Hobby Horse / Ghost Horse

Hobby Horse is a progressive/experimental/crossover jazz trio based in Italy, figurehead of the rapidly developing new Italian jazz scene, but equally comfortable playing underground rock venues and dance clubs. During more than 14 years of intense activity they released 8 records to widespread critical acclaim and their touring schedule has seen them performing in important festivals and clubs throughout Europe and North America.
Their music is a wildly unpredictable mix of styles, a melting pot of musical languages ranging from slam poetry to techno to psychedelic bossanova, prog rock, hip-hop and chamber music.
Passing from hypnotic drones to violent explosions of noise, they manage to maintain an underlying sense of balance, shared exploration and discovery, sculpting their sets into an overarching form which maintains artistic coherence despite (or perhaps due to) the drastic contrasts it contains.

Sprouting from a rich humus of latin and african polyrhythms, Ghost Horse generates a dark and mysterious ecosystem, digesting, decomposing and recombining elements of free jazz, hip hop, blues and loop music. The result is something fascinating but quietly menacing, pulsing and breathing with the visceral force of nature reclaiming abandoned structures.
An expansion of collective trio Hobby Horse, which has been breaking trail for the flowering Italian jazz underground since 2010, Ghost Horse is a natural evolution of their vision, expanding on an already vast dynamic and timbric palette with the addition of three of the most intriguing creative voices in Italy.
"Thunderous applause (and righly so) for sextet Ghost Horse (...) tight and precise, perfectly focused and united, and with a predilection for epic narrative and group improvisation, this band truly takes flight (...) I never want to stop listening."
- Luca Canini, il giornale della musica
Their critically acclaimed debut record, "Trojan", was released in 2019, appearing in numerous best-of lists including The New York City Jazz Record, Il Giornale della Musica, Musica Jazz.
2021 saw the release of their second vinyl, "Live at Area Sismica," followed by "Il Bene Comune" for Hora Records (2022).

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• biography •

Following early experiences as soloist and musical director with Enrico Rava, Mauro Ottolini and Giovanni Guidi, saxophonist Dan Kinzelman has expanded his practice to embrace improvised music, performance art and electronic composition for dance. With collective trio Hobby Horse, sextet Ghost Horse and his wind quartet Unfall he has developed a fluid approach to genre boundaries which characterizes much of his work. His long-standing collaboration with choreographer Daniele Ninarello has given him greater awareness of the body's role in musical and non-musical performance practice, informing his latest solo project Resist/Evolve, a site-specific work which explores the emotive impact of special breathing techniques on the body of the artist and spectator, located at the intersection of music, sound art and performance.
In recent years he has developed a series of projects in the field of improvised music, including a duo with drummer Stefano Costanzo and a duo with organist and noise musician Romain Bertheau, as well as Six Memos, a site-specific project inspired by Italo Calvino's seminal collection of lectures Six Memos for the Next Millenium, published poshumously.
In addition to his work on stage, he has lectured at University of Miami (USA), Sibelius Academy (Finland), Monash University (Australia) and Innsbruck Conservatory (Austria).
He has worked as artistic mentor in the performing arts (Più-Erbacce and Incubatore) and is docent of saxophone and ensemble practices at Siena Jazz University's master's program.
He has toured extensively with his projects throughout Europe, North America and Asia, performing in festivals such as Saidance Festival, London Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz, Belgrade Jazz Festival, Fabbrica Europa, Saalfelden 3-Tage Jazz, Roma Europa Festival, Aerowaves, New Italian Dance Platform and more.