9 Horses is an improvising chamber ensemble featuring Joe Brent (formerly of Regina Spektor’s band) on acoustic and electric mandolin, 2018 GRAMMY nominee Sara Caswell (Esperanza Spalding) on violin and Hardanger d’amore, and Andrew Ryan (Kaia Kater) on bass.

Featuring Brent’s original compositions and the incendiary, genre-hopping virtuosity of all three members, the trio at the core of 9 Horses represents their vision of a musical future with no barrier between folk art and fine art, and as an ensemble are capable of communicating this idea through musical canvases both great and small.

Originally formed in 2012 as a duo between Brent and Caswell, 9 Horses expanded to a trio the following year and in 2015 released its debut album Perfectest Herald (Sunnyside Records), a title drawn from Much Ado About Nothing (Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much).

The centerpiece of the album is a 4-movement suite for the acoustic trio alone which takes the listener on a searing journey through tragedy, triumph, and renewal. Budd Kopman wrote in All About Jazz: Brent’s music is just bursting with emotion and its immediacy is partly what makes it so attractive and inviting. This highly emotive music touches and communicates the essence of what it means to be an alive, feeling human being.

1. Strum (11:28)
2. Americannia (10:34)
3. Gasparilla (5:51)
4. Röhrl (6:36)
5. Long Time Away (7:28)
6. Jenny-Pop Nettle Eater (7:59)
7. Just Don’t Call It That (8:16)
8. The House That Ate Myself (8:55)

The album opens on the delicately-imbibed, Asian-hued, 11 minute title track Strum and the aptly-titled, 10-minute Americannia, and the funkier rhythms, and harmonic organ and soaring percussion that drive Gasparilla and then comes the industrially-charged Röhrl.

Along next is the veritably cinematic Long Time Away which is itself backed by the Indian-flavored melodies that make up Jenny-Pop Nettle Eater, the recording rounding out on the cultured Just Don’t Call It That, closing on the intricately plucked musical majesties within the nine minute The House That Ate Myself.

9 Horses Are:
Joe Brent: acoustic and electric mandolin, acoustic and electric guitar, resonator guitar, baritone guitar, Nashville guitar, violin, bağlama, tenor banjo, vihuela, lyre, piano, celesta, synths and synth programming, kalimba, glockenspiel, percussion
Sara Caswell: violin, hardanger d’amore
Andrew Ryan: acoustic bass

Official Purchase Link

www.josephbrent.com/9horses