Oakhill Records

Bronze Horse is Zachary Hay and this is his debut LP, solo performances on mostly 4 and 6 steel string guitar, recorded in various locales from 2007-2009.  He doesn’t try to do too much, seemingly playing only the notes that really matter to him, and coming up with honest, exploratory music.  It almost sounds like you’re eavesdropping on him, playing music not meant to be formally presented, which in turn pulls the listener in.  Really nicely done, privately pressed and presented with obvious care: Stumptown sleeves, an insert of notes by Hay, and a hand-numbered edition of 305. Check out a track here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDKwhS5L4gY  Restocked yet again.  Out-of-print; last copies.

Follow up to the Bronze Horse LP, by Zack Hay.  Numbered edition of 321, 180 gram vinyl, Stumptown sleeve. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdByFSStRNw

“Moving to the outer fringes of psych-folk, The Dove Azima is a deeply American recording. This solo project of Zack Hay has folk sensibilities much like John Fahey’s and hearkens to roots music from an era before the cultural tributaries of rock, country, and folk had parted ways. American avant-gardists have also crept much more into Hay’s sound since his last, more straightforward album, Bronze Horse. Hay himself had written of his interest in naïve experiences with guitar and he seems to have stumbled upon the steel string’s extended faculties a la Eugene Chadbourne; extended guitar techniques in general are almost never as visceral and hypnotic as they are on this LP, however. Hay’s detuned meditations can sometimes sound as weird as Jandek or sometimes lush and heady like Harry Partch’s microtonalities. Like a decayed American flag you found buried in the woods, The Dove Azima is one of the more brilliant pieces of Americana I’ve ever heard. It begs for many repeated listens and one oughtn’t neglect such a request.” – Nat Roe, WFMU