Email: ExEasterIslandEmbassy(at)Gmail.com
Their debut record Mallet Guitars One is available from Low Point records:
http://www.low-point.com/
"Precise and Pulsing rhythmic minimalism...a three chord punk mission statement turned into a neo-classical manifesto"
- THE WIRE
"Somewhere between the minimalist disciplines of Steve Reich and the more avant-garde inclinations of performers such as Bang On A Can or So Percussion"
- BOOMKAT
Ex-Easter Island Head have played with the likes of Rhys Chatham, Philip Jeck, Mugstar and Portico Quartet. Their music has been played on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction and Resonance FM.
Photo with 1 note
UPCOMING SHOWS - TIM HECKER, GNOD & MORE, LUCKY DRAGONS
Following our nomination for the Liverpool “Get Into This” award (http://www.peterguy.merseyblogs.co.uk/2012/05/the-git-award-knowing-me-knowi.html) and shows with James Blackshaw, we are pleased to announce three more upcoming performances of our new piece Mallet Guitars Three:
17th May: Liverpool Sound City w/Tim Hecker, Forest Swords, Sun Drums and more @ Screenadelica poster exhibition http://www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk/assets/thursdaylineup.pdf
FREE ENTRY - Onstage 19.30
19th May: Talk Amongst Yourselves all day festival @ METROS, Milton Keynes w/Gnod, Poino, SJ Esau, Americans and more
https://www.facebook.com/events/384396481584407/
£3 Advance / £4 On the door - 16.00-23:30
2nd June: Opening for Lucky Dragons:
Lucky Dragons have managed to create a completely new strand of west coast American Psychedelia - Frieze.Challenging stereotypes that electronic music is cold and sterile, Lucky Dragons’ live show…is a truly great celebration of the human spirit, giving real hope for the techno-future our society is racing toward - Artforum
http://www.wolstenholmecreativespace.com/exhibit.php
8pm, Wolstenholme Creative Space, Liverpool, £6 Advance.
4th May / 6th May 2012: Two shows supporting JAMES BLACKSHAW
In anticipation of our second release, Mallet Guitars Two / Music for Moai Hava, we are thrilled to announce two upcoming shows supporting JAMES BLACKSHAW (Important Records / Tompkins Square).
On the 4th May we play an evening hosted by Buried Bones (http://www.buriedbones.co.uk/) in Sacred Trinity Church, Salford. The bill is Ex-Easter Island Head/Directorsound/James Blackshaw.
Tickets are available here : http://www.seetickets.com/Event/JAMES-BLACKSHAW/Sacred-Trinity/619729
& here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/154420
On the 6th May it’s just us and James Blackshaw playing courtesy of ceremony concerts in one of our favourite venues Mello Mello, which is looking rather fantastic post-refurb.
Tickets are here and are £8 - http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_northwest&query=detail&event=491251&interface=
Mercy - http://www.mercyonline.co.uk/ - are a London/Liverpool based arts and literature collective.
In September 2011 they approached us to provide a contribution to their Spectres of Spectacle event, to be held in the Static Gallery. The event, featuring new works from Forest Swords, Anat Ben David and Maria Minerva presented
“Half-erased, deliberately fogged works across lo-fi, spoken word, and the analogue/digital crossover delivering a nuanced, complex response to a present day of degraded ideals.”
Mercy Commission is an installation piece for three tape loops, delay units and multiple amplifiers arranged in a large space. Running continuously, the loops undergo an echoing transformation from their original sound sources - voice, bass guitar and Bell reed organ - to form a subtly changing sonic environment of billowing drones, ghostly replicas and analogue imperfections.
Recorded & Mixed by James Rand, Croxteth Lodge, January 2012.
Post with 1 note
Next show: 11/11/11 with Outfit & Dauwd, CUC Liverpool
Our next show is at the Liverpool Music Week 2011 closing party, taking place in the huge CUC building.
We will be appearing on a stage curated by our very good friends and former bandmates in various projects OUTFIT, who have just released (and sold out) their debut single “Two Islands” on Double Denim records.
Appearing in the pages of NME, the Guardian and all over the internet in just a few short months, Outfit play intricately textured emotionally ambiguous songs to be taken seriously with either head or heart (or both). We think they’re one of the best bands in years and fortunately, so does everyone else - come and see why or at the very least, give them a listen: http://www.everynightidressupasyou.com/
DAUWD is someone we’ve had the pleasure of getting to know very recently. Here’s what’s been said:
“Dauwd creates music with a complexity most contemporary producers shy away from. Found sounds are thickly laden over multi-timbred synths, vocal and instrumental stabs punctuate organic and evolving passages guided always by driving percussion and immaculate bass production. The method, “make a noise, make it my noise, then give it some rhythm” certainly seems to work for him. Constantly experimenting, Dauwd describes his creative process as “finding a sound, texture, or moment that you can relate to, and from there develop your narrative.”
We couldn’t agree more - give him a listen here “Ikopol” is particularly good: http://soundcloud.com/dauwd
In addition to getting to share a stage with a large number of our good friends, the likes of a.P.A.t.T, MUGSTAR, GIGANTES, DUSTIN WONG and loads of other good stuff will be happening throughout the evening.
Tickets are here… http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_northwest&query=detail&event=467799
…and they’re ten pounds, but totally worth it.
Oh and we’ll be playing new material for four mallet guitars, three allen keys, two violin bows and one tape loop. Come and see what that sounds like!
REVIEW: Music For Moai Hava, Liverpool World Museum, 11th September 2011
It’s hardly worth pointing out anything new by saying a.P.A.t.T. don’t dabble in the norm.
But their recent explorations in sound, the four-part Musical Settings concerts, are adventures which even by their standards are extraordinary to say the least.
Following on from their On the Earth showcase at Sefton Park bandstand in May (an orchestral piece in which hundreds of ECHO newspapers were ripped and shredded to create noise composed by an Argentinian dude… Obviously.), the group teamed up with contemporaries Ex-Easter Island Head at Liverpool’s World Museum.
The second instalment, broken into three separate showings, under the banner Into the Deep explored concepts of distance, vastness and isolation.
Ex-Easter Island Head began proceedings in the vast atrium basking in the shadow of a real Easter Island Head - the Moai Hava statue. And a giant skeletal pterodactyl overhead.
The a.P.A.t.T orchestra circled the trio - Ben Duvall, George Maund and Jacob Chabeaux - and through a series of clattering wooden percussive sequences, rung bells, bashed cymbals and the characteristic mallet guitars they reached a stunning climax as the dozens of musicians joined together with a huge swell of choral vocals. The effect was stunning, with the treated, e-bowed guitars combining spectacularly with the quite spiritual tide of voices which closed the piece.
- Peter Guy, Editor “Get into this” http://www.peterguy.merseyblogs.co.uk/
Announcement : Music for Moai Hava
On September 11th 2011, Ex-Easter Island Head will perform a new piece in the Liverpool World Museum as part of the a.P.A.t.T Orchestra’s ongoing series of ‘Musical Settings’ concerts.
Mallet Guitars One - LP039 - 12” & Download
The debut release by Ex-Easter Island Head; a Liverpool based ensemble comprising on this record of three solid bodied electric guitars and two performers.
The record is three movements of shimmering drones, ghostly overtones and sustained consonances elicited through gradually changing rhythmic patterns played on the body of horizontally mounted guitars with percussion mallets.
“Precise and pulsing rhythmic minimalism. The three compositions turn the pure punk three-chord mission statement into an austere neo-classical manifesto.” -The Wire
“Somewhere between the minimalist disciplines of Steve Reich and the more avant-garde inclinations of performers such as Bang On A Can or So Percussion…the microtonal discretions of three fixed chords are magnified by the resonant architecture to form an immersive soundscape of latticed timbres and percussive patterning” - Boomkat
“Mallet Guitars One treads the same water as other percussion-driven minimalism: the compositions of Steve Reich, the performances of So Percussion and Tortoise. But Ex-Easter Island Head’s process brings a slightly new color palette to the table. As rich in overtones and musical direction as it is in inventive rhythms, Mallet Guitars One makes for a remarkably varied and texturally intriguing journey.” - Tokafi
Review: The Wire, April 2011
Mallet Guitars One
(Lowpoint)
12” LP / DL
Mallet Guitars One is played on three solid-body guitars, each open-tuned to a specific chord and struck with mallets by two performers. What results is a drone of overtones and echoes from the church where it was recorded, and a precise and pulsing rhythmic minimalism. The three compositions turn the pure punk three-chord mission statement into an austere neo-classical manifesto.
Using hammered guitars makes the sound rougher than the pinpoint chime of Steve Reich’s marimba and xylophone pieces, but also warmer and gentler than Arnold Dreyblatt’s one string nodal excitation projects. This is the debut recording from the Liverpool based collective, and the freshness and vitality should make certain it is the first of many.
-Nick Southgate, The Wire, April 2011
