Artist: Arborist
Title: The Taming of Horses
Format: digital single
Cat#: Fika122SG1
Release date: 19th August 2026
Bandcamp
Arborist - the musical outlet of singer-songwriter Mark McCambridge - is delighted to announce the new album Looking For Love will be released via Fika Recordings on 16 October 2026. Arborist’s fourth album of exquisitely inventive Americana places us firmly in his hometown of Belfast, allowing it to act as a microcosm of the wider-world, with all its foibles and charms. We find fictional protagonists scouring the dark corners of the city, wiling-away afternoons in strip clubs, wandering the streets in all weather and reflecting on the harsh reality of modern society, all in search of an elusive love – emphasising our need for it now more than ever.
He shares the single “The Taming of Horses”, expansive, mesmerising and instantly hummable with lush hammond organ adding a certain sophistication to a song that is sprawling in theme. It was written back in 2022, during late nights watching Jacob Brownowski’s landmark 70s epic documentary series The Ascent of Man, which Mark describes as “just sensational television that we can show to Extraterrestrials when they come, to get them up to speed.” The song is somehow simultaneously disquieting and uplifting - we deal with humanity’s proclivity to repeat its mistakes but are lifted above it all to a plain beyond time itself.
Looking For Love is ARBORIST’s first album to be self-produced by McCambridge, largely from his home studio in Belfast – and at times it feels like we are in the room with him. It’s a different kind of record for him as previously he has always sought collaboration; whether it be with Kim Deal who chose to sing intertwined harmony on his debut single “Twisted Arrow”, or recording in The Curfew Tower owned by The KLF’s Bill Drummond who described Mark’s songwriting as being “riven with more loss than any record since Leonard Cohen quit this world”, and who Matthew E White and his Spacebomb band collaborated with to such astonishing effect on the previous Arborist LP, 2023’s An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeros, winner of the prestigious Northern Ireland Music Prize. This time, with no outside producer steering the way, McCambridge found that the quiet hours were where he felt most at ease, despite periods of trial and error, and, by his own admission, moments of feeling genuinely lost in it all.
Despite playing many of the parts himself, McCambridge still called upon old friends from the community around him; Spacebomb’s resident bassist Cameron Ralston (Bonnie Light Horseman, Hiss Golden Messenger) again features throughout the record, alongside Eamon Ferris (The Waterboys) on drums, with the great and the good from Belfast’s vibrant music scene. The album was engineered by longtime collaborator Ben McAuley (Van Morrison) and mixed by Jimmy Robertson (Anna Calvi, Beth Gibbons, Fat Dog). The results are staggering, devastating and uplifting in equal measure, calling to mind albums such as Songs Ohia’s Magnolia Electric Co., The Divine Comedy’s Regeneration, The Blue Nile’s Hats and Wilco’s Ode to Joy, as well as early-70s records from John Cale, John Lennon and Bill Fay.
More about Arborist
Belfast native Mark McCambridge played his first show as Arborist supporting James Yorkston. A solo tour followed, and impressive performances led to notable support slots alongside Low, Cat Power, Echo & The Bunnymen and Guy Garvey. Arborist's debut single, the Americana-tinged "Twisted Arrow," caught the attention of the critics with an astonishing duet with Kim Deal of The Breeders. The debut album Home Burial (2016) and its follow-up, A Northern View, both received glowing praise, from The Guardian ("instant classic" ★★★★) to MOJO ("devastatingly bleak… upliftingly beautiful" ★★★★) to Uncut (8/10), with BBC 6 Music play from Cerys Matthews, Cillian Murphy, Lauren Laverne, Radcliffe and Maconie and Gideon Coe — and Steve Lamacq calling single "Taxi" "one of those records that makes you immediately stop what you're doing." He went on to even greater success with the 2023 Northern Irish Music Prize winning third LP, An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeroes, which was recorded at SpaceBomb Studios in Virginia with musician and producer Matthew E White. For his fourth LP, Looking For Love, he has signed with Fika Recordings and with a tour approaching in November, 2026 looks set to be a seminal year for the Irish artist.
"A staggering debut of depth and substance" - UNCUT
"An instant classic" - The Guardian
"Devastatingly bleak…upliftingly beautiful" - Mojo
"A poignant, beautiful record" - Lauren Laverne BBC6Music
"A poignant, beautiful record" - Lauren Laverne BBC6Music
Jacob Bronowski's 1970s BBC series The Ascent of Man was the spark that began the writing of the song The Taming of Horses a few years ago. So, frequent collaborator Tristan Crowe and I wanted to reflect this with the use of archive footage, taking us on the short journey from the Big Bang to an unknown future. We pass through the Garden of Eden, Eadweard Muybridge's 'The Horse in Motion' to humanity's leap into space and the endless, unsettling creep of technology.
Mark, Arborist