There are certain things in your life that trigger a true interest when you are very young and some of these stay of fascination for decades to come. During my pre-teen years I would save up my pocket money and purchase a number of timeless items that were of interest to me, one of these was to build up a decent collection of Ladybird Books. My favourite, and most read, of all the series was ‘Series 561’ which concentrated on History and Achievements. Book 6 in the series was ‘The Story Of Captain Cook’ which was written by L du Garde Peach and illustrated by John Kenney. It was one of Kenney’s drawings that seriously caught my imagination. It was of Captain Cook discovering giant head statues, known as Moai, on the mysterious Easter Island. Thus the fascination began, with later trips to the British Museum to witness a couple of them in person and to actually stroke my hand on one of them and to feel the history – Magnificent stuff!
So when checking out what Brighton gigs are coming up over the next few months, I spied an outfit with the name Ex-Easter Island Head and I was compelled to find out more! Clearly in some way or another this band is on my wavelength, despite me never having heard of them before. It stated that this band were “A UK based ensemble composing and performing music for solid-body electric guitar, percussion and other instruments”. On further inspection it appears that they fall within the electronic and classical fields and under “Rhythmic Noise, Experimental, Minimal” and are made up of Benjamin D. Duvall, Benjamin Fair, Jonathan Hering and Andrew P.M Hunt. The outfit dropped their debut album ‘Mallet Guitars Two / Music For Moai Hava’ back in 2012, followed by ‘Mallet Guitars Three’ in 2013, ‘Large Electric Ensemble’ and ‘Two Commissions For Cassette Tape’ both in 2014, and ‘Twenty-Two Strings’ in 2016. The ‘Mallet Guitars One – Three’ compilation album was released in 2021.
Ex-Easter Island Head are now set to return with their first new work for eight years in the form of ‘Norther’ – the meteorology term ‘Norther’ refers to a cold wind that blows down from the North – which is set to drop on 17th May. This new album will include a half a dozen new compositions which are: ‘Weather’, ‘Norther’, ‘Easter’, ‘Magnetic Language’, ‘Golden Bridges’ and ‘Lodestone’. Check out the video for ‘Norther’ HERE.
In support of the forthcoming release the outfit are performing a handful of concerts during May and June and as part of this will be performing live at The Hope & Ruin in Brighton on Friday 7th June, with the other dates being 18th May at Stoke Newington Old Church, London for a 4pm and an 8pm show, then 24th May at Halle at St Michael’s, Manchester, and finally 8th June at Storey’s Field Centre, Cambridge. Purchase your tickets for their Brighton concert HERE and HERE.
As far as I am aware, this will be only the second appearance by Ex-Easter Island Head here in Brighton, with the other being on 23rd May 2014, when they played at the then titled Bermuda Triangle, a venue in its time has also been called Coliseum, Digital, The Zap Club and presently The Arch. So after a decade away, it’s well worth checking them out live and also on their Bandcamp page HERE.
