Gus Englehorn

While his journey on this terrestrial plane has taken him from his native Alaska to Utah to Québec to Portland to Hawaii to his current home (for the next five minutes at least), Gus Englehorn is ultimately a citizen of Planet Gus, an uncanny universe created through a big-bang collision between serene beauty and apocalyptic chaos, populated by folkloric heroes, creepy characters, and oversized insects alike. A critically acclaimed indie-rock singer-songwriter, he spent much of his life as a professional snowboarder, but always dreamed of writing songs. Accompanied by his wife Estée Preda, his key collaborator with whom he produces his albums and creates music videos, his approach is visceral, subconscious and much like his snowboarding career, risk taking and unapologetic.  

When he finally emerged — first on 2020’s Death & Transfiguration — he had found a sound that was dark and delightful, fun and demented, packed with dynamics and the chug of a hysterical guitar.  Dungeon Master, Gus Englehorn’s Secret City Records debut, is an outsider opus — a playful juxtaposition of isolation, alienation and mildish OCD. The album was praised by critics: “This is hitting in a weird way,” enthused renowned critic Anthony Fantano from The Needle Drop, while American magazine Under the Radar stated that the opus was “a fascinating dose of outsider indie rock, carried by Englehorn’s yelping vocals, gleefully offbeat songwriting, and darting melodies. [A] fantastically weird […] record.” The artist performed at SXSW (USA), The Great Escape (UK), Reeperbahn (DE), Festival MaMA (France), M for Montreal, and more in recent years.