Ex-Easter Island Head
Ex-Easter Island Head
Group from United Kingdom
Genres: ambient, electroacoustic, jazz, minimalism, post-rock
About Ex-Easter Island Head
Ex-Easter Island Head (sometimes abbreviated as EEIH) is an English experimental music collective formed in Liverpool in 2009. Led by founding member Benjamin D. Duvall, the quartet currently includes Duvall, Benjamin Fair, Jonathan Hering, and Andrew PM Hunt. They perform instrumental music using prepared tabletop guitars—standard electric guitars modified and laid flat for percussive use—to explore rhythm, texture, and repetition through deliberately limited means. The group began with a minimal setup involving two tabletop guitars and has gradually expanded its instrumentation while remaining focused on mechanical and percussive sound sources. Over time, they have incorporated additional preparations and playing techniques, maintaining an emphasis on hands-on, physical methods of sound production. This approach informs both their recorded output and live performances. Their music draws on late 20th-century avant-garde traditions, particularly the repetitive structures of minimalism and the raw textures associated with no wave. These influences shaped the group's early identity as an ensemble focused on performing composed works. Over time, however, they shifted towards a more band-like format, placing greater emphasis on collective interplay and live performance. In discussing the group's approach, writer and comedian Stewart Lee described them as "experimental music presented as entertainment"—a remark that highlights the group's focus on making structurally ambitious music engaging and approachable, both in sound and in performance. While remaining outside the mainstream, Ex-Easter Island Head has established a presence within experimental and alternative music circles. Their releases have featured on year-end lists in The Wire, The Quietus, and Loud and Quiet, and have received coverage in publications including Pitchfork, Uncut, and The Skinny. The group's live performances have been reviewed in The Independent and The Guardian, while Prog magazine described them as a "word-of-mouth sensation." In a 2024 feature, The Guardian wrote that the band had spent the past 15 years "making some of the boldest experiments in British music." Their album Norther (2024) was placed at number one in The Quietus' Albums of the Year list. In 2025, the band contributed an interpretation of the track "Alone" to Mixes of a Lost World, a remix album by the Cure.
Taken from Wikipedia.org