Horse Lords :: Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!
Cover Art: Will Work For Good
Photo: Kasia Zacharko
Originally formed in 2010 in Baltimore, Maryland, from the alchemical ashes of the experimental collective Teeth Mountain, and now based in Germany, the highly harmonious and spiritually sophisticated quartet Horse Lords has been productively pushing its multi-dimensional data across the echoing ether for over a decade. Since the release of their 2012 self-titled debut, the cosmic collective has creatively conjured a blistering body of work that transcends not only the expectations of four people bringing intimate importance to the sacred soil of the surface on a singular stream of sonic subconsciousness, but also their beliefs and expertise in expression, that anything is possible through the poetic practice of musical meditation. Consisting of members Andrew Bernstein, Max Eilbacher, Owen Gardner, and Sam Haberman, the quintessential quartet eagerly explores the many back rooms and listening libraries of space and time where they’ve amassed an atmospheric as well as academic anatomy of tonal textures, traditional timings, and spacious signatures that give the band an unworldly universe to build their epic expeditions into the unique unknown. Since signing with the Brooklyn-based label Rvng Intl back in 2022 for the release of their debut album “Comradely Objects”, the band has unleashed four revolutionary titles, with their latest effort “Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!” soaring across the ancient skies in early June, it’s been without a doubt that the Horse Lords have become this incredible institution of gateway drug-induced ideologies into the past where listeners both new, and old can discover the feverish familiarities, and kinetics of krautrock, the atmospheres of African traditions, modular synth seduction, and the progressives pulses of polyrhythm.
With further investigative influence from the likes of critical composers James Tenney, Maryanne Amacher, and La Monte Young, to name a few, the quartet has eagerly embraced and adopted some of the technical techniques, such as hand-modified instruments with repositioned frets, intonation tuning systems, and various other customizations that, although similar to Sonic Youth’s prolific pioneering, Horse Lords take these esoteric elements straight to the melodic mirror where they can immediately identify sound, and rhythm with their some of elements, and genres listed above. Recorded by Adam Asan in Berlin, and Jared Paolini in the band’s hometown in Baltimore, and mixed by the group’s very own Owen Gardner, the album also features an all-star cast of guest players such as Nina Guo, Evelyn Saylor, Madison Greenstone, and Weston Olencki, who together, as one oscillating organism, create this vibrant voyage towards the most electrifying ecosystem this side of the Observable universe. Featuring tracks like “Brain Of The Firm”, “A City Yet To Come”, and the album’s almighty ender and title track, Horse Lords has become an instant classic that memory can meditatively metabolize, while simultaneously submerging listeners into the weird waters of life's great wonders.
