Multi-instrumentalists Emi Honda and Jordan McKenzie are the pair behind Elfin Saddle, named after their favourite wild mushroom.
Emi, originally from Japan, and Jordan, from Canada, first met when working together as visual artists on the west coast of Canada.
Their influences are vast and vary from folk to baroque and classical Japanese music but ultimately Elfin Saddle create a unique world of their own.

The band released last week (March 6th) their third full-length album Devastates via Constellation Records. With this new effort, they continue to investigate the tensions between nature and technology and engage “with issues of environmental sustainability and the emotional impact of economic/political ideologies that continually foreclose on the possibility of genuine, progressive renewal and redirection.” The press release adds that “the new album weds an operetta-style song cycle to an organic, junkshop aesthetic to great effect, forging a unique hybrid folk music that weaves Honda’s trilling vocals (often singing in Japanese) and McKenzie’s woodsy, unaffected baritone with threads of clattering steam-engine percussion, ukulele, accordion, glockenspiel and pump organ.”

Devastates was recorded in an abandoned chapel in rural Quebec and it sees the duo being joined by long-standing third member Nathan Gage on double bass and tuba and Kristina Koropecki on cello.

Listen below to the epic opening track ‘The Changing Wind’, which evolves from an acoustic guitar and haunting vocals into powerful percussions and chaos. You can download it free here.