Following their debut, “Hold this Ghost”, whose immediate melodies and lush orchestration garnered significant press and a devoted listenership worldwide, Musée Mécanique returns with the ambitious “From Shores of Sleep”, a through-composed musical voyage that finds its lineage as much in the song-cycles of Robert Schumann as in its Portland, Oregon folk-rock contemporaries. Using water as a central image, Musée Mécanique has crafted a story both surreal and insightful, meticulous and moving, a record about travels and transitions, of restlessness and longing, and the grief that comes from leaving things behind.

Ogilvie’s background in classical composition is apparent throughout “From Shores Of Sleep”, as is his tenure with respected post-rock instrumental band Tristeza. From the upbeat opener “O Astoria” to the arresting choral harmonies of “Castle Walls”, arrangements mirror and interact with the lyrics. Strings, woodwinds and synthesizer sounds appear and re-appear, often playing characters, not unlike Tchaikovsky’s instrumentation in “Peter and The Wolf”. Sirens enter, sung beautifully by Johanna Kunin and Alela Diane. Layered percussion at times resembles the complex rigging of a ship, and elsewhere invokes the steady pulse of ocean waves. The album ends with a quiet meditation on mortality “The Shaker’s Cask”: a pump organ dissolves into a string quintet then makes way for a regal section of woodwind and brass, each change emphasizing the song’s message: all things will pass. Musée Mécanique includes drummer/ethnomusicologist Matthew Berger, one-man brass section John Whaley, and skilled multi-instrumentalist Brian Perez. Each player must do several things at once, all the while singing complex harmonies, to succeed in capturing both the technical complexity of From Shores of Sleep, and also its emotional depth and generous spirit.

Vinyl version includes CD