Ernest Hood - Back to the Woodlands

Freedom to Spend emerge once again from the shadow corners of the unknown past with this previously unheard collection from the great Ernest Hood. It's not the first time they've revisited Hood's music, having reissued that entrancing work of suburban idyllicism, Neighbourhoods, a few years back. Even in that context, Back to the Woodlands feels like an especially intriguing discovery, not simply because it's unknown but because of its unexpected potency. One of those records where you're once again left scratching your head wondering why it had remained hidden until now. Hood had walked an unconventional path, beginning as a touring jazz guitarist in the 40s before contracting polio and ending up wheelchair bound for the rest of his life, a traumatic shift in circumstances that impacted his musical practice. Taking up the zither, the music he made became both intimate, fantastical and whimsically non-linear, and as was evident in Neighbourhoods, desired to paint a picture of an imagined world just outside of memory/view. Back to the Woodlands is similarly wholesome, decamping from the suburban to the rural and revelling in the natural world. Hood's zither playing remains prominent, and is accompanied by rich synth melodies and field recordings in a way that feels euphoric and celebratory, though never overly-sentimental. Still serene and pretty, Back to the Woodlands, unlike Neighbourhoods, isn't exactly what you might call ambient or even new age, not in the purest sense at least. Because of the subject matter and inspirations, there's some accepted shared ground with Japanese environmental music, but where that can often sound very clean and precise, Hood's sound feels more joyous and open-ended. Maybe the knowledge that this was previously unreleased offers the best indication as to where the music fits - Hood was making music for himself, where genre tropes and conventions have less sway, and desire and instinct lead the way. However you want to understand it, Back to the Woodlands is a beautifully coherent and self-contained work that has more value in being directed out to the world than hidden in some forgotten archive.