Przewalski’s Horses

The duo of complete neophytes in classical music terms, Przewalski’s Horses is an ever-changing, always experimenting outfit, frolickin in the margins of the musical spectrum, much like Przewalski’s breed of wild horses in the Chernobyl Zone – that is, in areas where you aren’t supposed to grow healthily.

See here for a 2011 interview:
http://musicyourmindstillloveyou.blogspot.fr/2011/08/przewalskis-horses-story-constantin.html

Listen to our whole discography here:
https://przewalskishorses.bandcamp.com/

Each new session of recording, fully improvised, is completely raw and built spontaneously from scratch. Depending on the mood, the location, the available objects or instruments around, the Horses’ music is redefined. We cultivate the negation of any kind of specific, theoretical knowledge about music before playing, looking for a raw, uncalculated, archaic form of music making, the kind made by prehistorical people, madmen, or children, and the special blend of poetry associated with theses personas.

We had the opportunity to collaborate with worldwide musicians: Michael Northam, Robert Horton, Jason Honea, Benjamin Laurent Aman, Melanie Velarde, Hitoshi Kojo, Veaceslav Druta, François Defrenne, Sabri Meddeb, Adrien Fontaine, Marion Auburtin, Sachiyo Honda…

Recording the track “Marguerite” from Soupe de Sorcière.

About some sound pieces in our discography:

« Nyàr » is the name of two very sparse acoustic sessions, recorded outside in a private garden. They are printed on two stand-alone records, giving the listener the ability to mix both recordings into a third new one, by listening to them at the same time. There is no predefined way of listening to the two recordings at once, allowing for an infinite number of possibilites of synchronisation.

« Tanzen In Der Taufelsberg » spawns from a short performance made in the Teufelsberg, the artificial hill of Berlin. In an aborted construction work site, we produced ringing sounds by walking on bent reinforced rods. The sound of this recording was then, in post-production, folded on itself to produce an eery, multi-layered bell-sounding piece.

In the piece « Oldest Door », we recorded with a specific setting designed to make it impossible for the performer to master what he is doing. At the same time, one of us was performing on an out-of-tune piano, while the other was processing the sounds with guitar effects (delay, distorsion etc.).

« Une Brocante Intérieure » is made of the sound signal memorized by a loop pedal after the end of a performance. What can be heard is very different from what was broadcasted during the live show. It’s all the while a trace, a fragment and a semi-intentional residue of the performance.

The albums Detroit, Tokyo Skylark and ATS 909X make an extensive use of shortwave radio sounds, explored like impredictable sound fields.

Discography and performances as Przewalski’s Horses

Releases :
_n.o.t.#1 ~ The Box (CD, Nothing Out There, FR, 2006)
_Split with Poldr (CD, Nothing Out There, FR, 2007)
_Przewalski’s Horses (CD, Ikuisuus, FIN, 2007)
_A rock cast into the sea has more than a drowning fate (CD, MYMWLY, AUS, 2007)
_Split with Ghost Brâmes (CD, Phantom Limb, US, 2008)
_Wailing Bones vol.13 (CD, Digitalis, US, 2008)
_Our Live Soundtracks (DVD, Nothing Out There, FR/BE, 2006)
_Museum for the trees (CD, 267 Lattajjaa, FIN, 2008)
_Mendota Hotel (CD, Ruralfaune, FR, 2008)
_Bulbs (CD, Nothing Out There, FR, 2008)
_Pripyat Holidays (cassette, Housecraft, US, 2008)
_Where Kahn once ruled, the Takhi roam again (cassette, Nothing Out There, FR, 2009)
_Inner Ends of the Coils (CD, Nothing Out There, FR, 2009)
_Looking for the middle of the night (cassette, Earjerk, US, 2010)
_Nyàr (2×3″CD, Earjerk, US, 2010)
_Soupe de Sorcière (cassette, Nothing Out There, FR, 2011)
_Detroit (CD, Nothing Out There, FR, 2011)
_Tokyo Skylark (web-release, WeHaveNoZen, UKR, 2011)
_ATS 909X (web-release, WeHaveNoZen, UKR, 2012)
_The Middle of the Night (CD, Nothing Out There, FR, 2014)
_Experimenting at What​-​do​-​you​-​call​-​the​-​place?, The Devil Man compilation (cassette, 267 Lattajjaa, FIN, 2016)

Live shows :
_Dispersal, Brussels (BE), live soundtrack on a excerpt of Bela Tarr’s Satantango, 2007
_Total Artspace, Berlin (DE), with Poldr, 2007
_Wort 89.9FM, USA, public radio broadcast of Where Kahn…, 2009
_Bandits Mages, FR, public radio broadcast of unreleased pieces, 2009
_La Quarantaine, Brussels (BE), with Crystal Plumage, Hokuro, The Shitty Listener, 2009
_Goupil Le Fol, Brussels (BE), with Daymoon, 2009
_L’Enfant Méduse’s birthday, Tournai (BE), 2010

The late Mogwaï can be heard on some early PH records.

Top picture courtesy of Benjamin Laurent Aman.
Black & white pictures courtesy of Clémentine Calais.