Luca Sguera - AKA (AUAND RECORDS February 1, 2019)

Hobby Horse - Helm (2018)

In an epoch where image is king, we are gaining unprecedented control and awareness of the avatars we project onto the world while at the same time our rights to privacy and self-determination erode into nothingness. Hammered on all sides by visual stimuli, we inhabit a universe permeated and driven by advertising and data mining. Our value as consumers is proportional to our role as data sources, and both these factors are cultivated at every occasion to maintain the revenue stream which allows us to think our email is free. 

Meanwhile researchers, governments and the data companies which provide our online services are reverse engineering our minds, individually and collectively as we race towards the technological singularity whose consequences cannot be predicted nor imagined. Perhaps the wisest course would be to prepare ourselves to best serve the new master or masters. Or is resistance still possible? 

Helm is a word of ambigous meaning, to be understood as an armored covering for head and face which conceals and protects its wearer, but also as the decisive place from which our collective ship is to be steered. Who is at the helm? Who chooses the course, and who follows? Who is guiding this process? Will we recognize the moment when we are no longer in control? And how can we defend or protect ourselves? 

This record is a collection of sonic images, broken cyclic patterns, political fight songs, united by its diversity. Thus it is both a product of the forces which surround and move us and an attempt to resist or deviate from the course which has been chosen for us, to confound analysis, throw a wrench in the gears. But it is perhaps foremost a message of hope, a book of hymns to commemorate the end of an era and herald the coming of a new, technological deity, in the hope that its desires will align with our own. 

1. Helm 03:02

2. Salsa Caliente 03:29

3. The Go Round 04:29

4. Cascade 03:55

5. Buckle 09:04

6. Born Again Cretin 04:17

7. Amundsen - Evidently Chickentown 25:25

Dan Kinzelman - tenor saxophone, clarinets, electronics, voice

Joe Rehmer - basses, electronics, voice

Stefano Tamborrino - drums, electronics, voice

Recorded at Marchisielli, Foligno (PG) - Italy on Apr 24-28, 2017 by Dan Kinzelman

Mixed at Casaverde, Foligno (PG) - Italy in July 2017 by Dan Kinzelman

Mastered at Jambona Lab, Cascina (PI) - Italy on October 18, 2017 by Antonio Castiello

Hobby Horse - Helm (AUAND RECORDS January 26, 2018)

Collective trio Hobby Horse is among the most prominent groups in Italy’s flowering creative/experimental jazz scene. Their newest record ‘Helm’ is slated for release on January 26, 2018 with Italian independent jazz label Auand on CD, and with underground label ROUS Records on vinyl. On ‘Helm,’ Hobby Horse has managed to concentrate their vast sonic palette with startling clarity, bringing 8 years of performing and recording experience to razor sharp focus in a further maturation of their uniquely irreverent approach to cross-pollinating musical worlds. From the decisive attack of the first bass note on the title track to the menacing final drone that closes the record, there is no wasted space or time to take a breath. The mostly collaborative original compositions are superficially simple, but the trio develops them into minutely detailed, layered arabesques, contrasted with occasional but functional outbursts of characteristic violence.

Continuing to expand Hobby Horse’s unique approach to vocals, ‘The Go Round’ includes a text contributed by Italian experimental radio composer Alessandro Bosetti while side two contains the trio’s take on ‘Born Again Cretin’ by Robert Wyatt and finishes with a sobering version of English performance poet John Cooper Clarke’s ‘Evidently Chickentown’.

Hobby Horse è un trio collettivo fra i principali esponenti della nuova scena creativa e sperimentale del jazz in Italia e ‘Helm’ è il nuovo album in uscita il 26 gennaio 2018 per Auand in cd (distribuzione Goodfellas) e Rous Records in vinile. Un lavoro denso che mette a fuoco le inquietudini stilistiche e timbriche, ‘Helm’ è un riassunto concentrato delle ardite esplorazioni sonore, tra improvvisazione, elettronica e rock, che il trio porta avanti da 8 anni, segnando una nuova maturità linguistica frutto di un accumulo di esperienze condivise su palchi in tutto il mondo. Dal secco attacco del contrabbasso su ‘Helm’ al drone di chiusura minaccioso e ipnotico la tensione si mantiene senza cedimenti. Il materiale composto è apparentemente semplice, ma viene esplorato con straordinaria attenzione al dettaglio e alla stratificazione, con scarti improvvise e violenti che da sempre caratterizzano i lavori del trio, ed un uso sempre più particolare delle voci (da notare il testo del compositore radiofonico Alessandro Bosetti su ‘The Go Round’). Oltre ai 6 brani originali, due canzoni di protesta da autori illustri, Evidently Chickentown del poeta/musicista punk John Cooper Clarke e Born Again Cretin di Robert Wyatt, affinano e completano il punto di vista della formazione.

01 1 Helm

02 2 Salsa Caliente

03 3 The Go Round

04 4 Cascade

05 5 Buckle

06 6 Born Again Cretin

07 7 Amundsen Evidently Chickentown

Dan Kinzelman tenor saxophone, clarinets, electronics, voice

Joe Rehmer basses, electronics, voice

Stefano Tamborrino drums, electronics, voice

Produced by Hobby Horse

Executive Producer: Marco Valente

Recorded at Marchisielli, Foligno (PG) – Italy on April 24-28, 2017

Engineer: Dan Kinzelman

Cover Photo: James Anthony Obed

Upcoming Tour dates:

Jan 27 Churchill's Pub, Miami (USA)

Jan 28 The Living Room, Miami (USA)

Jan 29 Space Mountain Miami, Miami (USA)

Jan 31 Kenosha Fusion, Kenosha (USA)

Feb 1 George's Tavern, Racine (USA)

Feb 2 Arts + Literature Laboratory, Madison (USA)

Feb 5 Simone Graziano Snailspace + Ghost Horse, Prato (Italy)