Excellent Liverpool guitar ensemble Ex-Easter Island Head are set to play a show at London’s Union Chapel this Saturday, 9th March, performing their upcoming release Mallet Guitars Three.
It’s part of the venue’s ongoing series of Daylight Music concerts, taking place from midday until 14:00, and will also feature David O’Dowda and Haiku Salut – have a watch of their video for ‘Los Elefantes’ from their upcoming debut album Tricolore, out on March 25 on How Does It Feel. Entry is free, but with a suggested donation to help fund the costs of bringing bands from around the country to play. For full details, click here. For a taste of what to expect, watch the video of a live performance of the band’s extended piece Music For Moai Hava via the embed at the bottom of the page.
Ex-Easter Island Head first came to our attention last year with the release of their fantastic record Mallet Guitars Two/Music For Moai Hava via Low Point Records. The ensemble, led by Benjamin Duvall, explore the full tonal range of their guitars, lying them horizontally and playing them with mallets to create hypnotic cyclical patterns – both rhythmic and melodic – that weave in and out of one another. The effect is simultaneously hypnotic and energising.
"I think that some of the life in our music actually comes from a lack of technicality in certain places," said Duvall in an interview with the Quietus last year. "There are some sections, particularly with the more defined aspects of our sound such as the malleting, where a locked in mechanical sort of feel is crucial, but then in other parts it can afford to sound more human and have a certain swung imperfection. We’re always thinking about the dynamic/emotional arc of a piece, even if it’s only expressed in very ambiguous terms – with the extended techniques we use, the swapping roles of the performers and the preference for simple materials, there’s an aim to consciously avoid technicality for technicality’s sake. A lot of our rhythmic parts come about through a simple idea being pushed until it starts to feel like it’s at the right kind of tempo, has got the right kind of resonance to it, and then it gets a more technical structure worked into it. You have to remember, too, that for the most part we’re still learning how to play the guitar as a percussion instrument, which definitely gives it a bit of a just-hanging-in-there liveliness in some places!"
Haiku Salut – ‘Los Elefantes’:
Haiku Salut – Los Elefantes from Haiku Salut on Vimeo.
