Hortlax Cobra is the alter ego of the Swedish drummer, composer and classical percussionist John Eriksson. As Hortlax Cobra he explores the world of electronic and acoustic music. In his own music lab he melts down the influences from classical contemporary music and from his work in the Swedish pop trio Peter Bjorn and John into a musical blend of lo-fi disco, minimalism, action-movie soundtrack music from the 80´s, sound collage and synth-pop.
And sometimes something completely different.
Night Shift started with a bunch of simple sketches on a kids Casio keyboard.
“I was totally exhausted after working for two years on an album based on the tempos, keys and lengths of all songs from the Van Halen album 1984,” John says. “I needed to do something simple and I needed to get out of my own head. The problem is that I tend to go manic when I make music. I can spend two weeks working on the sound of a cowbell and that isn’t always super effective.” John says. “So I asked another drummer Pontus Berghe (Thieves Like Us, Holiday For Strings) to record some percussion and bass lines on top of my sketches just to make things work a bit faster this time. But I had forgotten that Pontus also loves to dive into details.”
Night Shift was recorded in Stockholm and Milan in spread out lumps of days between 2010 and 2012 and slowly the sketches grew into sound castles: a phantasmal, nightly journey from Berlin to Miami filled with surprising twists and obscure guessing games.
Hortlax Cobra – Night Shift
Performed, arranged and mixed by John Eriksson and Pontus Berghe.
Written and produced by John Eriksson
Released by Ingrid June 4th 2012
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