Lacuna: Tom Hamilton & Holly Bowling

NEW ALBUM ‘LACUNA’ OUT EVERYWHERE ON NOVEMBER 19! When guitarist Tom Hamilton and pianist Holly Bowling get together to improvise, they don’t talk about the music. That conversation happens with their instruments once they start playing. Indeed, on Lacuna, their first duo recording together, Hamilton and Bowling explore the outer limits of improvisation through a series of ambient excursions that showcase their powerful musical connection.For Ghost Light bandmates Hamilton and Bowling, Lacuna marks a return to their classical roots. Bowling has been playing classical piano since she was 5 and trained at San Francisco State University. Hamilton began playing drums at 5 as well, later becoming the youngest member of Philadelphia’s All City High School Orchestra as a fourth grade percussionist and stayed in that role until he switched his focus to guitar in high school. On Lacuna, the pair embrace their classical past by putting a fresh, experimental spin on the genre.The title Lacuna came from one of the many books Bowling read during quarantine. She didn’t know what the word meant so she looked it up and found that the definition — a gap, an unfilled space, or an intentional, extended passage in a musical work during which no notes are played — perfectly encapsulated the pandemic era and the sounds the pair had made while living through it.

It’s also appropriate, considering that Bowling and Hamilton are both renowned for the music they spontaneously create onstage, filling the gaps within composed songs. “I’ve felt more and more comfortable in those in-between spaces,” Bowling says. “That’s really where I’ve been wanting to spend my time, and with this project, that’s the entire thing.”

ABOUT TOM HAMILTON: American songwriter, musician, and producer best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist for the bands Brothers Past, American Babies, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Bill Kreutzmann’s Billy & the Kids and Electron.

ABOUT HOLLY BOWLING: Whether behind the piano on mountainous cliff, at a hallowed venue such as Carnegie Hall, or playing shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the most legendary musicians in history, solo pianist Holly Bowling subverts convention with virtuosic playing, emotional immersion, and a thirst for invention. In 2015, she arrived as an exciting outlier on Distillation Of A Dream: The Music Of Phish Reimagined For Solo Piano. As her profile rose, she delivered Better Left Unsung only a year later. For this triple-LP, she re-arranged iconic moments from the Grateful Dead on her piano. She went on to share the stage with everyone from The Dead’s Weir and Phil Lesh to Warren Haynes, John Scofield, Jim James, Branford Marsalis, Don Was, Robert Randolph, Greensky Bluegrass, and more. Along the way, she graced the bills of Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads and Haynes’s annual Christmas Jam and unveiled the concert recording Live at the Old Church. In 2020, she launched a series of living room livestreams chronicled on the eight-volume Alone Together: The Living Room Sessions highlighted by her innovative re-imaginings of Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and many others.  Bowling has received acclaimed from Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Relix to name just a few.