Composer and multidisciplinary, genre-agnostic maven Iker Garmendia presents a peculiar twist on the notion of sacrifice with his album Hug A Tree And Burn The Forest. The concept of a sacrifice is that the gods demand of a community that they give up something of value so that the functional order of the world may be preserved and the people might retain the divine's favor. Although, by the nature of such a gift to the gods, ultimately, one member, or a small group of members within the community, will bear the burden of this offering- a benefit to the many by the loss of a few. Iker turns this around on us. What if those obliged to sacrifice, determined that it was worth seeing the world burn so that an intended offering may be preserved? What if you allowed an entire forest to char to cinders merely to save one tree? The lonely, winsome paragon of ghostly pan flutes, atonal guitars, super-heated feedback, and resonate throat singing, which Iker delivers on this record, telegraphs a trajectory that traces a discrete path through the bramble of assigned charges and nobel surrender, illustrating an anarchic breaking point with authority and obligation that reveals a certain symptom of liberation, as solitary as it may be. For what is liberty but the love of life, and what is love but the unassailable verdict that the object of one's affection takes precedence over all else? Even if such a choice leaves the world shattered, and its shards scattered like a fist full of sand dropped in the sea.
