Photo: Loic Zimmerman
"Gloomy, majestic, and poetic." - Stereogum
"Eerie, dark folk." - Brooklyn Vegan
"This first solo album is a compass for the soul, a guide for any being who wishes to glimpse in the dark, if only a spark of hope." - Exit Musik
David Eugene Edwards released his first ever solo album under his own name, titled Hyacinth. The album is available to hear/share/purchase HERE. He is currently on tour in the EU & UK. See dates below. US tour dates to be announced soon.
Watch/share "Weaver's Beam" video (directed by Loic Zimmerman) on YouTube HERE.
David Eugene Edwards has always been larger than life. His atemporal style and powerfully iconoclast presence make him seem a man somehow beyond us.
His music with innovative heavy droning folk band Wovenhand, and before that the haunting revivification of high lonesome sound antique Americana of 16 Horsepower breathed a near apocalyptic sense of urgency and poignance into musical archetypes long abandoned in the latter-20th Century. Anyone who has seen him perform live will attest to his captivating intensity as he sings and coaxes sweeping, dark fury and beauty from his instrument.
Now, on his first-ever solo album under his own name, Edwards delivers a sound uniquely his own, with a vulnerability and introspection unheard from him before. Stripping back the heavy rock of his recent work with Wovenhand, Hyacinth puts the man's voice, and sparing instrumentation into the main focus. There's a somber beauty and world-weary tone throughout these songs. The album could been considered a slight return to the more melodic sounds of 16 Horsepower's Secret South (2000) and the first, self-titled Wovenhand album (2002). But there's more going on here: a rhythmic, pulsating undercurrent reminiscent of the tape loops and rudimentary rhythms of 80s Industrial post-punk as well as 808 Drill Style beats. The overall effect is often as if we're hearing the clock ticking away our own mortality.
"Hyacinth was a sort of vision," Edwards says. "A dream. I sought out of my old wooden banjo and nylon string guitar a hidden path. Secrets they had kept from me within themselves all these years, and created a new Mythos to myself of philosophical and spiritual ideas or concepts." From the outset of the pandemic, Edwards spent considerable time in solitary isolation, sick and impacted very hard in every way. Once he'd harnessed the music within, he enlisted multi-instrumentalist and producer Ben Chisholm (The Armed, Chelsea Wolfe, Converge, Genghis Tron) to help him realize the album's recording and mix.
"Overall, I guess the album is a weaving of narratives ancient and modern, of humankind's search for understanding of this world we find ourselves in and of each other. In all its simplicity and complexity," Edwards says. "Hyacinth is a reference to the Greek myth of Apollo. And, the word meaning a precious stone and blue larkspur flower of purple and pall."
In addition to his work with Wovenhand from 2001 to present, and Sixteen Horsepower between 1992 to 2005, Edwards has collaborated with such artists as Crime & the City Solution, Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten), and Carpenter Brut. He has also contributed to the soundtracks of films such as Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus, The Brass Teapot, and Titane.
Hyacinth is available worldwide on LP, CD and download via Sargent House released on September 29th, 2023. Order/save the album HERE.
DAVID EUGENE EDWARDS EUROPEAN TOUR 2023
Oct 09 De Spot - Middelburg NL
Oct 10 Tolhuistuin - Amsterdam NL
Oct 12 Train - Århus DK
Oct 13 Amager Bio - Copenhagen DK
Oct 14 Mejeriet - Lund SE
Oct 15 Nefertiti - Gothenburg SE
Oct 17 Kulturkirken Jakob - Oslo NO
Oct 18 Kulturhuset - Bergen NO
Oct 19 Folken - Stavanger NO
Oct 20 Gamla - Kristiansand NO
Oct 23 OSLO - London UK
Artist: David Eugene Edwards
Album: Hyacinth
Label: Sargent House
Release Date: September 29th, 2023
01. Seraph
02. Howling Flower
03. Celeste
04. Through The Lattice
05. Apparition
06. Bright Boy
07. Hyacinth
08. Lionisis
09. Weavers Beam
10. Hall of Mirrors
11. The Cuckoo
On The Web:
sargenthouse.com linktr.ee/davideugeneedwards