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+ + + PRESS RELEASE: NEW ALBUM OF THE DAD HORSE EXPERRIENCE + + +
EATING MEATBALLS ON A BLOOD-STAINED MATTRESS
IN A HUGGY BEAR MOTEL
(CD / vinyl, release March 2016)
Now the fifth album of THE DAD HORSE EXPERIENCE is ready for release. Entitled Eating Meatballs on a Blood-Stained Mattress in a Huggy Bear Motel, that title alone provides a synopsis of DAD HORSE OTTN’s musical and spiritual development and entanglement in this crazy tilt-a-whirl world—so far.
After "Faith" (Too Close to Heaven, 2008) and "Quest" (Dead Dog on a Highway, 2011), the main topic of this new album is "America", more precisely the USA, the country that has provided the spiritual and countercultural tradition that the "Keller-Gospel" of DAD HORSE OTTN is based on, the country where he could achieve the most recognition and appreciation, also the country where immigration stopped his touring in early 2015 for visa issues, banning and sending him back to Europe on the next air vessel.
So the songs on this album are likewise dirges of a refused and unrequited wanderer. OTTN recorded the tracks in June 2015 with producer and musician Gregg Weiss from New York in a barn studio in Southern France.
Eating Meatballs on a Blood-Stained Mattress in a Huggy Bear Motel contains abyssal songs of someone who emptied his glass long ago, someone who shared his messages and experiences, his spirit, without advising his listener but making that listener feel in good hands. The musician delivers little stories about big topics: Love, Death, Faith. These are stories of loneliness and of searching, of the right way and of the wrong way. Starting with the opening song "Will I Be Someone" OTTN asks what sense is there in our life, what home is in our heart that we might live in forever? "Will I be someone, before I die?" Will I realize where my quest leads, where the question marks, the inner scars are pointing?
DAD HORSE OTTN is getting closer to a storytelling according to the idea of "The road is long—every story needs its time." He shows courage, courage in song length ("Reach Out Your Hand Revisited"), courage in spoken word (17-minute song "Rain") and courage in dispense of any language ("Under Swine & Bears"). That track, a mourning song without lyrics, particularly expresses DAD HORSE OTTN’s spiritual approach. The music video to "Under Swine & Bears" features a text from The Cloud of Unknowing, written by an unknown English mystic of the 14th century. OTTN also presents his first and so far only love song, "Love Is a Meatgrinder," recorded on his cell phone while being detained in the catacombs of Detroit International Airport.
There are familiar DAD HORSE EXPERIENCE motifs woven through the entire album: nothing is exactly as it appears to be. The frivolous contains a seed of silent horror ("Little White Fish"), desperation and dissolution of the ego give birth to a cup of consolation and confidence ("Rain").
The relation between the artist and his art, distance and proximity, reflection and embarkment can be found on different levels, musically, lyrically, and visually. Cover artwork and the extended CD booklet present stunning photos OTTN shot on his travels. The imagery and aesthetic of the two music videos, "Reach Out Your Hand Revisited" and "Under Swine and Bears" (produced by Slowboat Films) emphasize the search for the eternally valid by the archetypically wandering musician, who long ago left behind all benchmarks of homeland and outland between time zones, continents, and cultural settings.
