Avoiding Dogma but restlessly romantic, The Homesick are the rulers of their own musical mushroom kingdom. For over ten years, the trio from Dokkum has not been afraid of innovation. From the baroque post-punk experiments on the critically acclaimed album The Big Exercise, released via Sub Pop, to the guitarless, Animal Collective-inspired approach of their self-titled 2023 release, the band has established itself as a distinctive and influential force within the rich Dutch alternative rock landscape.
With Esperanto, they combine the retro-futuristic technological mania of Yellow Magic Orchestra with their signature new wave and art-rock eccentricity. Uplifting synthesizer lines and unconventional guitar licks once again herald a new chapter in the band's remarkably curious and versatile career. The result is a more muscular, rhythm-driven form of otherworldly club music that brings together their wide range of influences into something addictive, inventive, and constantly playful.
Elias Elgersma says about the song: “For more than a year we played it live with improvised lyrics. I always just sang 'Esperanto', without knowing why. During the recording, I came up with a short text about Nostradamus. For some reason, Nostradamus reminded me of Lejzer Zamenhof, the man who invented the Esperanto language. What they have in common is that they both became famous historical figures thanks to rather useless things: inventing a senseless language and predicting nonsense. In the studio, my living room, we added extra layers to make it sound more disco, and at the end Jaap came up with a guitar line in the style of Echo & the Bunnymen.”
