Horse Lords have announced a new album, Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!, out 12 June along with UK, European and US tour dates, here’s a first taste.
To launch the album, the band – Owen Gardner (guitar), Max Eilbacher (bass), Sam Haberman (drums) and Andrew Bernstein (alto saxophonist/percussionist) – have shared two tracks with video by visual artist Scott Kiernan.
Here comes the press release (yeah, I know lazy of us, hey, we’ve been busy today, that Mixtape show didn’t mix itself, that took quite some time) and anyway, as muh as we rather thing Horse Lords to be excellent, we’ve only heard that bit up there so we can’t tell you anymore about the album that what the press release says…
“The music of Horse Lords’ Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive! feels both impossibly detailed and remarkably human. The twelve pieces assembled are layered, interwoven, and tonally and rhythmically complex – patterns of interaction play out for both mind and body, full of sonic warrens with an inescapable groove.
Horse Lords were founded in Baltimore in 2010; they evolved from another group called Teeth Mountain and began as a trio with Gardner, Eilbacher, Haberman, and soon after, added Bernstein to the core ensemble. Though the quartet grew out of a fertile noise and experimental rock scene, their approach across six albums, various collaborations and as a celebrated live act has been more omnivorous than the stippled rhythms of instrumental electric rock would indicate. For this outing, they are augmented by bass clarinetist Madison Greenstone, trombonist Weston Olencki, and in a first for Horse Lords, vocals courtesy of Nina Guo and Evelyn Saylor.
The process of constructing D2BT2HA! involved geographic hurdles, as the unit’s four members have lived in different cities since 2021. Given sixteen years as a working band, their shared language transcends locale. German transplants Gardner, Eilbacher, and Bernstein met in Berlin for tracking sessions while Haberman put together drum parts in Baltimore.
While D2BT2HA! isn’t a suite per se, the music influences and interacts with itself in complex systems. Horse Lords observe that “we like the idea of art as a tool for changing your perspective, being able to rotate ideas and see/hear/feel them from a different vantage point.” The opening piece and one of the tracks shared today, ‘Eureka 378-B’, is an arrangement of 19th century sacred harp music, led by Guo and Saylor’s vocals; its melody flowers outward, setting a tonal launching pad for much of the music that follows.
On ‘Brain of the Firm’, polyphonic and wordless voices dance around pulsing bass, slinky guitar phrases, keyboard bloops and fleet kitwork. The rhythm is derived from the band’s work at IRCAM (Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music), though Central African vocal syncopation and Appalachian drone duet are front and centre. Given tent revivals and the all-night possibilities of sacred guitar music, there’s a clear spiritual and pragmatic connection between the message of ‘Eureka 378-B’ and the plastic motion of ‘Brain of the Firm’.
Transcendence and uplift are inherent to D2BT2HA!, and if all art is political, Horse Lords’ leanings are optimistic and community-centred. Here, transformation and re-viewing are not just a compositional strategy but a philosophical outlook. As they put it, “we try to make music that challenges the status quo and offers a path toward liberation for the listener. The study and exploration of sound and music has a spiritual and ecstatic dimension, and we have a great reverence for its impact on the individual and the world.” There are numerous sonic and conceptual layers in D2BTA2H!, but given the music’s undeniable power and humanity, the process of unpacking them is enthusiastic and deeply rewarding.
Horse Lords’ Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive! will be released 12 June 2026 on RVNG Intl. in vinyl, CD, and digital editions.
Here’s a bag of links and here’s the Bandcamp thing
HORSE LORDS TOUR DATES
UK & EUROPE
22 May – Gent (BE) – Viernulvier
23 May – Brussels (BE) – Nuits Botanique
20 May – Bologna, (IT) – Angelica Festival
31 May – Turin (IT) – Jazz Is Dead
19-20 June – Kongsberg (NO) – Motvind Festival
1 Aug – Tasov (CZ) – Beseda Festival
6-8 Aug – Haldern (DE) – Haldern Pop Festival
3 Nov – Aarhus (DK) – VoxHall
4 Nov – Copenhagen (DK) – Loppen
5 Nov – Stockholm (SE) – Hus 7
7 Nov – Hamburg (DE) – MS Stubnitz
9 Nov – Paris (FR) – Instants Chavirés
11 Nov – London (UK) – ICA
15 Nov – Lille (FR) – L’Aéronef
18 Nov – Berlin (DE) – Silent Green
19 Nov – Warsaw (PL) – Pardon To Tu
NORTH AMERICA
9-10 July – Winnipeg, CA – Winnipeg Folk Festival
11 July – Minneapolis, MN (US) – The Cedar
12 July – Madison, WI (US) – Art Lit Lab
13 July – Rock Island, IL (US) – Rozz Tox
14 July – Yellow Springs, OH (US) – Foundry Theatre
15 July – State College, PA (US) – Manny’s
16 July – Buffalo, NY (US) – Torn Space Theatre
17-18 July – Guelph, ON (US) – Hillside Festival
18 July – Chatham, NY (US) – PS21: Center for Contemporary Performance
25 July – Los Angeles, CA (US) – The Getty Center
THE ORGAN 