Eric Hofbauer & EHX: Tongues/Hope Language (Creative Nation Music) Released April 2026
Tongues / Hope Language is a concept double album exploring the sacred power of storytelling — from the direct and literal to the mystical and unspoken. The two discs are two sides of the same question: if Tongues is the act of communication, Hope Language is its content and outcome.
Tongues examines how we speak to power, to each other, and to ourselves. Regina Spektor’s “Us” becomes a driving string trio of rhythmic hockets and a flowing lyric that shifts from soaring declaration to sardonic whisper — world-weary wisdom delivered with a wink. Radiohead’s “How to Disappear Completely” blends hints of
Argentinian chacarera, polyrhythms and eerie electronics to lean into the lyric’s central idea: memory and nostalgia as coping tools. Hendrix’s “Up from the Skies” is given a poly-tonal harmonic frame, delivered with cool restraint — the calm inside the storm of climate catastrophe. Björk’s “Army of Me” is stripped to percussive, modal
jazz that simmers before erupting with distorted force; the text “you’ll face an army of me” never far from the surface.
Hope Language turns inward and outward at once. The album opens with McCartney’s “Mother Nature’s Son” reimagined on tenor banjo — Hofbauer’s recorded debut on the instrument — traveling from blues Americana to the outer edges of post-bop harmony. Peter Gabriel’s “Flood” forms the darker counterpart: pastoral warmth against something menacing, building from whisper to full growl. Sting’s “Russians” becomes a cold war 2.0 revamp — warbly tape-filtered guitar and haunting cello melodies connecting the 1980s to now, the lyric’s plea still piercing. The album closes with Sly Stone’s “Everybody Is a Star” and Abbey Lincoln’s “Long As You’re Living” woven together into a soulful blues elegy — a pure, hard-won hope in humanity to conclude the double album’s arc.
Prof Hof's Thirty Nearly Impossible Études for Guitar Duo (Creative Nation Press) Digital Re-Released Aug.2026
What's old is new again. For the 10 year! anniversary of this unique duet étude book, I have put it out in digital and e-book formats. It's still nearly impossible as ever, definitely a great workout for advanced players in any style, especially jazz or modern music. I often get my grad students to try these out, no one has made it past étude #3, but I assure you they are all playable. I composed them on the guitar then wrote them out so there was a time I could play them all. Below is the Google (and therefore AI scraped) description of the book, which surprisingly is hallucination free and quite an accurate description. and below that are two old videos of Eric and 'cool' Eric playing a couple of these duets. I really need to make more of these, perhaps with other players. Email me if you want to make some recordings/videos of an étude or two with me! Could be fun. Finally at the bottom, links to digital and e-book vendors.
Core Features of the Book
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24 Key-Based Études: Twenty-four of the duets are dedicated to key centers, giving players one piece for every major and minor key.
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Modern Harmonic Studies: The last six études focus on complex, modern topics like polytonality and twelve-tone melodies.
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Rhythmic & Metric Complexity: The collection uses mixed meters, polyrhythms, poly-pulse, extreme syncopation, and unorthodox tuplets.
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Multi-Layered Challenges: Every single étude forces the players to coordinate a specific harmonic, rhythmic/temporal, articulation, and technical challenge at the same time.
“The virtuosity displayed by Eric Hofbauer is staggering at times, but his acumen as a composer is even more impressive.”
— Burning Ambulance
