The See Within connects their past with the present, absorbing the experience of collaboration to feed their own inventive beauty. “We spent the last eight years creating music with amazing people, and learning so much,” says Leiter. “And when you write your own music, you can’t help but bring those people with you.” In only a few years, Brussels-based Echo Collective have forged an enviable reputation in the post-classical world: sought out for their instrumental and arranging expertise by icons such as A Winged Victory For The Sullen and the late J?hann J?hannsson, or lending their interpretative intuition to genres as diverse as alt.rock, synth-pop and accomplishments as a springboard to a new, illuminating vision. From brief, singular themes to lengthier, shifting and questing episodes, this masterclass in composition, expression and technique bridges intimacy and grandeur in line with the most rewarding of post-classical works. The See Within is scored and composed for violin, viola, cello, harp and, in its first appearance on an album recording, the magnetic resonator piano (MRP). “All sounds are acoustic, and produced in real time,” explain co-founders Margaret Hermant (violin, harp) and Neil Leiter (viola). “No processing or post-production other than reverb. The acoustic element is Echo Collective’s identity. A natural sound.” It’s there in the name Echo Collective. “We’re a collective, with our roots in classical music and structure, but we are, in a sense, a shadow of that world, or an echo, whilst projecting a future sound,” says Leiter. That sound has already debuted with Wistful Breath – recorded after the album – appearing on 7K!’s recent compilation String Layers. But The See Within is where Echo Collective’s enviable reputation will enter a new dimension: not only trusted accomplices and expert interpreters but visionary composers, looking within to project a new chapter in the ongoing development of post-classical music
