"There can also exist a sense of horror within these songs, as if this cassette itself is haunted."
— Raised by Cassettes
Hey Exit is Brendan Landis, a composer and performer based in Queens, NY. His work explores themes of animal folklore and symbolism, music as spiritual practice, and contrasting extremes presented as necessary opposites.
In addition to recording and performing music, Brendan gives workshops on listening, singing, improvisation, and intuition. He also writes songs as Anura and Receive, and sometimes plays in Tethers, Big Hiatus, and Esther Chlorine.
"Vibrant melodies that hang in the air and become clouded with the world around them. Beautiful energy, alive and distinct, gathering traction through measured movements over lengthy times."
— Lost in a Sea of Sound
"Brendan Landis has found an opulent minimalism by taking some of the most spare music ever ... and maximizing its presence through simultaneous repetition."
— Disquiet
"Arm's Reach is a record of extreme depth. Lovecraft and King created whole mythologies for their worlds, histories and stories that bring them to life. But there are no stories on this record. Instead Landis and Kikuta have plumbed modern technology's potential to find the ancient sounds of geography. This is the sound of landscapes being shaped, of a place that is still becoming a place, that's not even at home in itself."
— All About Jazz
"There’s thick nocturnality to these slow blazing guitar laments, but it’s not dark music per se, an eerie glow somehow seeping through. Songs for endings, but perhaps also tentative, shimmering beginnings."
— Spool's Out
"Some of the strongest sounding Harsh Noise I've ever heard and that is truly saying something. ... An album that most certainly deserves a lot more praise and recognition within the underground. The tones present here are beyond beautiful. They are absolutely gorgeous."
— Traumatic Static
"Wonderful solo acoustic guitar mixed with rising noise cloakery (and vocal mist generation) ... Fatteningly good."
— The Wire
"The music is sad and painful, inexplicably beautiful, and ineffably moving."
— Night After Night
"The vibes are desolate and lonely, whether the song takes the form of a slowly unfolding melody, a shimmering drone, or grinding, clattering noise. It's music of decay, but here decay is only part of a cycle that leads to growth. Coldly beautiful jams."
— The Modern Folk