Bell Orchestre, the Montreal ensemble that includes Arcade Fire’s Sarah Neufeld and Richard Reed Parry, have announced House Music, their first new album in a decade. It will be out March 19 via Erased Tapes.
The album was created from group improvisation and then sculpted into one 45-minute, seamless work. Its title also refers to their method of making the record: they wired Sarah Neufeld's home in Vermont for sound. “If you sliced away the front wall of the house and looked in, you’d see the horn section — with so many different things going on — down on the first floor of what would normally be the living/dining room, and it was full chaos with tables and tables of kalimbas and harmonicas and synthesizers and horns," says Neufeld. "Then you travel up a floor, and there’s me and Richie in an empty, warm sounding wooden bedroom. Mike was on pedal steel in the bathroom, on the same floor as us. And then up the stairs, through the ceiling and in the attic, was Stefan, alone on drums. It’s a big piece of land, and if you went outside to take a break, you’d look over and hear all of this crazy shit coming out of all the different floors, and it filled this valley, and there were lots of rocks so the sound would bounce around. It was spooky and glorious."