i Häxa

Leaning back on a swivel chair in his studio stroking his hairless Devon Rex, Peter Miles could easily pass for an evil genius hell bent on world domination. The bearded West Country doyen of the studio is more interested in the underworld however. i Häxa – his joint multimedia project with the London-based singer Rebecca Need-Menear – is certainly ambitious enough to conquer the infernal regions.

Together Miles and Need-Menear explore pagan rituals and the wars of antiquity with the music of the future, released via EPs in four parts this year on Pelagic, culminating in a deluxe double album in November. What’s more, there’s a full length film of i Häxa that will be released alongside the record, directed by Daniel Broadley. It’s an incredible undertaking, so how did it come together?

“I first met Rebecca in 2016 in my capacity as a producer,” explains Miles. “I’d swapped being a musician for being a producer about 18 years ago. It’s been a very long period of not just facilitating other people’s creativity but also making some amazing records with them and picking up huge amounts of skills, without ever really having any space for my own music.”

Out of the pandemic came dead time to manifest something big, and Miles remembered Need-Menear, who he’d previously produced as the singer in the pop rock duo Anavae. The pair sat down to work in Miles’ Middle Farm Studios in South Devon in September 2020, and within a matter of minutes they had the beginnings of the first track //Underworld//, a catalytic amalgam of Need-Menear’s ancient folky instincts and Miles’ Moog drone.

Need-Menear brought folk songs inspired by the bad dreams of others such as //Eight Eyes//; Miles brought an interesting mix of influences, including Nine Inch Nails, Aphex Twin, Massive Attack and Bjork, as well as Pink Floyd, who are referenced directly with the startling //The Well//, an homage to //The Great Gig In The Sky//. “And also //Breathe//, and maybe the themes of James Bond,” adds Miles, with a laugh. “Actually, that was a moment of complete synchronicity where I had the sound in my head for about a year, which was basically Goldie meets Pink Floyd meets Blade Runner.”

While the //i Häxa// album might seem like it was meticulously planned, much of it came together serendipitously, with random luck Miles attributes to the universe. //Inferno// was captured by accident when friends Patrick Pearson and Rachel Sermanni were playing piano and singing on a mezzanine across from the studio which he quickly recorded, with //Sapling// takes the same piano-based track and slows it down by fifty percent. Then there are the drums, courtesy of jazz artist Matthew Brown from the outfit Run Logan Run, who Miles recorded doing several minutes of a drum ‘n’ bass style breakbeat – which was then rediscovered, manipulated and used at varying speeds on tracks like the climatic //Infernum//, the penultimate song before //Circle// circles back with a plaintive motif.

“I’d like to say that we knew what we were doing when we started,” he admits, “but it really was just being delivered to us.” And with those gifts came further secrets hidden within the record’s grooves. Indeed, Miles, with a twinkle in his eye, suggests record buyers with a copy of the album should play it first at the designated 45 rpm, and then play the whole again at 33 rpm, and see what happens. You have been warned. JA

PROG FILE:

LINE-UP: Rebecca Need-Menear: words and vocals, Peter Miles: studio, instruments, sampling

SOUNDS LIKE: “Goldie meets Pink Floyd meets Blade Runner,” in the words of Miles.

CURRENT RELEASE: //i Häxa// by i Häxa is out on Pelagic on November 1, 2024.

WEBSITE: https://ihaxa.bandcamp.com/

— Jeremy Allen