The FRKWYS series brings together generations whose musical approaches align – even if they emerge from very different horizons of experience. For Vol. 18: Horse Lords and Arnold Dreyblatt. Horse Lords: a rock band founded in 2010, ecstatic music for the head. Arnold Dreyblatt: assistant to La Monte Young, student of Alvin Lucier, stretching piano strings across a double bass to generate pulsating overtone fields. What unites them is just intonation – a tuning system that does not force tones into twelve equal steps, but instead aligns them according to simple numerical ratios, making chords feel more physical, more resonant. Music that vibrates through space.
In the closing track »Impulse Array«, you can hear what happens when Dreyblatt’s microtonal, psychoacoustic string world collides with Horse Lords’ polyrhythmic band logic. The fields begin to expand: simple tones morph into complex melodies, basic bell strikes flow seamlessly into feverish rhythms. No synthesis, no hierarchy. A dancing elephant – heavy and light-footed at once.
The music on Extended Field expands both approaches. Dreyblatt brings precision, Horse Lords bring energy – together they create a music that is neither purely minimalist nor purely rhythmic, but both at the same time. Two systems that do not dissolve into one another, but overlap. They remain distinct – and precisely because of that, something new emerges. A model of how difference can become productive.
