#fingerpicking

Sun Home Audio has not left much of a mark on the internet yet, just a single bandcamp page with a cryptic photo and bio. The artist apparently lives in Oregon, goes by the first name of Holt and is fond of his dog (see photo), and that is pretty much all we know. Oh yes, and Ben Chasny is a big fan, which makes sense, since this EP sounds very much in line with Six Organ’s softer, dreamier material. Sun Home Audio’s Holt sings in the same haunted, untethered way as Chasny, plays similar Takoma-style figures on his guitar and infuses astral mysteries into his work with subtle electronic textures.

The phrase “Bless Yr Heart” sounds simpler and more reassuring than it is. (In the south, it’s the verbal equivalent of “what an idiot you are.”) Likewise, the song of that name is pretty on the surface but complicated underneath. It begins in drone, a single note fraying into discord as it continues. Through this, the startling clarity of guitar breaks through, each note glistening like dew on a spider web. A flute (or synthesized equivalent) eddies past at one point, and a female backing singer breathes fragile phrases in support of the main vocal line. The song is still and lovely like calm water, but every so often, the artist tosses a disruptive pebble in: the distant turbulence of feedback, a squalling blare of synthesizer.

I find myself returning to “Inland Wealth,” which buries its beat among fuzz and echo, but has one nonetheless. The song feels more driving and purposeful than the other tracks on the album, a bit of lo-fi guitar pop embedded in its dreaming smoke rings, like an even ghostlier Tobin Sprout. “Will You Remember This Come the Dark?” whistles and shivers with atmosphere but leaves more space for the singing. It’s poised equidistant between folk and psychedelic experiment, a good bit like Alexander Tucker’s recent reveries. Both songs are reminders that, while Sun Home Audio has attracted the attention of Six Organs’ Chasny and certainly overlaps in significant ways with his oeuvre, that’s not all there is to this intriguing artist. Good stuff.