About
Also known as: Hercules + Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair, Hercvles & Love Affair
Andy Butler started Hercules and Love Affair back in 2004 after convincing his friend Anohni to sing on a track he'd written called "Blind". That song became Pitchfork's song of the year and set the tone for everything that followed: a New York born dance project with a rotating cast of vocalists, rooted in house, disco, techno and nu disco. Butler's own story runs deep through the music too. Growing up in a difficult household in Denver, he found freedom on the dancefloor as a teenager, and named the project after the Greek myth of Hercules searching for his lost love Hylas. The self titled debut album in 2008 drew wide critical praise, and the band has kept evolving through Blue Songs in 2011, The Feast of the Broken Heart in 2014 with John Grant guesting on "I Try To Talk To You", and Omnion in 2017 featuring Sharon Van Etten. Butler has based himself in Ghent, Belgium in more recent years, a long way from those early Denver leather bars. Their fifth album In Amber arrived in 2022 and brought Anohni back into the fold for the first time since the debut. The lead single "Grace" featured Icelandic singer Elin Ey, and the record was named Album of the Year 2022 by The Arts Desk.