Messed!Up
Hammock formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 2003. The group was originally conceived by Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson, former members of the band Common Children. Hammock released their debut full-length, Kenotic, on their eponymous label in 2004; The Sleepover Series, Vol. 1 followed a year later. Hammock’s profile was heightened in 2006 during the Winter Olympics when NBC played several of their songs during coverage of the figure-skating competition. Darla signed Hammock later that year, and the band’s third album, Raising Your Voice… Trying to Stop an Echo, emerged in November.
Hammock’s fourth full-length, Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow, came out in 2008. The album, which was a studio recording of music written to perform at the overseas debut art exhibition of Jónsi & Alex, found the duo striving for a stripped-down, minimal sound. Released in 2011, the Longest Year EP reflected the trials and tribulations – including the flooding of Byrd’s home – the band experienced in 2010. In late 2011, they released Asleep in the Downlights, an EP recorded with Steve Kilbey and Tim Powles, both alt-rock veterans and members of Australian band the Church.
The next two Hammock albums, 2012’s critically acclaimed Departure Songs and its 2013 follow-up, Oblivion Hymns, saw Byrd and Thompson expanding their palette with a grandiose neo-classical style – sweeping orchestral arrangements and choral elements – to great effect. A year later, a reissue of their 2005 Sleepover Series, Vol. 1 LP coincided with the release of a sequel album, Sleepover Series, Vol. 2. 2016’s Everything and Nothing paired the swelling crescendos of their later work with their more post-rock, guitar-based approach.
In August 2017, Hammock returned with Mysterium, an hour-long conceptual work (and first in a three-album series) composed as a memorial for Clark Kern, a close friend of Byrd’s who died in 2016. The second album in the trilogy, Universalis, arrived in 2018, with Silencia completing the project in 2019. 2021’s Elsewhere was recorded remotely due to health concerns linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both Byrd and Thompson recorded separately in their own homes utilizing a stripped-down approach to instrumentation and production. They reunited in person for next album, January 2023’s Love in the Void, a set of far livelier songs that included sections of urgent rhythm and dense post-rock arrangements.
The following years saw Hammock move through one of the most productive stretches of their career. Their 2023 and 2024 releases leaned heavily into cinematic ambience and orchestral layering, with albums such as From the Void presenting music that felt both cosmic and deeply human. The duo also continued collaborating with visual artists, filmmakers, and musicians from adjacent experimental scenes, reinforcing their status as artists whose work extended beyond the boundaries of traditional rock music. During this period, Hammock’s music gained renewed attention among listeners seeking contemplative and emotionally restorative soundscapes in an increasingly chaotic world.
In 2024, Hammock also collaborated with Yellowcard on the album A Hopeful Sign, an unexpected but acclaimed crossover that demonstrated how adaptable their atmospheric style had become. Rather than abandoning their ambient roots, the collaboration highlighted Hammock’s ability to elevate melodic rock songwriting with expansive production and emotional depth.
By 2025, the duo’s music had become even more introspective and spiritually searching. Releases such as Nevertheless reflected a mature artistic identity shaped by two decades of experimentation and independence. Throughout this era, Hammock remained fiercely self-directed, releasing music primarily through their own imprint, Hammock Music, while cultivating a devoted international audience without relying on mainstream industry structures. Their independence became central to the project’s identity: expansive, patient music created entirely on its own terms.
In 2026, Hammock entered another ambitious chapter with The Second Coming Was a Moonrise. Inspired by a formative childhood memory in which Marc Byrd mistook a moonrise for an apocalyptic event, the album explored themes of perception, fear, belief and emotional surrender. The record combined vast ambient passages with choral textures, orchestral arrangements and drifting guitar work, embodying what many listeners had come to define as the duality of Hammock: “quiet Hammock” and “loud Hammock.” Critics and fans alike viewed the album as one of the duo’s most expansive and emotionally complex works to date.
More than twenty years after first forming as an escape from Nashville’s commercial songwriting culture, Hammock emerged by 2026 not merely as a post-rock band, but as one of ambient music’s defining modern voices – artists capable of transforming grief, beauty and stillness into overwhelming sonic experiences.
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Hammock: ‘The Second Coming Was a Moonrise’
