On Dec 6, New Hermitage released a new record, Doomsday Fantasias. It was released on Watch That Ends the Night Records and features New Hermitage in quartet formation - Andrew MacKelvie, India Gailey, Ross Burns, and myself - with guest appearances by Jeff Reilly. Here are a few words about the album from Andrew:
We recorded this album in 2022 in a house by the sea on the south shore of Nova Scotia. We moved in for the week with our instruments, recording equipment, and make-shift baffles. And what it became is called Doomsday Fantasias.
We recorded Unearthed in 2017. We recorded Doomsday Fantasias five years later. In that time we grew as people and artists. We defined our container, we deepened our lore; we built a repertoire and collective language for improvisation. We toured and we joked and we sang songs that we knew and that we made up.
Doomsday Fantasias was supposed to be something else. But, we let the piece become what it was meant to be. The compositions were always going to happen that way. Not through divine fate, but humble adherence to a practice. It’s a record of spontaneous compositions.
I hope you enjoy it. And if you do, please share it with others.
Fantasia ~ noun
1: a free usually instrumental composition not in strict form and often an improvisatory style
2a: a work (such as a poem or play) in which the author's fancy roves unrestricted
2b: something possessing grotesque, bizarre, or unreal qualities
band photo by Jamie Kronick
