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Artist
Ernest Hood
12+ albums
experimentalambientelectronicfield recordingsUSA
about
Ernest Hood (1923-1995) was a musician and composer from Portland, OR, United States. He was a jazz guitarist in the Portland area in the 1940s, playing with his brother Bill and saxophonist Charlie Barnet. Hood contracted polio in the early 1950s, which confined him to using a wheelchair for the rest of his life. As he could no longer hold a guitar, he started playing the zither. He actually played zither on some of Flora Purim's early albums. Hood started making field recordings as early as in 1956 and eventually discovered the synthesizer. Using the zither and a Roland SH-3A synthesizer, Hood turned these nature sounds into a unique blend of ambient music, gorgeous nostalgic soundscapes. His music became imbued with optimism and subtle cultural critique. This ethos and technique - refined over the years - would lay the groundwork for a sprawling body of radio work and mail order recordings for homebound listeners. Two privately pressed albums of Hood's work were finally re-released in recent years: Neighborhoods (recorded in 1975) in 2019 and Back to the Woodlands (recordings from 1972-1982) in 2022. In the words of Hood himself... "My purpose in creating this album is to pay a debt to some beautiful and loving people. To older folks everywhere, but especially the ones who put up with my childhood pesters, those who played such an important role in the formation of comfortable memories... I hope this brings back something warm and joyful to your hearts. It saddens me t
