While Bryan Schumann may have only released his debut album as a singer-songwriter, Bombshell Tree of Life about a year and a half ago, he has spent the last decade and more creating hours of music for everything from film to video games to the classical concert hall, as well as releasing seven studio albums of instrumental music. This is anything but a tentative second sonic step, more a compelling chapter deep into an engaging musical tale.
Heart & Horizon sees him once again gather the Sunshapes around him —less a band, more a worldwide collaboration —for a buoyant and upbeat foray into the world of… well, everything. This is not an album, and this is certainly not an artist to be pigeon-holed; from track to track, we find ourselves immersed in everything— the songs woven out of neat blends of folk, indie, rock, electronic, and classical genres—to mention just a few.
And so if “Open Road” is a folk-pop piece in the vein of David Gray, “By Your Side” is a gentle ballad that seems to be as much at home in a jazz-soul setting as it is a pop one.
What makes the songs here rise above the usual singer-songwriter sound is the attention to sonic detail —the tones and textures these songs come wrapped in. “Questions” sees a bank of strings weave in and out of the vocal line, “Up to Down” is flavored with serene strings meshing with a distant, drifting trumpet while rich, close harmonies join the leading voice, and “Ruby” might head into more usual indie-pop territory, but it comes with cool Latin lilts, jazz-rock guitars, classical guitar interludes, and effervescent energy.
Bryan Schuman writes songs that anyone would be envious of, but it is how he dresses them that turns them from merely the stuff of the singer-songwriter into epic acts of soundscaping in their own right.
