PRESS RELEASEHORSES BRAWLRUMINANTIACat. no: BRAWL 005Label: Brawl RecordsRelease date: 1st May 2012

Laura Cannell:Fiddle/hardanger fiddle/recorder

Andre Bosman: Guitar/acoustic bass guitar/Indian Harmonium

For almost a decade the innovative & experimental Horses Brawl has been leading a new wave of experimental early music: re-composing and re-working lost or forgotten tunes to create a new musical landscape. Their music is deeply rooted in the past, drawing on medieval, renaissance and traditional folk tunes while using extended instrumental techniques and original arrangements and winning them fans throughout the world.

Their fourth album ‘Ruminantia’ offers a stripped down, intimate recording. Inspired by field recordings of folk music and by the Norfolk landscape that surrounds them, Horses Brawl have created a set of pieces which are at once rustic and cutting-edge. Ruminantia is a rare beast that encompasses many faces but is independent of one home; it lives between the field and the woods, between traditional and contemporary music and between time and place.

Based on tunes from as far back as 200 BC, Ruminantia travels through Europe gathering fragments of tunes from the court of Henry VIII, 19th Century Sweden, Ancient Greece, Renaissance Spain and 18th century England.

The CD is a naked but true account of the duo at work, recorded in single takes in an 18th century Norfolk lodge, Horses Brawl create an intimate record which includes the puffing and wheezing of the harmonium bellow, the chords of an overbowed fiddle and the clack and draw of a bowed guitar.

CD track listing:1. Trip to Paris (3.47)2. Overstrand (4.47)3. Brid one Brere (4.40)4. Onse Vader (3.37)5. Isabella Dansa Alta (5.07)6. Gentle Robin (4.51)7. Bass Polska (3.20)8. Magister (3.47)9. Skolion (4.09)

Total running time: 38.16

About Horses Brawl:

PRESS RELEASEHorses Brawl's innovative and experimental take on traditional and early music draws listeners into a world where driving folk rhythms collide with the music of ancient Europe. A highly acclaimed multi-instrumental duo with roots deeply embedded in the past, they unearth fragments of lost or forgotten tunes and re-compose them using extended instrumental techniques, improvisation and over-lapping rhythms to create mesmerizing and spellbinding new pieces.

They have been editor's picks in The Guardian, Time Out, The Independent and have been featured in Muso and fROOTs and have been recorded and broadcast live for BBC Radio 3 ('Late Junction', 'The Early Music Show' and 'In Tune'). Horses Brawl are Escalator Artists and have been awarded Lottery Funding from the The Arts Council of England, supporting them in their development and creation of new works and projects. The duo have previously released three highly acclaimed albums 'Horses Brawl' (2005), 'Dindirin' (2007), 'Wild Lament' (2009).

Praise for Horses Brawl:

"Impossible to pigeonhole... your foot taps and heart sings as these virtuoso magpie musicians duck and weave…A breath of fresh air" THE TIMES 4****

“The nature of folk music has always made it open to embellishment, but Horses Brawl is taking the genre to new levels" THE GUARDIAN

"Elegant, intricate and utterly engaging" EASTERN DAILY PRESS

"Fascinating, jolly, mysterious, melancholic" EARLY MUSIC TODAY

"A truly memorable sound" BRIGHT YOUNG FOLK

”Performed with tremendous energy, virtuosity and verve” SONGLINES

“Exciting virtuosity and sonic imagination” THE DERBY TELEGRAPH

"Virtuosic and experimental...simultaneously accessible and challenging"BBC RADIO 2

For further information please visit www.horsesbrawl.co.ukFor further press information, images and interviews contact Laura Cannell: Tel. 01508 548659 / info@horsesbrawl.co.uk