BLEEDING HEART NARRATIVE - 'All That Was Missing We Never Had In The World'



CSR109CD (February 2009)
CD in natural card digipak
Barcode: 823566471325




Reissue of the stunning debut Bleeding Heart Narrative album from spring 2008 (Ltd x 200, Tartaruga). Forming a melancholic landscape, BHN work with an evolving autumnal orchestra of layered cellos, ethereal piano melodies, hushed vocals, folk instrumentation and soaring textures of drones and noise. They have constructed an immersive, haunting and compelling album, creating a connection between the intangible, something beautifully everyday and the achingly fundamental.

Bleeding Heart Narrative was the work of composer, artist and producer Oliver Barrett. After just a handful of monumentally brilliant albums, he went on to found his current act PETRELS (Denovali). Presented in a digipak with the new and exclusive bonus track ‘Blueskywards’.

File next to Petrels, Stars Of The Lid, Richard Skelton (A Broken Consort, Clouwbeck), Talvihorros.

Track listing:

1. BHN
2. As If Yearning Was All And More Than Enough
3. Black Glass
4. Braids And A Necklace
5. Blueskywards
6. A Nest
7. This Is The World Before This Is
8. Discovering Abandoned Houses
9. Nothing Is Out In The Yard
10. Though Your Feet Have Left Footprints
11. Finding The Door
12. Lillian Gish



"Every once in a while something extraordinary manages to come my way with a power that is hard to deny. Such is the case with this London-based band's debut album, a stratospheric collection of musically mature, beautifully crafted, and subtly layered compositions that refuse to remain earthbound... every nuance was physically seeping into my consciousness and making me part of the experience. As a part of that experience I felt that the mundane world was left far behind, and I was floating in the skies of another world entirely... a startling album that certainly in my view stands head and shoulders above many a debut." (Brainwashed)

"It's dark and light....happy and sad..... incredibly emotive and one one of the most interesting records we've heard here in a long long time. It pricked up the collective office ears which is rare thing these days. Will appeal to fans of Hood, Stars of The Lid, early Constellation releases. This is seriously good." (9/10, Norman Records)

"Musically, the album floats in-between ambient and postrock, mostly kept in trance-inducing atmospheres. A central part of the album is the excellent vocals of Alastair Bailey, that makes the overall style remind of the excellent joint venture-project between ambient-maestro Robert Rich and guitarist/bassist Rick Davies, Amoeba. As the album-title and the project-name suggest, the feeling on the album is melancholic and fragile. A beautiful and emotive experience that will appeal to listeners of dreamy postrock and acoustic based ambient." (Vital Weekly)

"It’s an extremely mature record that manages to attain a feeling of melancholy through its use of classical instrumentation... sweeping scrapes of the violin build up into hushed deep melodies... hushed harmonies, repetitive piano, sweeping cello, and dreamy atmospherics coalesce with lush fuzzed guitar chords... Bleeding Heart Narrative are wonderful at drawing out a song from fragments of ambience they create." (Compulsion)

"I melted in the chair. And I started to drift away and fall apart and then I don’t remember much more... it’s hard to say exactly what makes this minimal experimental neoclassical flirting saga so special. It’s something about the production that gives you a feeling of both distance and isolation, no matter how loud you play it and no matter how close to the speakers you’re sitting. And it is of course, painfully beautiful most of the time... no words can do this album fair so I really recommend listening!" (The Shadows Commence)

"The twelve tracks of the release are in balance from orchestral noise rock, psychedelia, power noise and chamber shoegazing... the tracks are able to create moments where melancholia and a particular kind of romanticism are mixed... sounds seem to come from another world... where tension and despair blend. Have you ever realized what kind of sound could produce a breaking tendon? I think this album is the answer…" (Chain D.L.K.)

"One of the best openings to an album ever. Strong words I know, but I mean it. Seriously. Has me in tears. Tears of joy... One of the best albums of recent times. I implore anyone with any sense to listen to their album, 'All That Was Missing We Never Had In The World', I'm awed by them". (Keyboard Choir)

"¿Puede la música recrear un mundo de belleza incalculable con la esencia del ambient e instrumentos clásicos como cuerdas, pianos y ruidos extraños?. Con “All that was missing we never had in the world” queda demostrado y certificado que sí se puede... El sonido está como emborronado, como sonando de lejos, como disfrazado de una amplia reverberación proveniente de una gigantesca catedral. Consigue transmitir una sensación única que, mezclado a los acordes armónicos, finalmente te transporta a un mundo de paz o, al menos, a un lugar donde vaciar la mente, respirar sin pensar en nada y simplemente escuchar y escuchar... Un disco espectacular, mágico y memorable." (9/10, Mentenebre)

"Čudnovata, snena, ambijentalna, avangardna electro-acoustic pop-noise muzika... Imaju melodija, harmonija, gipke ritmičnosti, ambijentalnih prizora, psihodelije, uspona i kulminacijskih finiširanja s detaljnim odlascima u letargični fade-out za sanjarenje, tako da ovaj album tefterim u moj osobni katalog best of albuma 2009. ... Čudnovata, snena, apstraktna, psihodelična, vrlo nježna, nevina i romantična neo-folk avangardna pop glazba. Jako lijepo. Štoviše, čarobno i opuštajuće." (Terapija)

"Con un nome che è tutto un programma e un titolo che esprime la quintessenza della malinconia, i BHN hanno la capacità di diversificare la loro proposta, pur esprimendosi con un album che potrebbe essere “letto” come un corpo unico. [Un] matrice dark-ambient con un’eco industrial... dai synth leggiadri di Sam Rosenthal al post-rock da camera dei Mono (con quell’enfasi autunnale degli archi).. [e] una chitarra che arpeggia ipnotica, sognante." (Ritual)

"...questo giovane progetto inglese costruisce brani evocativi, fortemente tristi e nebbiosi, ricordando a più riprese sia alcuni grandi act shoegaze che le ambientazioni tipiche del post-rock... [e] un tocco strumentale neoclassico che dà il senso dell’infinito... Cold Spring cede ancora – e con buoni risultati – alle tentazioni sonore più soffici." (Darkroom)

"...eine Art organischer Ambient, eine malerisch-traumvolle Phantasiewelt, gebildet aus atmosphärischen Streicherebenen, Klavierpassagen, Ambient-Ebenen, zarten Noises und auch einigen Gesangs-/Sprecheinlagen..." (Orkus)