GENRES
ambient, jazz, art-rock, avant-pop, techno-tribal, folk, experimental, neo-classical, vocal, spoken word

INSTRUMENTS
keyboards, bass, woodwinds, guitars, drums, bells, digital manipulations, ruckus razor, field recordings, found objects, voice

TONES
whimsical, noir, cosmic, mysterious, existential, rollicking

CRITICAL NOTICE

L.A. Times — "Hoagie Hill's evocative music is an accompaniment to a dance of life, death and resurrection." (The Madman and the Nun)

L.A. Weekly —"Imaginative, impressive." (The Madman and the Nun).
"Best Live Score for a Theatrical Performance" (Methusalem, the Actor's Gang)

Variety — "Appealing, an intriguing mix of Russian folk music with contemporary sounds."  (The Seagull, dir. Georges Bigot, formerly of Théâtre du Soleil).

Seattle Rocket — "Music for moods you didn't even know you had."
(Scarecrows, Clowns, and One-Eyed Gods).

allmusic.com — "Breathtakingly cinematic, mesmerizing and pristine... late-night UFO-voodoo sensibility... Tom Waits-esque narrative pathos... a one-man studio demon... utterly memorable poptronica."

BIO NOTE

As a soundscaper, I try to make each piece a window into a parallel universe (not like I'm ripping holes in space-time or anything). 

I studied music with Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan University in the eighties, while commuting to NYC to play heavily-amplified handbuilt acoustic instruments with Arnold Dreyblatt and the Orchestra of Excited Strings (Nodal Excitation).  I then moved to L.A. and got into a variety of musical scenes.  As the original musical director of Tim Robbins' Actor's Gang, I scored and performed in a half dozen productions, including Methusalem, for which I won an L.A. Weekly Theater Critics Award for "Best Live Score for a Theatrical Performance."  I played bass with the proto-industrial band, The Blue Daisies (Wilt); Sally Norvell and I formed The Hi-Beams, an original torch-style piano duo.  Meanwhile, I'd sometimes sit in on tenor sax with various avant groups, including Kubist Tier (Michael Whitmore, Darryl Tewes, Danny Frankel).

In 1989 I landed in Seattle, where Bryant Mason and I launched the kitchen-sink collective, Naught (One For All and All for Naught), in which I played bass, keys, guitar and bells. (Bryant had a band with Dave Grohl in high school!) I produced a handful of cassette curiosities (with Mia Boyle, among other folks), before taking off to tour Europe with Congo Norvell (Kid Congo Powers was with Gun Club and Nick Cave).

Always eager to explore new musics, I've made recordings with Kuna Indians in Panama, survived in Paris as a Metro busker, played piano for dance classes at NYU, and produced music for Seattle's Urban Guerrillas agit-prop street theater group.  

In 1997 I moved to Malibu and founded Seamonster Sounds. Since then, I've released two of my own CD's, worked on various band projects, and scored a handful of theatrical plays and several films. And rumor has it that there's a novel in the works....

Incidentally, AMG's biography of me – which magically appears on a number of other websites – contains many odd inaccuracies (though it does have some flattering verbiage).  If anyone knows how to get AMG to fix this, I'm all ears.

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY

2007  Sidesaddle Sweet Talk   Shitting Glitter    Decadrisco

2005  Free Alongside Ship    Shitting Glitter    Decadrisco

2002  Seagull Music    Solo    Seamonster Sounds

2001  Easy Listening for Difficult People    Subluminous    Seamonster Sounds

2000  Faster Than You Think    Solo    Seamonster Sounds

1998  Nodal Excitation    The Orchestra of Excited Strings    Drag City

1999  The Madman and the Nun    Solo    Seamonster Sounds

1997  The Dope, the Lies, the Vaseline    Congo Norvell    Priority

1996  One for All and All for Naught    Naught    Seamonster Sounds

1995  Down to Earth    Truth Pageant    Seamonster Sounds

1993  Scarecrows, Clowns, and One-Eyed Gods    Ogalalla Cabal    Seamonster

1986  Wilt    The Blue Daisies    Iridescence (Ethan James, Radio Tokyo)