Noah Hoehn

In his past, Noah Hoehn was an artist torn, leading the life of two distinct musicians. In an attempt to express himself as a classical or blues musician, he lived and trained in both worlds as neither could completely satisfy him. The challenge that faced him was to create an intersection of these parallel musical paths. To discover where classical music meets the blues.

As a percussionist Noah was deeply attached to the first moments of discovery and surprise when picking up an instrument for the first time, and when he ran out of drums and mallet instruments and triangles, he turned to the attic at home where he would unearth his grandmother’s harmonica.

His time in college illuminated the duality between a disciplined classical percussionist and a blues harp magician. By day, he was trained in building his four mallet marimba repertoire between counterpoint compositions. At night, he was howling out post war blues harmonica, cutting his teeth in the backwater bar rooms of the tri-state area, leaping onto bars and kicking over drinks.

After college and his rigorous time in training, Noah moved to Minneapolis. Months later his tenacious approach to the humble harmonica landed him his first McKnight Fellowship for performing musicians. During this period he began writing songs that featured the instruments he loved, and he continued his training as a vocalist while fronting a rock band and performing with a popular local trio.

A second McKnight Fellowship – this time with only a harmonica -- gave him the means to launch an ambitious performance project. While brainstorming his McKnight audition set, he decided to experiment with live looping (the technique of recording oneself live on stage). With looping he could singularly be the band, and he could perform the symphony of melded tones that had been nagging at his core for years.

His next step was to create an album. Hoehn raised funds, built a home studio and recorded his first solo album, NOAH. The album saw the emergence of a new focal point for his percussion foundation. The Dhol drum. A large wooden cylindrical drum with two distinct heads on each side. The dhol is mostly reserved for traditional Indian Bhangra or chase scenes in movies. Naturally, it was a perfect fit. So too were strings, glass marimba, udu drums, caxixi and a bevy of other odd instruments. Noah supports these earthy wooden instruments with a host of seething synths and crystalline adornments.

The answer to his challenge has been sounded. Where does classical music meet the blues? Inside of himself as a digital blues warrior, and perhaps the question is not to be answered but to be used as a guide signaling a direction. The album is the evolution of expression. Lyrically, it speaks to Noah’s spiritual attentiveness and social sensitivity. Astronomical imagery imbue themes of the passage of time, the phases of life and a confrontation with reality. He explores quantum entanglement all while seeking the genuine. What stands at the end are a family of songs whose traits are that of classical music, world beats and traditional blues that some have dubbed “new blues” and “marimba pop.”