9 Horses

9 Horses is an improvising chamber ensemble featuring Joe Brent (formerly of Regina Spektor’s band) on acoustic and electric mandolin, 2018 GRAMMY nominee Sara Caswell (Esperanza Spalding) on violin and Hardanger d'amore, and Andrew Ryan (Kaia Kater) on bass. Featuring Brent's original compositions and the incendiary, genre-hopping virtuosity of all three members, the trio at the core of 9 Horses represents their vision of a musical future with no barrier between 'folk art' and 'fine art', and as an ensemble are capable of communicating this idea through musical canvases both great and small.

Originally formed in 2012 as a duo between Brent and Caswell, 9 Horses expanded to a trio the following year and in 2015 released its debut album Perfectest Herald (Sunnyside Records), a title drawn from Much Ado About Nothing ("Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much.") The centerpiece of the album is a 4-movement suite for the acoustic trio alone which takes the listener on a searing journey through tragedy, triumph, and renewal. Budd Kopman wrote in All About Jazz: "Brent's music is just bursting with emotion and its immediacy is partly what makes it so attractive and inviting. This highly emotive music touches and communicates the essence of what it means to be an alive, feeling human being."

In 2019, they released a 4-song EP called Blood From A Stone, showcasing their development as an ensemble. Featuring their experiments with electronic music, collective improvisation, and influences from rock, jazz, and hip-hop, Blood From A Stone was called, “extraordinary,” and, “a sound world that crashes together acoustic and electric textures with composed and improvised performances,” and functioned as the sandbox 9 Horses played in to prepare for their 2021 double LP, Omegah.

Omegah was named one of the Best Recordings of the Year by numerous publications. Strings Magazine called it, “A restless shapeshifting amalgam of jazz, rock, pop, improvisation, melody, and variegated acoustic and electronic textures… Only 9 Horses can make such a complex and experimental mix of timbres, colors, and themes sound so effortless and free,” and Textura added, “Rather than get sidetracked by futile attempts at categorizing, one's best advised to go where the music leads and simply enjoy a seventy-seven-minute ride that's ever scenic and always stimulating… If (Caswell) hadn't already distinguished herself in so many ways before it, her playing on Omegah would qualify as a star-making turn. The genre-transcending character of the material is matched by her versatility and virtuosity.”

9 Horses: Perfectest Herald

Read "Perfectest Herald" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
October 13, 2015

Perfectest Herald is another release that stretches the label “jazz" or even that of “creative improvised music" as it casts its spell and ultimately becomes completely enveloping. 9 Horses, the trio put together by composer and mandolin virtuoso Joseph Brent, consists of two other extraordinary players: violinist Sara Caswell and bassist Shawn Conley who seem just perfect for Brent's music. What is heard is a wonderful mixing of many styles and genres, including classical, jazz and folk which ...

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Album Review

Nine Horses: Money For All

Read "Money For All" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
March 4, 2007

With each consecutive project, David Sylvian always manages to amaze. Money for All is a remarkably cohesive collection of unreleased tracks, remixes and alternate takes, and even as a collection, it presents a challenging expedition into electronic music. The featured material is fully invested with ideas and it shows how fruitful and strong the partnership between Sylvian, Jansen and Burnt Friedman is. This EP consists of two new tracks (the title track and “Get the Hell Out"), ...

Recording

Contemporary Chamber Trio 9 Horses Releases Its Second Full-length Album Omegah

Source: AMT Public Relations
August 6, 2021

Known for its virtuosity and wide-ranging stylistic flexibility, the post-genre band 9 Horses today announced the release of its double album Omegah (Adhyâropa Records). Featuring three of today’s leading instrumentalists, Joe Brent (mandolin), Sara Caswell (violin), and Andrew Ryan (bass), the band’s performance on this album gives listeners the opportunity to experience its organic evolution from its acoustic original duo to today’s revered acoustic/electric ensemble. What began as a remarkable jazz-meets-new music experiment has blossomed as, along the way, the ...
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"Brent's music is just bursting with emotion and its immediacy is partly what makes it so attractive and inviting... Brent is not playing the mandolin, but rather music on what happens to be a mandolin. Caswell's violin (and Hardanger d'amore) breathes, speaks and sings, while every note from Conley (including his extremely accurate bowing) is alive... this highly emotive music touches and communicates the essence of what it means to be an alive, feeling human being. 9 Horses is a very special group from which there is no doubt more will be heard and Perfectest Herald is a very special creative work. The only way to fully understand its depth and complexity is to listen to it, and this reviewer feels very fortunate to have had that opportunity." -- Budd Kopman, All About Jazz

"One of the truly exceptional musicians of his generation, Joe Brent recognizes no boundaries the mandolin cannot breach, and thus seems destined to forge a body of work future generations will have to reckon with." — David McGee

“There has probably never been a mandolin player with better technical skills, and he matches that with an enthusiasm for every imaginable role a mandoline can fulfill.” — Don von Schrilz

“9 Horses moves like a meticulously crafted Mahavishnu Orchestra, yet made for this century. …The group quickly pivots from one sonic realm to another, dancing between electric to chamber ideas with breeze and beauty.” –– WBGO

“Omegah makes a strong impression on first hearing, and even more so after the second and third times. It achieves a high level of musical craftsmanship and originality and that’s a rare quality.” –– The Ear

“A restless shapeshifting amalgam of jazz, rock, pop, improvisation, melody, and variegated acoustic and electronic textures… Only 9 Horses can make such a complex and experimental mix of timbres, colors, and themes sound so effortless and free.” –– Strings Magazine

“Omegah is a double-album affair, which seems fitting for a project whose canvases are so panoramic, and the expansion in the group's sound is rendered all the more dramatic when it's heard against the backdrop of the all-acoustic Perfectest Herald… The new release was six years in the making, and it shows in its ambitious scope. Acoustic, electric, and electronic textures merge organically in the eight compositions, with sensitivity to arrangement as key as the writing. Jazz is present in the spiritedness of the improvisations, but there's classical too and also elements of rock, prog, and electronica. Rather than get sidetracked by futile attempts at categorizing, one's best advised to go where the music leads and simply enjoy a seventy-seven-minute ride that's ever scenic and always stimulating.” –– Textura

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