Los Angeles, CA · hyperpop · ambient pop

HYD

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Hayden Dunham's project, where PC Music gloss dissolves into something weightless and half-submerged — avant-pop as a slow exhale.

HYD is the solo project of Hayden Dunham, an American artist born in 1988 who grew up in Austin, Texas, and studied at NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, working across sculpture, installation and performance as well as music.

Dunham first appeared in a pop context as the face and voice of QT, a collaborative project founded in 2014 with A. G. Cook and SOPHIE through PC Music. QT was built around a fictional energy drink of the same name, sung by Harriet Pittard, and drew comparisons to Hatsune Miku and the film S1M0NE.

After a hiatus spent on visual art, including a 2019 performance piece at MoMA, Dunham returned to music in 2020, appearing on A. G. Cook's albums 7G and Apple under the name Hyd before beginning solo work under that name.

The HYD material, also issued via PC Music, moves away from QT's hyper-bright sugar rush toward something slower and more diffuse: processed vocals, ambient textures and pop melodies left half-dissolved. The 2021 single "No Shadow" was written after a period in which Dunham temporarily lost their eyesight.

Later songs such as "Skin 2 Skin" and "So Clear" involved production from Caroline Polachek and SOPHIE. A self-titled EP arrived in 2021, followed by the album Clearing in 2022, work that sits close to Dunham's visual practice, concerned with materials, bodies and transformation.

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hyperpopambient pop