Inward Oceans - Paths From Home (2015)

Beautifully moving from start to finish, "Paths From Home" is a powerful yet delicate masterwork of cinematic proportion. But unlike most other post-rock outfits, Inward Oceans uses piano rather than guitars to facilitate rhythm, timbre and texture. Displaying a well-refined ability to elicit emotion with the seemingly simplest of notes and chord progressions, each track on this phenomenal debut tells a mesmerizing story that unfolds organically in your ears. But make no mistake, songcrafting at this level requires rarefied talent. Combining just the right amount of ambient, tonal and spatial elements to the resonating strings creates a sonic depth experience worthy of headphone listening. An album about finding the place where you know you are meant to be, whether that's in your head, your heart or your home, "Paths From Home" is a dramatic journey of the senses. This is music that humbles you and connects you to an awareness of inner emotion.