HuDost

"I love HuDost. I do. I love it. The guitar playing and the songs are all really inspired. It's a CD I'll listen to again and again. HuDost is the 'next big thing. Mark my words." - Steve Kilbey-The Church

The New Lebanon-based band HuDost has a new release, “Waking The Skeleton Key,” expanding on the groundwork set by last years “Trapeze,” their previous release produced in Kingston by the renowned Malcolm Burns, which made it into out top 10 regional albums of 2009.

HuDost centers around stunning vocalist Moksha Sommer and partner, the guitarist Jemal Wade Hines. This journey starts of with “Skeleton Key” a whirling dervish of sounds that swirl around until vocalist extraordinaire Sommer swoops in and lands dead center. The circular song then lifts off as layers of guitar fight for attention, but in the end, Sommer pulls focus with her luscious, gorgeous voice.

More exquisite exotic fare follows (favoring one-word titles) from the dreamy “Korea,” the uncommonly warm “Glacier,” the bleak but compelling “Hunger,” the scientific machinery of “Invisible” and inventive “Invention.” All are well thought-out and cleverly produced.

Teeming with gorgeous gifts, HuDost proves it can do it on its own, and that their music needn’t be blatantly commercial to find a home, just be blindingly good. As they say, the radio-ready Sommers could sing the phone book and it would sound good. That “Waking The Skeleton Key” has an underlying spiritual bent is just icing on a multi-layered cake.

Seek out HuDost, you won’t be disappointed, you’ll be anointed.

Visit www.hudost.com.

David Malachowski is a guitarist, producer and freelance journalist living in Woodstock.The Freeman seeks CDs by local artists or artists appearing locally for review. Please send all CDs (please, no CD-Rs or demo CDs) to Daily Freeman c/o Preview, 79 Hurley Avenue, Kingston, N.Y. 12401.
- Daily Freeman, Hudson Valley NY by David Malachowski

Date: 9/28/2010

K: I get the feeling from reading your blogs about the new EP, “Waking the Skeleton Key,” that you have termed “an in between project,” that there is a kind of residual energy trailing from your previous album “Trapeze” that needed to be expressed.

Moksha:

Sometimes one project leads into the next. There is certainly a residual energy that lingers from ‘Trapeze’, but we are also venturing into new musical territory. I often find the areas of overlap that happen between albums to be just as interesting, beautiful and relevant as the full albums themselves.

JW:

Well, to be honest we feel ‘Trapeze’ still has a lot of life in it as an album. As you know, the music biz ain’t what it used to be. ‘Trapeze’ has been out a little over a year now and it’s barely scratched the surface. We sunk so much of our blood, sweat, tears, PR and inheritance into it; that we felt we had to tie it in somehow.

Originally we were going to release another ‘CD Single’ from ‘Trapeze’ and include four new songs as ‘B-Sides’ on it, but the more we developed these new songs the more we felt that the focus should be put on ‘moving forward with the new’ while still tying it in with our last record.

We were never totally happy with the way Salome turned out on ‘Trapeze’. As I began to go back into the tracks, I realized that there were some missing vocal harmonies and that a lot of the beautiful band interplay was kind of washed out into the background. That was the one song during the session that was recorded entirely live in the room with all the musicians present and was quite magickal. We added a few more layers and then let Oz have his way with it.

Read more about “Waking the Skeleton Key” here: http://hudost.wordpress.com/


Moksha * Photo by Jane Feldman

K: With Moksha’s brain tumor surgery on the last album and a recent fractured collar bone in a biking accident in July, I have to wonder what affect these physical injuries have had on your psyche and how this has influenced your creativity.

Moksha:

My psyche has certainly been affected by these injuries as they are the first, and hopefully only, traumas that my body has ever been through. With both of these, music has been, and is, an astonishing tool for healing. If anything, my creativity has been pushed in interesting directions by this period. I have always been an extremely healthy person and these injuries, especially the brain surgery, have given me insight into what some must bear daily. It has developed a new level of compassion in me that is coming forth in the music. With that said, I don’t need any more injuries…I think I have earned exemption!


Moksha's Skeleton Key Sketch

K: What is the skeleton key in your EP’s title?

JW:

I don’t think it’s been revealed yet. Maybe it’s still lost. Maybe we haven’t come to the right door yet.

Or maybe we just need to invoke them all to open.

I feel music is the ultimate Skeleton Key. ‘It’s as natural as the weather in this moody sky today’

Moksha:

‘Skeleton Key’ is the main new song that we wrote. Skeleton Key is the image of a key that can open all doors. When I wrote the lyrics for this song I was thinking constantly about the perpetual barrage of floods, earthquakes, oil spills, etc. that our planet and people are having to bear. The image of the skeleton key works in this context in several ways- the main reason being that we are in dire need of a solution to remedy the difficulties that we have created. Also, the image of the skeleton is a powerful one. Many cultures acknowledge the necessity of honoring death for life to prevail. The current world seems to be letting that pass but struggling with all the more issues.


K: The mixologist or “sonic weaver” you have chosen for this project is a man named Oz, with whom you have a long term musical relationship. From reading his blog posts, there is a “thread” I can follow that weaves a other wordly journey akin to a term called “bardo,” that is present on “Waking the Skeleton Key.” Can you speak to this?

Moksha:

The Bardo is a transitional or intermediate state. It is my opinion that the arts and, specifically music, can venture into and capture intermediate states in a way that can not be translated through any other medium.

JW:

Since I can remember, music has been just as much if not more about the ‘inner experience’. The bardo is the ‘in between lives’ state which is experienced through intense meditation, psychedelics or death. The ‘Book of the Dead’ and music to me seem to perform a similar function; that of guiding the ‘voyager’ through the inner landscape with imagery through words and music.

I can’t meditate very well at all but when I play or record music it just happens naturally.

When performing I find it challenging to keep my eyes OPEN!

Read more of HuDost’s Blog here:

http://hudost.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/off-to-oz-inayat-khan-crowley-seth-godin-the-new-dost-ep- - SarasotaMusicScene.com

http://lucidculture.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/cd-review-hudost-trapeze/

The second album by adventurous Montreal band HuDost was produced by Malcolm Burn (Peter Gabriel, Midnight Oil) who gives their ethereal, sometimes country-flavored, sometimes goth-inflected pop songs a sheen that underscores their rustic side rather than glossing over it. With her clear, soaring voice, frontwoman/keyboardist Moksha Sommer echoes a couple of NYC rock legends – she’s something of a cross between a more overtly sultry Paula Carino and a less boisterous Juliana Nash. Perhaps adding to the already wary edge in her voice is that she recorded this album after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, but before the operation.

The album opens with the goth-pop epic Trespasser, a cut that with a little exposure will be a fixture in the background wherever black robes and eyeliner are found. About half the songs here take a traditional country ballad feel and add an unexpected edge, whether that might be exotic instrumentation (harmonium, bouzouki, oud and bendir) or a more hypnotic vibe – one of them sounds like a more interesting update on the Rosanne Cash hit Seven Year Ache. The most memorable track is an understatedly haunting number sung in both English and French, recounting how greedy developers paved over a cemetery for the poor people, ripped out the headstones, left the graves and with erosion the bodies came through the ground again. Of the other tracks here, there’s a catchy Beatlesque hit that morphs into new wave, a vivid, psychedelic midtempo chamber pop ballad, and the upbeat, tongue-in-cheek All My Guitars (sung by guitarist Jemal Wade Hines), an artsy pop song that wouldn’t be out of place inthe Snow’s songbook. It’s nice to see a band like this who don’t sacrifice content for commerciality yet have a theoretically almost limitless upside for hit potential: these songs are catchy, and thankfully, Canadian radio is mandated to push Canadian artists, so they ought to have at least one market locked up.

The best news of all here is that Sommer is in good health again and the band will be on US tour Sept 16-Oct 15, watch this space for NY dates.
- Lucid Culture NYC

Based in New Lebanon, this self-proclaimed “experimental, indy, world, rock group” is really a collective revolving around leaders vocalist Moksha Sommer and guitarist Jemal Wade Hines.

This luxurious album opens with the intriguing “Trespasser,” as Sommer explains “find me a map/Throw me a line/I need a compass/I have not paddle left in hand” while careening down a highway of destiny and desire. Her voice hovers over layers of guitars, keyboards and an incessant bell, above it all, with an exquisite, captivating tone and delivery. “Carriage” opens up and is a bit more straightforward, though no less entrancing. Once again, Kingston’s Malcolm Burn makes magic as producer.

The hook-filled “Royal Mountain” is indeed heavenly as it heads skyward, an acoustic guitar drives “Waiting” which is a departure from the lush layers, almost Appalachian folk song, but again Moska Sommer triumphs. The layers do arrive eventually, one by one. “Buildup, Breakdown” is a highlight as it1s guitars weave in and out then vanish into the air.

Luminous cello from Sarah Bowman (the Bowmans) ups the ante for sure and her duet with Sommer; “Drowned in White” is simply stunning

But it’s Sommer who makes the magic here. Make no mistake about it, Moksha Sommer is a star.

- David Malachowski

These beautiful atmospheric, warm and resonant songs weave the evocative, exquisite poetry from Muslim mystic poets, including the well-known Sufi, Rumi, as well as Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan and Yunus Emre of the Rifai Marufi Order. With stylistic colors of folk, new age and pop presented with the colorful harmonic vocubulary of the East, this gentle album delicately pairs the two art forms with great success.

- Tamara Turner for CD Baby

These beautiful atmospheric, warm and resonant songs weave the evocative, exquisite poetry from Muslim mystic poets, including the well-known Sufi, Rumi, as well as Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan and Yunus Emre of the Rifai Marufi Order. With stylistic colors of folk, new age and pop presented with the colorful harmonic vocubulary of the East, this gentle album delicately pairs the two art forms with great success.

- Tamara Turner for CD Baby

July 29, 2009
Reality Sandwich

Breaking Sound Barriers

by: Marisa Smith

HuDost's new album "Trapeze", produced by Grammy winning Malcolm Burns, skillfully crosses musical boundaries for a brilliant, cutting-edge sound. The world indie rock band features Moksha Summer on vocals, accordion, harmonium, and piano and Jemal Wade Hines on guitar, bouzouki, bendir and vocals, accompanied by an eclectic ensemble of other musicians. The euphonic collaborative incorporates performance art, dance and video installations into their live performances. With a few dates left on their summer US tour, they're worth checking out.
- Marisa Smith

By BILL DEAN

Sun entertainment editor

April 05. 2007 6:01AM

JemalWade Hines left Gainesville eight years ago as a member of the punk group Seraphim. On Saturday he returns with the world-music ensemble HuDost - and a world-beat palette of sounds from Croatia, Georgia, Turkey and Persia (to name a few) swirling around him.

Along with singer Moksha Sommer, guitarist/singer Hines will also perform material from the group's new album - "Alternative World Rock Country" - a title that hints of the band's other side of influences.

"The basic term we use to describe (the group) is alternative world rock country and Eastern fusion,'' Hines says in a phone call from San Francisco, where HuDost is performing for the night.

Known in Gainesville for leading the rock group Seraphim from 1994 to 1999, Hines now combines the energy of his rock-guitar-playing days with the added colors of mandolin and bendir, which is a frame drum played in North Africa.

"I always add that psychedelic swirl, coming from playing in the psychedelic Gainesville punk scene," he says.

In HuDost, which Hines leads with Montreal native Sommer, the group trouts out a little of everything in performances. And that will be especially true at Sanctuary Yoga on Saturday, when the two will be joined by Gainesville bamboo flutist George Tortorelli, bassist Dan Walters and percussionist Pamela Fetterman.

After he left Gainesville, Hines met Sommer at a festival in North Carolina, and the two later started performing together. While their musical backgrounds are "extremely different," they're also "definitely complementary," Sommer says.

"I had been working with a Bulgarian women's ensemble and had been in an ensemble with a range of Southern Africa music, gospel, Eastern European and music from the former republic of Georgia," Sommer says.

But she also had been performing jazz. "When we met, he was primarily based in rock and I was starting to get into Persian, Arabic and Turkish music," Sommer says.

HuDost has since toured Europe and the United States.

"We mix Macedonian, Turkish, Balkan, Georgian and Sufi music," Hines says, drawing comparisons to groups like The Whirling Dirvishes.

"Somehow it all works."

Bill Dean can be reached at (352-374-5039 or bill.dean@gvillesun.com. - Gainesville Sun SCENE Magazine

Having already accessed that the Lebanon, N.Y. band/collective HuDost (pronounced “who dosed”) would not damage my kundalini, I knew the best time to give this band’s new album a proper listen to would be when I was sick of mundane superficial realities, and seeking a peaceful moment. Vocalist Mosksha Sommer’s singing is good medicine, she heads the band with co-writer and guitarist JemalWade Hines as they’ve united a variety of musicians within the intention of Hudost.

Immediately upon hearing the opening vocals of “This Is Me,” I had a broader perspective of existence, my energy was planted and I was almost free of what really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. This is not fluffy new-age music, this is serious, complex fare with no aversion to addressing agony. Sommer’s vocal execution is precisely orchestrated, her voice opening hollow toned vortexes piercing through those tough spots. “BaBoom,” “Wake up” and “Scorpion’s Nest” stand out as universal mantras. This album is a whole journey in music, spirit and culture. The last two songs bring us beyond.

HuDost has its folk quality yet is quite post-modern; new takes on ancient words and melodies, cross-cultural hybrid transcendental chill out music with that New York State edge, which could make this album agreeable to those whose spiritual music is punk rock. - By Ronda Johannessen-CHRONOGRAM Magazine

Having already accessed that the Lebanon, N.Y. band/collective HuDost (pronounced “who dosed”) would not damage my kundalini, I knew the best time to give this band’s new album a proper listen to would be when I was sick of mundane superficial realities, and seeking a peaceful moment. Vocalist Mosksha Sommer’s singing is good medicine, she heads the band with co-writer and guitarist JemalWade Hines as they’ve united a variety of musicians within the intention of Hudost.

Immediately upon hearing the opening vocals of “This Is Me,” I had a broader perspective of existence, my energy was planted and I was almost free of what really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. This is not fluffy new-age music, this is serious, complex fare with no aversion to addressing agony. Sommer’s vocal execution is precisely orchestrated, her voice opening hollow toned vortexes piercing through those tough spots. “BaBoom,” “Wake up” and “Scorpion’s Nest” stand out as universal mantras. This album is a whole journey in music, spirit and culture. The last two songs bring us beyond.

HuDost has its folk quality yet is quite post-modern; new takes on ancient words and melodies, cross-cultural hybrid transcendental chill out music with that New York State edge, which could make this album agreeable to those whose spiritual music is punk rock. - By Ronda Johannessen-CHRONOGRAM Magazine

Healing Song

By Wayne Bledsoe/Knoxville News Sentinel Friday, October 3, 2008

There was a lot more than the usual nervousness when HuDost went in the studio to record a new album in May. Lead singer Moksha Sommer had recently been diagnosed with a serious brain tumor and she knew that the recording session could be the final document of her music.

"It was very intense," says Sommer in a phone call from Sarasota, Fla. The group is on its first full tour since Sommer's surgery.

Sommer and Jemal Wade Hines have been making music together for the past seven years. The two met when Sommer, a native of Montreal, and Hines, then living in Gainesville, Fla., now in New York, attended a Sufi retreat in North Carolina (Sufism is a spiritual study, inclusive of several beliefs). The two began combining a variety of world music sounds - both traditional folk music and their own world-influenced originals. Sommer had studied Indian, Turkish and other world vocal styles and spent six years performing with a choir that sang Bulgarian and Balkan music. Hines had a background in rock music, but had been playing with world music groups as well.

While Sommer and Hines remain the core of HuDost, the group is often augmented by other musicians.
It was a full group when HuDost began recording in May. Sommer says the process was a good diversion before her surgery.

"It was wonderful to be completely absorbed in the creative process," she says.

With noted producer Malcolm Burn at the helm, the recordings were the group's most ambitious. Before the sessions, Sommer had tasked herself with writing a song per day and would e-mail them to Hines for his input. The best of those songs underwent more changes in the studio.

"Malcolm moved our songwriting and our music into a new level by pushing us - in both harsh and lovely ways," says Sommer.

It was only days after the recordings were completed that Sommer entered the hospital.

The operation took nine hours, but it was long afterward before she would know how successful it had been.

"Just after the surgery I could not see, speak or walk," says Sommer.

While she was able to make sounds with her voice, part of Sommer's language center had been cut out with the tumor, and she found herself saying the wrong words for various objects and becoming easily confused. Because of the trauma to her throat and vocal cords from the tubes used during her surgery, Sommer wasn't allowed to even attempt to sing for two months.

"From the moment I was allowed to sing again we've been playing music every single day," she says.

Sommer's speech therapist told her that singing actually helped her recuperate faster because making music utilizes both the left and right sides of the brain.

"It was a grueling learning process and things are still healing," says Sommer. "They had to cut a big chunk out of my skull and dislocate my jaw and cut all the muscles, so that's taking some time to heal. All the nerves in my head are, like, on pins and needles all the time. But, I'm very grateful to be alive!"

HuDost played a few shows in August, but didn't begin a full tour until September. The group's new EP "Royal Mountain" has just been released and acts as a preview to the full album, which the group will release in 2009.

Sommer says that the experience of the past year has helped her grow both musically and spiritually.

"I don't think I really knew what faith was until this ordeal. ... Just having faith in a better ultimate outcome."

- Knoxville News Sentinel Oct.03, 2008

The script for a HuDost performance not only changes nightly, it is often improvised on the spot. "The songs are just blueprints, so there is always a bit of experimentation," explained guitarist/singer Jemal Wade Hines.

Singer Moksha Sommer concurred. "While our performances and pieces have structure and pre-ordained direction to them, there is also room for the spontaneity of improvisation within them. We hinge a great deal of our content and intensity on the atmosphere of the audience. Also, while we maintain a unified sound, we literally go all over the map."

Their map stretches from the United States to all over eastern Europe, encompassing Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian and Balkan folk music, Farsi, Turkish, Arabic and traditional Sufi as well as blending in some American genres: folk, pop, rock and Southern gospel.

With such an expansive palette of sounds, HuDost (who will be performing at Club Helsinki tomorrow and the Kripalu Center on Saturday) can adapt its sound to fit the mood of its audience and the ambience of the room. "We are extremists in that we hope to achieve, on one hand, an attuned, attentive, listening, meditative audience and, on the other hand, a dancing, screaming, rowdy and ecstatic crowd," said Wade.

"It is almost as if those polar opposites complement each other and lend each other definition," added Sommers. "A joy is, of course, more evident when compared to a sorrow; such is true with sonic moods. Darkness is darker and light lighter when each offers itself as a frame of reference."

Case in point is a HuDost show at The Shakori Grassroots Festival in North Carolina. "We had a substantial and very diverse crowd that was a mixture of families and indie-rock folk," said Sommers. "At a certain point, I noticed that there were about 15 children under the age of 5 off to the side of the stage dancing. Our dancer, who I am quite sure they were convinced was a real fairy queen as she was performing with large wings and lit swords, invited them onto the stage. ... We launched into our version of a Croatian war song, a very mournful and intense piece with the chaos of war interwoven into its innate texture, and the children went nuts dancing all over the stage, jumping around, head-banging as only 4-year-olds can. ... It was totally weird and wonderful."

- Dave Madeloni

The script for a HuDost performance not only changes nightly, it is often improvised on the spot. "The songs are just blueprints, so there is always a bit of experimentation," explained guitarist/singer Jemal Wade Hines.

Singer Moksha Sommer concurred. "While our performances and pieces have structure and pre-ordained direction to them, there is also room for the spontaneity of improvisation within them. We hinge a great deal of our content and intensity on the atmosphere of the audience. Also, while we maintain a unified sound, we literally go all over the map."

Their map stretches from the United States to all over eastern Europe, encompassing Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian and Balkan folk music, Farsi, Turkish, Arabic and traditional Sufi as well as blending in some American genres: folk, pop, rock and Southern gospel.

With such an expansive palette of sounds, HuDost (who will be performing at Club Helsinki tomorrow and the Kripalu Center on Saturday) can adapt its sound to fit the mood of its audience and the ambience of the room. "We are extremists in that we hope to achieve, on one hand, an attuned, attentive, listening, meditative audience and, on the other hand, a dancing, screaming, rowdy and ecstatic crowd," said Wade.

"It is almost as if those polar opposites complement each other and lend each other definition," added Sommers. "A joy is, of course, more evident when compared to a sorrow; such is true with sonic moods. Darkness is darker and light lighter when each offers itself as a frame of reference."

Case in point is a HuDost show at The Shakori Grassroots Festival in North Carolina. "We had a substantial and very diverse crowd that was a mixture of families and indie-rock folk," said Sommers. "At a certain point, I noticed that there were about 15 children under the age of 5 off to the side of the stage dancing. Our dancer, who I am quite sure they were convinced was a real fairy queen as she was performing with large wings and lit swords, invited them onto the stage. ... We launched into our version of a Croatian war song, a very mournful and intense piece with the chaos of war interwoven into its innate texture, and the children went nuts dancing all over the stage, jumping around, head-banging as only 4-year-olds can. ... It was totally weird and wonderful."

- Dave Madeloni