Drawing its six members from diverse musical backgrounds, Bell Orchestre has come together to form one of the most cohesive and intuitive bands making music today. To say they are just an instrumental band is like saying El Greco was just a painter, or Frank Gehry just builds museums: it fails to capture their essence. As Seen Through Windows, Bell Orchestre’s second release, was recorded with John McEntire at his Soma Electronic Music Studios. The result is at once fierce and beautiful, delicate and dirty. McEntire’s extensive studio knowledge and attention to craft provided Bell Orchestre with a kind of bridge, spanning the diversity of their sound to create a richly layered and sonically expansive recording. Opening with the distressed sound of muted and distorted horns, strings and drums—an almost monstrous sound—the album effortlessly shifts into an elaborate and soaring movement, sometimes edging close to fragility, sometimes on the verge of exploding, but never once faltering nor threatening to lose its way.