Bell Orchestre

• Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light [Rough Trade, 2005] A-
• As Seen Through Windows [Arts & Crafts, 2009] **

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light [Rough Trade, 2005]
More Sufjan Stevens or Bang on a Can than Tortoise or Juan McLean, this chamber-pop quintet with Arcade Fire connections varies its cunningly sequenced, gratifyingly brief instrumental tracks with such old-fashioned amenities as textured melodies, pleasing dynamic shifts, and passages that, if they don't actually r-o-c-k, at least bound down the road in an excited manner. One advantage of sincere young things who believe ancient history directly preceded MTV is that for them Gil Evans and Terry Riley are as classical as Mozart and Debussy--and Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky are cornballs. A-

As Seen Through Windows [Arts & Crafts, 2009]
Assez jolie, mais rien comme un cloche ("Elephants," "The Gaze"). **