The Lonely Bell - The Broken Heart of Man

 

Released: December 28

Sometimes a haunting soundscape is just that, a soundscape. However, there are other times when that soundscape is elevated into something a bit more through the clever implementation of clashing and coordinating instrumentations. The latter is what The Lonely Bell's The Broken Heart of Man represents. Opening up with strange scenery of doors slamming, airy clicks and thuds of objects falling, and an ominous tone, the first track soon moves into piano lines that alternately race and languish while seemingly being buried waist-deep in the persistent ominous tone of the opening.  

As the first moves into the second track, that ominous tone is replaced by another with some similarities but now has a more vocal quality to it and the racing piano is replaced by a slightly mournful string section and alternatingly plucked and strummed guitar. Played together, both tracks form a powerful message that brings about feelings of sorrow, guilt, loss, and all of the other facets of human existence that we would prefer to ignore. If Dostoyevsky were a composer rather than a novelist, this is what he may well have created.