ghostinthehills

ghostinthehills is the moniker of Philadelphia-based composer and producer, K. Michael McTague.

K.’s classical music studies can be heard in his atypical chord movement and harmonic progressions. On ‘A Haunting Desire For What is Gone’, his third release for NOREMIXES, his ambient, textural compositions sit alongside pianos and organ tones drenched in reverb and distorted partials. Unlike many of his contemporaries, ghostinthehills is not content with static drones; his compositions evolve with contorting harmonies, often employing dual major/minor pentatonics.

Elegy is a mature and deep listen with focused writing and an immediacy that demonstrates a producer far beyond his years. For his release for NOREMIXES, ghostinthehills has stripped back the production where both sound and space are treated equally important. At times, like in opener ‘Fire Eyes’, ‘Elegy’ sounds like it could be a lost Boards of Canada release, and at other times, like in the title track ‘Elegy (For the Ones We Lost)’, reverberated pianos resemble Jon Hopkins’ sparser production. With ‘Elegy’, ghostinthehills has created a contemplative, almost meditative listen with a tracklisting that morphs from one gesture to another. As pictured in the release’s cover, his music is best played during the hazy glow of sunset: suspended in time