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The Hermit Flying Out of Solitude

Hamish Thomson (aka The Hermit) had to have produced Flying Out of Solitude with a certain sense of humor, given his juxtaposition of title and moniker, and that sense of humor is threaded through the song titles and sounds he presents to the listener. The ambient sound Thomson creates leaves you feeling as if you've been suspended in a high saline solution... warm and without gravity, easily able to let the jokes sink in and daydream. All of the songs, in fact, create instant images; like music for an opera, when a song is played, the scene is set.

The beat of 'Driving in Solitude' is happy but unchanging, the synth key high and echoey. It suggests the counting of tiles in a long underwater highway tunnel, or roadstops on a state turnpike. Percussion and synth dominate, but special effects are used throughout the album. "Ohio" features the recorded sound of running trains, and ends with a train whistling in the distance; the drumbeats mimic the noise of a locomotive engine. Anyone who has spent time in Ohio will become nostalgic listening to this sound; with CSX headquartered in Cincy for so long, and a real lack of trees out by Toledo to insulate sound, train engines and whistles permeate the landscape so thoroughly that their sound is inseparable from the land's geography. In "Second Wave", a toaster oven and a vintage air organ are used to create crashing sounds that resemble the second coming. The effects pedal used in "Swallow the Stars" allows the Hermit to create sounds like shooting stars and, well, swallows. Some of the music was created live, with each sound played by a real musician, which is a more intellectual concept for this genre; other tunes are studio-created loops of found sound and synth-created noise. This music is intelligent, playful, and always has a great beat.

While The Hermit experiments and has fun with the music he's creating, he never creates unlistenable art for art's sake -- every song has a melody. Impenetrable intellectual posturing is more of a cruel musical joke at the expense of cash customers, and all too common among his peers, which makes The Hermit's music that much more enjoyable. None of this stuff is really suitable for dancing, but that's not so rare for IDM; the "dance" in that acronym is usually a misnomer. After listening to half of the Nutone catalog, I can confidently say that almost anything you buy from them will be a happy purchase. Flying Out of Solitude is no exception.

Westender Magazine

"I want to be put out to people who are inspired to daydream" ...The Hermit, aka Hamish Thomson

Hamish Thomson suffers from a fear of flying that has nothing to do with the events of Sept. 11. The irony is that he named his debut album Flying Out of Solitude. It was kind of an in-joke, kind of subconscious, says the North Vancouverite about the album title, an apt description for its in-flight tones. Thomson is The Hermit, a project that has created a buzz with ambient-electronica explorations for Nettwerk's slick Nutone imprint, launched last February. The company's slightly goofy ad campaign has marketed his music as essential listening for stay-at-home couch potatoes, but Thomson seems okay with that. "I want to be put out to people who are inspired to daydream, and create an atmosphere for people to create visuals in their own mind" he says, sounding all New Age-y. Born and raised up the coast in Powell River, Thomson learned to play drums in a pipe band. By the late-80s he'd packed his bags for the two-ferry, six-hour trip south to North Van for music classes at Cap College.

The mostly instrumental music of The Hermit has been a revelation for Thomson, who had previously toiled as a hired-gun drummer. He worked with Big Tall Garden, The Simples and other local bands before driving the Brian Eno ambient highway. "I just wasn't getting my fix for being a melodic player" says Thomson. "I had lots of ideas and wanted to get into the electronic thing, which is where my heart is at - not that my music is purely electronica, however." Thomson's first show as The Hermit was a knockout performance in November 2000 at the Planetarium, a venue perfectly suited to the mood-altering music of Flying Out of Solitude. Somebody within the Nettwerk camp attended the show and before long, a deal got done to touch up and re-release the record, originally an indie effort.

Recently, he signed a publishing deal with Nettwerk and is busy recording soundtrack music for a local indie film. "I'm in a pretty heavy writing phase and building a home studio right now soundproofing the garage, that sort of stuff." Over the summer Thomson flew to London to work with drummer/producer Mark Roberts, who has crafted music with DJ Rap, Massive Attack and Neneh Cherry. "He's really amazing - kicks my ass" says Thomson of Roberts. "We worked on hand-drumming techniques and different stuff to relate electronic music to an acoustic player's point of view." It's all good practice for The Hermit which, as an expanded seven-member crew, takes residence at Davie Street's DV8 restaurant/bar this month (Wednesdays through to Halloween). Thomson's aim is to get the live show with visuals, vocalists and band up and running before some U.S. exposure early next year. Luckily, he has an understanding boss at the PNE-area commercial lighting company where he works. "It's one of those situations where I take a day off from work every week now, to do music", he says. "I'm slowly trying to do this full time, but I've got to be smart about it. It's not something you can rush."

Georgia Straight

Here's one recent CD-release party I'm sorry I missed: "Flying out of Solitude" happening at the HR MacMillan Space Centre. Reclining under the stars was a perfect way to enjoy this suite of mostly instrumental, spacey electronica from The Hermit, aka producer-drummer Hamish Thomson. "Flying" opens with "Ohio", which begins with proggish (i.e. Supertramp, Manfred Mann) keyboards before slipping into a rueful ambiance, then builds, peaks, and drifts off into blissful chill-out land. Along the way, "Swallow the Stars" glides on a bass line that sounds like New Order's Peter Hook playing the James Bond theme music, then introduces floaty female vocals and the perfect chord change. "Trap 9" brings the big guitars and distorted voice samples, and "Pulse" is an ominous assemblage of piano and thudding beats. Dare I say it? I do: The Hermit should come out of hiding more often.