New-ish Music Monday - Balmorhea Re-releases Eponymous Debut

Photo by Pedro Anguila

Austin experimental outfit Balmorhea re-released their 2007 eponymous debut late last year, making it available on vinyl for the first time. Balmorhea is a remarkable piece of genre-bending work, the band deftly navigating the waters of classical, ambient, and rock to produce an album as striking as it is difficult to categorize.

Counting among their influences diverse artists including avant-garde and minimalists John Cage and Arvo Pärt, post-rockers Tortoise and The Six Parts Seven, and Americana musicians like Gillian Welch, Balmorhea crafts music that doesn't sound quite like anyone else. Their sound is reminiscent of the classical compositions of Max Richter and Ólafur Arnalds, but hews more closely to the band's Southwestern roots. Balmorhea falls somewhere on the spectrum between Explosions in the Sky and The Calm Blue Sea, their songs more delicate than the former and less abstract than the latter. These early compositions explore the early triumphs and travails of the settlers of their namesake, a tiny town in far southwestern Texas.

The band has released the opening track of Balmorhea, 'Attesa', along with a reworking of the song by German composer Nils Frahm. The album is out now from Western Vinyl, and is well worth a listen.