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SUSS’ fifth release, Birds & Beasts, on Northern Spy Records, finds the New York-based ambient trio digging deeper, populating its stark, ethereal soundscapes with primal currents of sound inspired by the cycles and rhythms of the world around us. But while conveying the power of natural forces, it also embraces occasional warm rays of hope and humanity.
“For once, it looked like the stark, vast landscapes that we had been painting before were starting to be populated with a bit of creature warmth,” says Bob Holmes (mandolin, guitar, harmonica, violin). But, he adds, “this is not Garden of Eden kind of stuff.” Pat Irwin (electric guitar, resonator guitar, keyboards) adds, “I think of the fragility of the world around us. I think of the humanity, and the lack of it. The world seems out of balance. There are birds and there are beasts.”
Birds & Beasts follows on the heels of SUSS’ acclaimed 2022 self-titled double album, cited by Pitchfork as “music that dilates the world to a high-lonesome point, a pastoral quintessence that doesn’t change so much as it gradually opens and closes, telescopes and recedes.” As in the past, the band combines ambient synths, loops and found sounds with more traditional Americana instrumentation to create what Aquarium Drunkard describes as “country music, mutated and stretched along a vast horizon — open music for open souls.”
But if the horizons here are deeper — more Gulf Stream than Grand Canyon — in the primordial pull of tracks like “Birds” and “Prey,” which imply both natural and societal disquiet, Birds & Beasts offers the freedom of celestial and terrestrial peregrinations in “Flight,” “Overstory” and “Migration.” Taking a cue from the 30-minute collaboration Rising that SUSS recently released with Australian banjoist Andrew Tuttle, the tracks on Birds & Beasts are generally longer, with fewer elements and a greater sense of space.
As always, the band’s discovery of new horizons evolved organically. When it comes to defining the next step in their journey, “the music is the articulation,” says pedal steel guitarist Jonathan Gregg. “We’re not sure where we’re going, but we know when we’ve arrived, and it’s never the same place twice.”
Indeed, some tracks simply take longer to find their way than others. “Migration,” for example, dates from the early days of the band and is the album’s sole track to feature the late Gary Leib, who passed away suddenly in 2021. “We always loved the track but we never found the right fit for it,” says Holmes. "However, as we were making what was to become Birds & Beasts, it became obvious that the track was just waiting for us to come around to its way of thinking. You just need to listen to the music closely to hear what it’s always been trying to tell you.”
Join SUSS on their journey as they keep their ear to the ground on Birds & Beasts, on Northern Spy Records.
SUSS Tour Dates:
July 11 - Brooklyn, NY - The Sultan Room - Tickets
July 19 - Eugene, OR - Hult Center for the Performing Arts - Tickets
July 25 - Nashville, TN - The Blue Room - Tickets
July 26: Louisville, KY - Whirling Tiger - Tickets
July 28 - Nelsonville, OH - Nelsonville Music Festival - Tickets
July 29 - Chicago, IL - The Hideout - Tickets
New York-based instrumental group SUSS plays a distinctive form of instrumental music sometimes referred to as “ambient country,” emphasizing the droning qualities of country music and Western film scores. Combining the high-lonesome sound of pedal steel guitars and harmonicas with meditative synthesizers and loops, the group's music owes as much to Brian Eno's collaborations with Daniel Lanois as to the film scores of Ennio Morricone and Ry Cooder. The band's self-released 2018 debut, Ghost Box, became a surprise underground hit and a staple of ambient playlists, leading to the band's signing with Northern Spy. The group continued expanding on their signature sound with numerous additional releases on the label, including the 2024 release of Birds & Beasts.
The band’s original members included Bob Holmes and Gary Leib, (both members of the country-slanted new wave group Rubber Rodeo during the '80s) as well as Pat Irwin (formerly of the B-52s , Eight Eyed Spy and the Raybeats), Jonathan Gregg (Jonathan Gregg & the Lonesome Debonaires, The Linemen) ) and engineer/producer William Garrett.
Their first release on Northern Spy Records, Ghost Box (Expanded), was described by Pitchfork magazine as "a vivid landscape where mellifluous tones foster the mystery and magic of a fabled landscape." 2019 and 2020 saw the release of High Line and Promise, which made it onto many of the Top Ten Ambient album lists of their respective years. 2021 saw the departure of Garrett and the unexpected passing of Leib, after which SUSS released the posthumous EPs Night Suite and Heat Haze, which included tracks recorded just before his death. 2023 saw multiple releases from SUSS, including Winter Was Hard and Across the Horizon, which together with the previous EPs were released as the self-titled double album SUSS, heralded by Aquarium Drunkard as “a majestic double album, full of slow motion twang, suspended synth drones, and gorgeous swells of pedal steel. This is country music mutated and stretched along a vast horizon, open music for open souls.”
2023 also saw the release of a collaboration with the artist Andrew Tuttle — a 30-minute track called Rising on the Longform Editions record label. SUSS’ fifth album on Northern Spy Records, Birds & Beasts, was released in 2024 and shows the band heading off into a new direction, populating their stark landscapes with the creatures, cycles and rhythms of the world around them.
Clandestine was founded in 2010 by the owners of Northern Spy Records to help like-minded labels and artists release and promote their music. Today, we’ve expanded to include a team of project managers, sales experts, manufacturing specialists, and publicists who bring decades of music and label experience to bear for our clients. We specialize in the marketing and distribution of experimental and adventurous music and, in the last fourteen years, have helped release over one thousand albums.
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