Ex Voto

Trumpeter, producer and composer Rory Simmons summons his iconoclastic musical vision on the genre-blurring Monocled Man album, Ex Voto. Here, the omni-appreciative trio (Simmons, Chris Montague and Jon Scott) travel down a groove-adjacent pathway in search of solemn industrial soundscapes.

Simmons’ cultural inquisitiveness forms a treasure-trove of musical touch stones, which he uses to sculpt a sound that’s truly his own. Ex Voto (‘an offer given in order to fulfill a vow’) represents another idiosyncratic journey, this time inspired by Victorian novelist Samuel Butler and his work of the same name. The themes found on both Ex Voto and Butler’s magnum opus Erewhon punctuate the album, as the trio conjure visceral musical excitement from base ideas on dystopia and politics.

Ex Voto is an opportunity for Monocled Man to tread new ground. Close collaboration between Simmons and Scott prompted a creative shift with more emphasis on both groove and production value. “A lot of the touchstones for the record are cinematic, ambient, industrial soundscapes,” Simmons explains. “I still wanted it to sound English too, whilst tipping European noir.”