Wrekmeister Harmonies

Wrekmeister Harmonies’ music is as expansive as it is deeply personal. Comprised of a revolving cast of musicians around enigmatic constants JR Robinson and Esther Shaw, collaboration has always been a cornerstone of the group’s creative process. While early albums were written for large ensembles and to be performed in grandiose public spaces, featuring members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Einsturzende Neubauten, Marissa Nadler, Mary Lattimore and more, their recent recordings peeled back the layers of orchestral bombast to focus in on the raw emotion at their heart of their compositions.

We Love to Look at the Carnage, the group’s latest outing represents some of their most subtle and powerful work to date. The album sees the core duo of guitarist/vocalist Robinson and multi-instrumentalist Shaw augmented with longtime friend and collaborator Thor Harris (Swans) on percussion and for the first time Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) on electronics, introducing surprising new sonics into Wrekmeister Harmonies’ minimalist arrangements without sacrificing their intense intimacy. Charting a restless journey beginning in the middle of the night and ending in the small hours of the morning, Robinson’s brooding lyrics grapple with phantoms both real and imagined, apparitions amplified by the feverish anxiety of insomnia.