Thor Harris has become a legend for his multi-instrumentalist work with artists like Swans, Shearwater, Bill Callahan, Devendra Banhart, and Shahzad Ismaily. A Renaissance man of sorts, he’s also a master carpenter, plumber, and woodworker, in addition to being a staunch advocate for mental health with a strong and vibrant social media presence.
While adept at string, percussion, and wind instruments, it was a marimba, gifted to him by producer John Congleton, that inspired Harris to move away from the sound of previous projects and create the luminous Thor & Friends, whose fifth album, Heathen Spirituals, continues their fascinating journey through ambient, minimalist, and occasionally atonal sounds.
“With Thor & Friends, I really wanted to get away from all the rock and roll instruments,” Harris explains in the album’s press materials. “Because I’d played in rock bands for so long, I didn’t want any of those elements: bass, drums, or guitar.” Forming Thor & Friends with his partner Peggy Ghorbani and Sarah “Goat” Gautier, the ensemble released four albums until the pandemic indefinitely sidelined them.
Heathen Spirituals reunites the group, with three long instrumental pieces comprising the full-length record. With Harris and Ghorbani on marimba (and Harris also contributing duduk, a double-reed wind instrument), they’re backed by piano, French horn, bass, pedal steel, vibraphone, acoustic guitar, cello, clarinet, bass clarinet, and violin.
The sounds on Heathen Spirituals are lush and melodic, uncomplicated but beautifully textured. “Anne Sexton’s Glasses” begins with simple marimba lines, but other instruments are slowly added to the mix, building up to a crescendo, then dropping out and building up again. Harris and company are masters at creating a sonic atmosphere where all the instruments are clearly delineated, but also expertly interweaved.
The droning of the cello introduces the eight-minute title track, with sustained notes ebbing and flowing, conveying a sense of mystery and mild foreboding that is more pronounced than its more upbeat, melodious predecessor. Joined by a choir (credited to the Unwound Sound Singers), it’s described in the press notes as “a gorgeous requiem for a dying planet”. The album was recorded on stage in front of the 325 empty seats of Jessen Auditorium at the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music. The Art Deco building provides stunning acoustics, and longtime Harris collaborator Craig Ross handled the recording and mixing.
“Christmas Eve at the Wizard’s House” splits the difference between the sumptuous, marimba-led melody of the first track and the low-key mystery of the second. A slow, deliberate marimba figure runs through the track like a cautious explorer wandering through an old, abandoned house. Instruments wind their way around the melody, providing an exquisite vibe that is subtly intense but manages to convey the type of meditative backdrop that the best ambient music tends to deliver.
Heathen Spirituals enables the brilliant, unique, and artistic minds that comprise Thor & Friends to continue exploring the vast realms of minimalism, experimental ambient music, and lush instrumentation. This is music that is exploratory but beautifully soothing. It’s art that quenches thirsty souls.