Bell Orchestre
As Seen Through Windows
(Arts & Crafts)

O Canada! Such a fertile wellspring of intelligent, well-crafted chamber rock... Even if you limit your purview to the Constellation and Arts & Crafts labels, you can immerse yourself in a whole thriving movement of spacious post-rock with orchestral inclinations. Godspeed you, music-conservatory students!

Montreal's Bell Orchestre are yet another entrant in the crowded yet civilized field. With Arcade Fire members Richard Reed Parry (acoustic bass, percussion, keyboard) and Sarah Neufeld (violin) in the lineup, BO are assured substantial media coverage, but it's certainly well deserved. While all the fuss over the Arcade Fire puzzled this writer (they're good, sure, but not worth thumping your neon Bible over), Bell Orchestre are a humbler proposition and, to me at least, a more satisfying endeavor.

This sextet—who began as an improvising unit creating scores for contemporary-dance troupes—cite Estonian composer Arvo Pärt as a primary influence, and their predilection for minimalist dynamics and hypnotic repetition asserts itself on As Seen Through Windows. Embellished with brass and clacking percussion, opener "Stripes" taps into those chugging, urgent pulsations that made Steve Reich and Philip Glass highbrow-household names. The title track sets up a taut tension between a flowing, beautiful brass-led melody and nerve-shredding, keening strings, with busy rock drumming further fostering a sense of disjunction. It sounds like a post-rocker's wet dream: a Tortoise/Stars of the Lid jam session. "The Gaze"—by far the zippiest track here—almost reaches the Ex's level of Gypsy-rock torque.

But the highlight—even more so than the climactic 12- minute ascension "Air Lines/Land Lines"—is "Bucephalus Bouncing Ball," a remarkable cover of the thrillingly convoluted Aphex Twin track from Come to Daddy. Bell Orchestre perform a kind of alchemy here that makes all those strenuous hours of study and practice pay off supremely. recommended