Stream the new LP from the Bergen-based band below...
To quote the famous French marine explorer Jacques Cousteau, Electric Eye’s ‘Horizons’ LP sees the Norwegian psych-rock group venture into the depths of “a different kind of music, the sounds from the ocean floor.” Spending a week locked away from civilization in a lighthouse on the tiny Norwegian island of Utsira, Electric Eye’s new album ‘Horizons’ – due out November 5th on Fuzz Club Records – is a record “inspired by volcano eruptions, sub-sea adventures and the raw power of the surrounding sea.” The result is an album of oceanic psychedelic rock wig-outs that submerge the listener in a whirlpool of hypnotic space-rock, kosmische garage-blues, dystopian acid-prog and experimental electronics.
‘Horizons’, their fourth full-length to date, is the follow-up to the Bergen-based band’s critically acclaimed 2017 LP, ‘From The Poisonous Tree.’ Since forming in 2012, Electric Eye have released three studio albums and two live albums and toured heavily around Scandinavia, Europe, the UK, the Middle East, Japan and the US. They’ve also shared stages with the likes of Michael Rother (Neu), Wire, Hawkwind and Endless Boogie and played at a number of international festivals, including Roskilde, The Great Escape, Eurosonic, Icelandic Airwaves and two stops at SXSW. Returning to London-based label Fuzz Club for the ‘Horizons’ LP, Electric Eye first started working on the new album back in June 2018 when they retreated to Utsira, a small island located 70km off the coast of Norway and surrounded by notoriously unpredictable and tough waters. Here, they spent a week jamming day and night in the island’s lighthouse.
“Our only audience were the seagulls and some lost bird-watchers wondering where these strange noises were coming from,” the band recall: “We were surrounded by an unusually quiet ocean, almost eyeballing us waiting for the next eruption. The wild nature was omnipresent and could not be ignored as jam sessions got more intense and songs started to materialise. In our coffee breaks we were watching documentaries like ‘Into the Inferno’ by Werner Herzog and old explorer series by Captain Jacques Cousteau and the rest of the crew at the Calypso. The epic commentaries of Herzog and Cousteau were included in the jams to add to the vibe, and some of the sounds are still present on the final record. After a week off the grid we returned to civilization with hours of recordings inspired by volcano eruptions, sub-sea adventures and the raw power of the surrounding sea.”
Back in their home-city of Bergen, Electric Eye – comprised of Anders Bjelland (synths), Øystein Braut (guitar / vocals), Njål Clementsen (bass / vocals) and Øyvind Hegg-Lunde (drums) – brought the lighthouse tapes into Duper Studio with their long-time collaborator and “guiding star”, Sir Duperman (aka Jørgen Træen): “The legendary studio of Duper turned into an instrument of its own, with Captain Træen steering massive modular synthesizers, cassette decks, tape echo machines and vintage equalizing filters – leading us, his crew, to distant sonic underwater shores not unlike the ship Calypso under the guidance of Captain Cousteau.”
As well as their oceanic surroundings at the lighthouse and Sir Duperman’s production magic, the band also explain that finishing up the album amidst our disturbingly dark societal backdrop also made a big impact on their creative process: “The rise of fascist movements and right wing conspiracy-theorists, mixed with higher social and economic inequality and the political unwillingness and incapacity to deal with climate crisis because of greed and fear of economic loss, are all subtly woven into the lyrics.” As the world and even its waters can be seen burning all around us, Electric Eye state that the sonic endeavours of ‘Horizons’ are “inspired by the patience, explorations and eruptions associated with the ocean, as well as a deeper desire to be free from algorithmic control and capitalistic chaos.”
Expanding on this, the band said: “By the sea or on an island, when all you can see is the thin line of the horizon every way your head turns it can provide some sort of peace of mind and this feeling of existing for just a mere picosecond in time. In the face of this, our own existence can be seen as just a fleeting moment.” ‘Horizons’ isn’t just an album creatively inspired by the sea and its vast expansiveness and unexplored depths. It also a serves as a statement on the unrivalled power of the natural world and the games we play by exploiting it: “The waves have hit the shores with the same monotonous rhythmic pattern for ages and will continue to do so long after our existence is over, not giving a damn about who is president in the US or what the current price of raw-oil is or even the release of a psychedelic rock album by some Norwegian dudes!”
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