Over East by Hollow Deck

Major life-changing moments such as the birth of a child and the start of a pandemic can make everything around us feel completely out of our control, but Massachusetts electroacoustic duo Hollow Deck approached this moment with an inspiring solution. Over East, a meditation on communication and the meaning of home, focuses on those things that will never change in our world of constant motion. Wild, improvised instrumentals serve as a constant reminder of ensuing chaos, interrupting the speaker’s attempt to relive tranquil, safe moments from their past through their pristine classical vocal performance. An impressive variety of instruments including bass clarinet, drum machine, and banjo provide the group with the distractions that thwart their attempts at inner peace, but having these creative outlets at their disposal also enables the reclaiming of their exterior chaos into a creative product within their possession. This path strikes a happy medium between the stoic understanding of the outside world as an unstoppable force to yield to and the human satisfaction of establishing control over one’s surroundings. -Michael