Sax-and-drum trio Moon Hooch have released a new surprise EP, The Joshua Tree, and the band is offering the effort as a free download “as a thank you to fans for what was the band’s most successful year yet.”

The EP follows up Moon Hooch’s full-length Red Sky, which was released this past summer, and the eight tracks were recorded in a makeshift desert studio, the band says. ““We rented a house and set up a little studio in the Mojave desert just outside of Joshua Tree National Park,” saxophonist Wenzl McGowen says. “We got together in the same room with our instruments and said, ‘Let’s just hit it’ and started playing whatever came to our minds. Don’t ask us where they came from, but we certainly enjoyed bringing them to this planet.”

“Joshua Tree National Park was an incredibly inspiring atmosphere which helped to open up our minds and ears,” fellow sax player Mike Wilbur says. “Every day we would hike the dead sandstone mountains and take in the dry desert air, allowing for a new type of musical expression we’ve never experienced before.”

Download The Joshua Tree EP here.