Premiere: Be washed away by the beauty of Luke Howard's Hymn

Header photo by Jeff Andersen Jnr.

Since releasing 2013's Sun, Cloud LP, Victorian composer, pianist and songwriter Luke Howard has been releasing some of the most remarkable and cinematic music to come out of Australia. In the albums that have followed since his debut (the most recent of which, Two Places, arrived in 2016), Howard has crafted expansive classical landscapes that force you to delve in their beauty, whether it's the intricacy of soft piano melodies, the clashing of string sections, or the subdued electronic pulse that sits under much of his past work. His next album Open Heart Story (out May 25 through Mercury KX) is bound to be a similar affair, taking you on a bit of a neo-classical journey through intimate piano moments and powerful, yet emotive stunners pieced together by Howard for a 23-piece string orchestra.

Hymn, the album's latest tease, is a track obviously focused on the latter. Throughout its almost-six-minute journey, Hymn rises and falls through orchestral landscapes that feel as bold and impactful as they are intricate and delicate, increasing and decreasing in intensity as it draws longer. "Hymn is one of my favourite pieces on the record and is presented both in its original improvised piano version (track 15) and arranged for strings (track 8)," Howard says on the single, with the latter, the arrangement for strings, being the one premiered below. "It’s based around a meditative two-bar pattern, increasing and then decreasing in density."

Having just concluded a tour through the UK and Europe in April, Luke Howard will be returning to Australia for a homecoming album launch at the Melbourne Recital Centre. Grab the details on the show HERE, and pre-order the album HERE to get it first-thing on May 25th – it's worth it.