The Knells, Bombay Rickey, Empyrean Atlas

The Knells' eponymously named debut album is an hour-long work that blends classic and progressive rock, Renaissance-inspired vocal polyphony, symphonic lieder, jazz, and even '60s Motown vocal music into a remarkably cohesive and unique listening experience.

Sonically, The Knells employs a veritable armada of instruments, sounds, and ideas to explore a wide variety of musical spaces. Softer chamber music passages for strings, bowed percussion, and quiet guitars frequently contrast with louder, more rhythmically driven passages. The constant throughout is a trio of female vocalists that deliver hypnotic incantations — sometimes homophonically, and at other times in complex contrapuntal arrangements.

Lyrically, The Knells pays homage to the classic idea of the thematic "concept album," and examines some of the personal and eternal questions that define and confound the human search for meaning and significance. In service of this overarching theme, The Knells confronts such specific ideas as one's perception of the passage of time, the illusive nature of progress, the power of perspective in deriving meaning from one's own life, and the circular and ultimately transcendental — if somewhat violent — beauty of nature.


Bombay Rickey might be the soundtrack to a 1960s Bollywood noir film, or perhaps to a spaghetti western that never existed. Ennio Morricone and Yma Sumac, exotic dance rhythms, coloratura soprano, surf guitar…

Need we say more?

Kamala Sankaram: vocals, accordion
Drew Fleming: guitar, vocals
Jeff Hudgins: alto sax, vocals
Gil Smuskowitz: upright bass
Timothy Quigley: percussion