Elephant Stone

Drawing from Indian classical traditions alongside British Invasion acts such as the Kinks and the Beatles, the Montreal-based neo-psychedelic group Elephant Stone originated as the vision of Rishi Dhir after his time with the High Dials. Their opening full-length, The Seven Seas, surfaced in 2009 and highlighted Dhir’s gift for airy tunes while integrating sitar, dilruba, and tabla within rock arrangements. By the time Three Poisons appeared in 2014, the project had stabilized as a three-piece, later enlisting a children’s choir for its fifth album, Hollow, which emerged in 2020. A French-language EP titled Le Voyage de M. Lonely dans la Lune followed in 2022.

Prompted by his deepening engagement with Indian classical music, Dhir launched Elephant Stone in Montreal during 2008. Serving as lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist on roughly a dozen tools, he cut the debut with assistance from several contributors, among them producer Jace Lasek. Issued that May on his Elephants on Parade imprint through Fontana Distribution, the record preceded the 2010 Glass Box EP, which came out via Elephants on Parade and 360 Degree. The band next aligned with Hidden Pony for the self-titled 2013 release. A steady configuration of Dhir, guitarist Gabriel Lambert, and drummer Miles Dupire-Gagnon then delivered Three Poisons on the same Canadian label in 2014; that year they also interpreted “L.A. Woman” on Cleopatra’s A Psych Tribute to the Doors, an anthology that further included the Raveonettes, Clinic, and the Black Angels.

The trio’s fourth album, Ship of Fools, arrived via Burger Records in 2016, after which the five-track Live at the Verge documented a February 2017 session recorded at Toronto’s Verge Music Lab. September brought the Remix of Fools EP, revisiting material from the prior long-player. Hollow, the fifth studio effort, divided guitar responsibilities between Lambert and Robbie MacArthur, retained the children’s choir, and reached stores in early 2020 through Elephants on Parade alongside London’s Fuzz Club Records. On the 2022 EP Le Voyage de M. Lonely dans la Lune, MacArthur and Jason Kent handled guitar duties.