A wondrously absorbing and beautiful first release in a decade by the Montreal-based group of musicians with 10 tracks flow seamlessly into each other via coalescing classical and electronic instrumentation. Two of the key members are from Arcade Fire, but this is an altogether different project. Gliding and jittery strings particularly violins, repetitive and gliding synth sounds, slide guitars, woodwind, percussion and bold brass – it’s all here in a mesmeric cocktail. It’s hard to pick out highlights as the album is all one continuous piece, but II House, III Dark Steel, IV What You’re Thinking, the morphing V Movement and VII Colour Fields are particularly memorable and make up the core pieces of this album. Cinematic, strange and evocative, a soaring and inspiring album of cross-genre inspiration and improvisation.
Bell Orchestra are: Sarah Neufeld (violin, vocals), Richard Reed Parry (bass, vocals) (both from Arcade Fire), Pietro Amato (French horn, keyboards, electronics), Michael Feuerstack (pedal steel guitar, keyboards, vocals) Kaveh Nabatian (trumpet, gongoma, keyboards, vocals), and Stefan Schneider (drums).
Out on Erased Tapes. Also available on Bandcamp.
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