meant to do. These tracks are definitely a journey, with their own sense of movement and purpose that (to my ears at least) is a hallmark of Jack's brand of ambient music. And if you've never listened to a Jack Hertz ambient release before, I hope this release serves you as an appropriate introduction to his work and gives you a desire to hear more.

About this release Jack writes:

Cicada - My homage to the cicada. The glorious songs we hear in summer are rather complicated. It's not a continuous tone each insect makes, as I thought. It is really a succession of clicks. The drones we hear are from a multitude of creatures that cascade from sound to silence in discord.

Germination - I wanted to write something that would be a virtual soundtrack to the time-lapse film of a seed going through the stages of germination to growth, following its primitive forms. From awkward and fragile, struggling to break the pod, to pushing through earth and unfolding its baby limbs upwards.

Snail Dance - This one was inspired by Altus. One evening he made a comment in chat that he liked to dance sloth-like to ambient music. After spotting some snails lunching in the garden, I thought it would be fun to imagine a really really slow rock n' roll song snails could dance to.

Echoes of Night - My attempt to render those elusive moments between night and day. I want it to be haunting music that was ambiguous as to whether it is dusk or dawn.