VARIOUS

2008. Polyhymnia was one of the Muses of Greek myth, specifically the Muse of sacred hymn. Echoes of Polyhymnia compiles music in ambient and related genres composed and recorded exclusively by women. This genre is so male-dominated generally that we had a lot of fun gathering interesting ambient sounds, including some works that have one foot in ambient territory and another foot in one of several different, related genres. It covers styles and flavors as diverse as ambient, drone, glitch, vocal collage, goth and electronica.

Hypnos manager (and artist) Lena Griffin curated this specially-themed compilation which gathers an assortment of ambient & atmospheric sound works from around the world. This project reveals a totally new angle on ambient music, more diverse and wide-ranging than all previous ambient compilations from Hypnos. Ranging from ethereal to dark to pretty to spooky to melodic, we think this album displays a solidly worthwhile musical and soundscape content beyond just the curiosity and "I've never seen that before" factor of the theme.

"The nine Muses struck up a lifestirring melody. Polyhymnia, nursingmother of the dance, waved her arms and sketched in the air an image of a soundless voice, speaking with hands and moving eyes in a graphic picture of silence full of meaning." --The Dionysiaca of Nonnus

THE ARTISTS

Margaret Noble - This experimental sound artist performs with analogue hardware, turntables and toys.... more info at margaretnoble.net

Stellaria Fennica - This project, the alter ego of Mari Aho of Sweden, records atmospheric and melodic ambient with elements of electronica. The songs combine sorrowful piano parts with gloomy string combinations, together with dynamic drum sections carrying experimental touches

Kristin Miltner - Kristin Miltner makes music primarily with computers. A great deal of it involves her incredible voice, and she is a great keyboard player as well. She also plays in a duo called "miba,"with electronic musician and composer Mark Bartscher.

Clarissa Borba - Clarissa Borba is a percussionist who works with sound experimentation and unconventional ways of playing percussion instruments, vibraphone and marimba. She has a Master's Degree in Percussion Performance from the East Carolina University and a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Miami, and resides in France

Sara Ayers - Sara Ayers creates unflinchingly intimate soundscapes using her voice: sampled, layered, looped and pitch-shifted. Combined with occasional guitar washes and a warm bedrock of molten noise, she creates richly textured sonic atmospheres that vary in tone from the haunting whispers of angels to wall-of-sound banshee wails

Rose Bolton - Grew up in Toronto, where she began her musical training on classical violin and piano. Since studying music at McGill university, she has worked as both a classical and electronic composer, and a fiddler

Gydja - Gydja is the dark ambient/experimental/drone project of graphic designer, video artist, and writer, Abby Helasdottir who is based in New Zealand

The Floating World - This ambient/ experimental musician, real name Amanda Votta, lives in Ontario, Canada

K. Cornelius - A multimedia artist working in music, film/video, installation, performance, and other media. The instruments K. plays range from a whole world of musical territory and studies, including Djembe, Tabla, Doumbek, Darabouka, Frame Drums, Rattles, Waterphone, Sitar, Tanpura, Piano, Guitar, Drum kit, Marimba, Balaphone, Bells, Bowls, Electronics, Found Objects and more

Lena Griffin - This multi-instrumentalist released her debut CD, Extended Gestures for Cello, on Hypnos Secret Sounds in 2007. She resides in Portland, Oregon, works as the full-time manager of Hypnos Recordings, and assembled this collection.

(label info)