PREMIERE: Hatchet Field shares new banjo-driven EP 'Survival Is Triumph Enough'

Belfast's Hornby has been long-revered on the Northern Irish scene for his virtuoso-like turns as guitarist in bands like The Continuous Battle of Order and We Are Knives. But recently, the musician has stepped out in the guise of Hatchet Field: a stripped-back, one-man musical curveball, from one of the country’s most naturally-gifted musicians.

Today, Hatchet Field is debuting his EP Survival Is Triumph Enough, and Hot Press is delighted to host the premiere for both the EP and the accompanying video for 'Where The Bodies Lay'.

Fuelled by the desire to do something radically different to what he had done before, and an unhealthy obsession with novelist Harry Crews and American folk legend Ola Belle Reed, Hatchet Field's banjo-led folk tunes make something strangely beautiful out of grotesque, dark tales.

Released via Black Tragick, its slow-burning meditations reveal a subtle mastery. All songs on Survival Is Triumph Enough were written, recorded, mixed, manipulated and mastered by Hatchet Field.

"Endless thanks to Steve Anderson, who gifted me the banjo that started this whole project, Robyn G Shiels for all the coffee, support slots and releasing this on Black Tragick, and both men for their encouragement," Hatchet Field says. "Special thanks to Robert Little for allowing me use of his home studio despite his distaste for all things banjo."

The video for 'Where The Bodies Lay' intercuts black and white images of the natural world with distinctly non-natural elements, like door hinges.

Watch the video below.