Austin Sound

Balmorhea’s music has always held a stunningly cinematic character, so kudos to director Jared Hogan and editor David Andrews for giving their song “Remembrance” the visually striking accompaniment that it deserves. Premiered earlier this week on Pitchfork.tv, the song captures the solitude and beauty of the stretching west Texas landscape, a period piece if you will, that is on par with anything you would see in a theater. In fact, we want to see this in a theater! The song is off of Balmorhea’s latest effort, All is Wild, All is Silent, out now on Western Vinyl and highly recommended. If our words don’t convince you, check out the video below, which will have to tide you over until Balmorhea returns from their European tour on May 22.

It’s rare for an instrumental group to be as prolific as Balmorhea, with All Is Wild, All Is Silent serving as the group’s third LP in as many years (and another is already reportedly recorded). What is even rarer, however, is for those albums to improve with each release and progress as vividly as Balmorhea has. Last year’s Rivers Arms took the subtle constructions that Rob Lowe and Michael Muller had outlined on their eponymous 2007 debut and expanded them with string arrangements and touches of ambient field recordings that gave the impression of falling in and out of a dream. The group’s latest effort builds even further upon their familiar classical elements that have set Balmorhea apart from typical post-rock pack, yet also flashes moments of more power and a greater restlessness than any of their previous tunes, largely due to the addition on this album of drums courtesy of Bruce Blay.