Posted: 30th June 2023 | Back to news feed
Celebrated British artist, producer, composer and experimentalist Matthew Herbert presents “The Horse”.
The album, with live shows to follow this autumn, is centred around the sonic explorations of a full-size racehorse skeleton that Herbert acquired. The artist collaborated with the London Contemporary Orchestra as well as an expansive cast of world leading soloists to create a suite of compelling and curious, ritualistic tracks that bring the unknown horse back to life.
Herbert’s passion, respect and love for the animal is at the forefront of this incredible musical creation. In a feat of musical artistry, Herbert uses horse-skin drums, flutes made from the thigh bones, bows crafted from the ribs and hair, gut string stretched over the pelvis, and a shaker created by mixing cement with polo horse semen, to create the album. He has cherished horses on his farm in Kent and the subject of the horse and its significance in human history became a vital focus for the project.
Renowned instrument makers were commissioned to approach parts of the skeleton in different ways, some creating mechanical percussive instruments and carving out the bone flutes, others blowing tiny air bubbles through the neck vertebrae. It results in a compilation of sounds like no other.
Material came from a myriad of sources; site recordings from ancient Spanish caves where some of the earliest cave paintings depicting horses can be found; trackside reverb from Epsom racecourse; 6,900 horse sounds including horse breaths, snorts and whinny’s all culminating in a captivating journey, bringing the horse back to life through the power of music.
Herbert masterfully represents the evolution of music itself through this album. Bone and skin have long been fashioned into instruments—we call the surfaces of drums “skins” for a reason. Archaeological finds attest that music has been part of human rituals for thousands of years.
https://www.matthewherbert.com/
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