I can’t even begin to describe my affection for the Montreal based outfit Elfin Saddle. Initially birthed as the duo of multi-instrumentalists Emi Honda and Jordan McKenzie, they expanded to a trio with the addition of long-standing third member Nathan Gage on double bass and tuba. The group’s earthy, intense and heartfelt music magically fuses various genres, from folk to baroque and to classical Japanese music. Nearly two years ago now, Elfin Saddle released Devastates, a beautiful and majestic album that was one of our Picks of 2012.
Here’s some wonderful news. They have recently recorded three unreleased tracks for the Pinball Sessions, a music project where artists from different horizons record three or four song sessions “live off the floor” in a no-pressure environment. In the studio, artists are invited to “try stuff out” as they describe, and experiment with already recorded songs and unreleased ones. The result gets published twice a week and can be streamed and downloaded for free.
Lucky us, we can now listen to three magnificent new tracks from Elfin Saddle, ‘Bell’, ‘Creature’ and ‘Reed:Rise’. According to the Pinball Sessions’ folks, this session was recorded “on a picturesque summer day” in Guelph, Ontario at the Pinball Studios.
We haven’t heard of any scheduled release but these new songs could well be tied to the follow up of Devastates. We’ll keep a keen eye out. Now head over to pinballsessions.com and listen to the Elfin Saddle session.