Category: Anderhill

Little Trilogy

I wanted to complete one more Anderhill project before the year’s end. Over the last few days I’ve been working on a few tracks. A trilogy will have to do for now. Here’s Little Trilogy.

Now that I’m no longer working full time, I hope 2026 will allow me more time to work on ambient and drone music. I’ll also be moving back to Maine which offers a lot of great landscapes to meditate upon. My electronic work is often based on place.

This short EP, Little Trilogy, is reminiscent of work I did during the pandemic. It has dark and light drone and ambient compositions that may be a hint of more to come in 2026. – dse

Dark & Light

It’s been a year since I’ve posted any experimental music to Bandcamp. I’ve been busy working on traditional songwriting and cataloging many of my old songs to my YouTube Channel. But I haven’t quit on composing ambient, drone, and other forms of electronic music.

I moved to Tennessee for a job last fall. Since then I have been focusing on songwriting more than electronic music composition. I have composed a handful of tracks but was not satisfied with most of them. But every time I threw unwanted tracks away, these two remained. I probably created these in the winter, early 2025.

The tracks are very different from each other. The first is dark and droning. The second is light and ambient. Thus the title, Dark & Light.

I have another potential ambient project in the works and hope to release a full album by the end of the year. Stay tuned. – dse

If I Had a Crystal Ball for 2026

Old Orchard Beach Maine – Photo by Dan Steven Erickson

If I had a crystal ball I can tell you what I’d be doing next year. I’d retire and move back to Maine. I’d continue my YouTube Channel, but I’d make some changes. I’d keep making music, but write less songs. I’d start doing more photography.

But I don’t have a crystal ball and life is uncertain. Maybe, I’ll fall in love in or with Tennessee. Maybe, I’ll move to Joplin, Missouri. Maybe, I’ll write another book. Or maybe I’ll have a hit screenplay. Nobody knows. All that said, let’s go with what I suspect will happen.

Retirement

I’m ready. I’ve been working since I was ten years old. Remember, I was a slave boy in a cult and probably worked more hours by the time I was 16 than most people do through their 20s. Financially, I won’t be rich in retirement, but I think I’ll do okay. Waiting a few more years could help, but you only live once.

I’ll likely move back to Maine in the next year. The summers are not as hot as in Tennessee or Missouri. I already own a condo there. My monthly housing costs will be pretty low. I can work part time if I choose. I’ll have time to travel. Iceland, England, Scotland, and other European locations are on my short list. But just exploring Maine, New Hampshire, and Eastern Canada might be just as well. I might do both.

The YouTube Channel

They say you should’t mess with your channel’s topic and that it could screw up your algorithm. I only have 50 followers, so I’m not sure I care what they say.

Who knows, maybe I’d start a second channel. Or maybe I’d just mess with my current topic some. I’ll likely keep posting my songs, but I may slowly add more non-musical content. Potential topics are travel and/or politics. I also may do more videography.

Anderhill and Photography

If you’ve been following me long enough, you know I’ve gone from minimalism to music to songwriting. Songwriting was really first. I just finally had the courage to start posting songs in a raw format earlier this year.

But I’ve always had this desire to mix my electronic music with poetry and photography. Maine lends itself well to that kind of project. It’s also kind of a minimalist thing. – dse

Looking Ahead to 2025 Projects

Another year is almost done. It’s been an interesting one. As usual, I’m already looking ahead. Of course, my path always zig-zags, but I’ve got a couple of things I’d like to accomplish in 2025.

When in Music City…

First, I’ve moved to the Nashville region for a job as an academic advisor. And I still write 50-100 songs a year. So, when in music city, I might as well work at making some musical connections.

Over the summer and into the fall, I wrote about 100 potential poems and lyrics. I started the process of setting some of those to music a couple of weeks ago. I’ve got about 15 songs written. I’ll probably wind up with anywhere from 40-60 songs in my next batch, marked for early 2025.

My plan was to write only on the guitar. But my ukulele had other ideas. I’ve decided that this batch won’t be limited to one instrument. I’m currently using both guitar and ukulele, but I might use mandolin, banjo, and electronic production when it’s all said and done.

So, writing songs is one definitive project for 2025.

Maybe, Music Publishing?

Next, seeing how I’m in Nashville, I’m considering starting a music publishing company. I’d primarily be publishing my own songs, but maybe I’d take on others’ songs in time. I won’t push hard on this potential project, but I’ll at least do some preliminary investigating. I’m already talking to people at Nashville Songwriter’s Association International (NSAI) and Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI).

I don’t necessarily expect to make any immediate or magical connections into the music business. But when in Nashville… I figure I might as well at least make a little bit of an effort.

Take a Photography Class

I also hope to take a photography class this year, and then do more dedicated photography. As an employee for a Tennessee higher education institution, I can get free tuition. Unfortunately, Volunteer State Community College does not have a photography program. But I’ll look into going into Nashville for a night class sometime in 2025.

I bought a new camera a couple of months ago, I need to make more use of it. I’ve been busy and daylight outside of my working hours is scarce. But with spring comes more light.

Other Various Options

As you know, I do a crapton of various creative projects. And I can never know when unexpected inspiration may strike. Other projects might include books, poetry, and new ambient music from Anderhill and A Cult of Lies.

Finally, as my new job requires more sitting than I’d like, I’ll be making a point to stay physically active with walking and other activities.

Whatever I do, I’m hoping 2025 will be a good year, not just for me, but for you, too. I encourage you to think about the things you’d like to accomplish as creators. – dse

Anderhill: The Best of Maine

Between my stint working for the USPS and my upcoming move to Tennessee for a new academic position, I haven’t been able to compose much electronic music. I hope to get one more Andehill EP or album completed this year. But if I don’t, here’s the best of Anderhill from Maine.

Absence

 

Absence was the first music I composed after moving to Maine in late 2022. The five tracks are ambient, sometimes dark and discordant, and at other times light and airy. The music reflects my mood after a long journey.

The Mandolin, the Ghost, and the Machine

Although some tracks may sound more like Halloween music, The Mandolin, the Ghost, and the Machine was released on Valentine’s Day 2023. It’s a concept album that makes use of a mandolin on each of the nine tracks. The music is hard to fit into any category. It’s not ambient. It’s not house. It has some drone qualities. It’s experimental.

Zero to One

Zero to One was composed as part of a project with Ghost on this Earth. The six experimental tracks released on December 1, 2023 led to the full collaborative album called Portrait of an Abstract Personality.

Pop, Smack, Sugar

Pop, Smack, Sugar: Pure Digital from Pop to Death is an experimental album released in March, 2024 that explores pop sounds. As a musician and songwriter I’ve always had the curse and blessing of fine pop sensibilities. I decided to embrace them for this project.

More to come…

2024 has been a slow year for my electronic music project. Although I hope to get one more Anderhill project completed before the end of the year, that might not happen. Still, in any case, there will be more Anderhill music to come in the near future.

In the meantime, I invite you to listen and buy some of my older work. It’s always available at Bandcamp. – dse

Repeating 4-Year Cycles of Doom

It’s election season again and it feels the same as it has the last four election seasons. Alarmist masses from both sides of the aisle paint pictures of the end of democracy and a failing nation. It creates stress, polarization, and even violence.

I created this new track from A Cult of Lies very quickly as an-almost five-minute dark drone piece. Then I simply copied it four times and added a short tag at the end. The result is the 20-minute composition: Repeating 4-Year Cycles of Doom.

This may not be my best work, and most people will probably never listen to the entire piece due to its repetitiveness. But perhaps that’s all part of the point. Nobody is really listening to what’s going on in America while demanding their version of democracy is right. – dse