(photo: Myspace)

If, like me, you find it difficult to get into instrumental music, then I highly suggest you give As Seen Through Windows, the sophomore album by Bell Orchestre (featuring Richard Parry and Sarah Neufeld of Arcade Fire), a thorough listen.  I pretty much all but wrote the band off after listening to their debut album, Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light (from 2005).  I found it an indulgent, scattershot affair that failed to grab my interest whatsoever.  It’s sat and collected dust amongst my collection as an Arcade Fire-related artifact and was all but forgotten at the start of 2009.  In March, though, news that their follow-up, As Seen Through Windows, was being released by Arts & Crafts had me wondering if anything would be different four years on and post Neon Bible.  I’m not that big of a music snob that I can’t give them another go, you know.

And thankfully I did.  Oddly enough though, it wasn’t Bell Orchestre that had changed, it was I that had.  The music on As Seen Through Windows is not radically different from the debut.  What’s different is my own views and opinions about musical journeys.  In the last year or so, my dear friend MaryLou has opened my eyes and ears to opera and other classical music, and that in turn has led me to have some pretty amazing conversations about the broad spectrum of the musical universe and how bands like Bell Orchestre, the Jonas Brother, and Nickleback can all link the heritage back to the very beginning of music composition and performance.  What I’m now finding appealing in Bell Orchstre’s work is what initially turned me off them: the way they blend a cacophony of sound and textures and make melodies and rhythms appear.  It’s very visual music.  For instance, near the end of “Bucephalus Bouncing Ball” there’s a dull thunder of drum beats that sound like the tail end of a fireworks display, and one night in particular while lying in bed listening to it, I began to visualize the fireworks display, and was blown away by how music could be found within the rhythm of daily life.  The album couldn’t have been more aptly named:  As Seen Through Windows is music that reveals to us a visual world just beyond our own, just beyond our reach.  Magical.

MP3: Bell Orchestre “Dark Lights (live)”
Myspace: Bell Orchestre