Haerts

Brooklyn's Haerts craft atmospheric electronic pop that merges Berlin's icy synth textures with the polished, roots-infused adult contemporary approach of Fleetwood Mac. The band's breakthrough arrived via the single "Wings," which helped secure widespread critical praise for their 2014 self-titled debut. They later expanded their sonic palette on the 2018 release New Compassion and the 2021 album Dream Nation.

Childhood friends Nini Fabi and Ben Gebert launched the long-distance project after reconnecting to make music inside a modest Greenpoint apartment. Fabi had spent much of her youth in Germany, where she first encountered the German-born Gebert as fellow members of a children's swim team. In 2010 the pair relocated to New York and gradually gathered additional members from a network of friends and fellow musicians scattered worldwide, among them Garrett Ienner, Derek McWilliams, and Jonathan Schmidt.

The geographically dispersed musicians exchanged files across continents while refining tracks that blended an indie-electro foundation with Fabi's vocals, which evoke Stevie Nicks. Their song "Wings" surfaced online in fall 2012 and drew an enthusiastic reception. The following year brought the St. Lucia-produced Hemiplegia EP on Columbia Records. In 2014 the group delivered its first full-length effort, Haerts, which again spotlighted "Wings."

Following extensive touring that included an April 2015 appearance at Coachella, the band contributed three new pieces in early 2016 to Power/Land, an experimental short film by San Diego director Julian Klincewicz. Haerts returned in 2018 with the sophomore album New Compassion. Their third full-length, Dream Nation, emerged in 2021 and included a guest turn from Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste.