From the artist
A cinematic meditation on memory and movement. Return opens with a steady, marching piano appreggio accompanied by delicate music box chimes and stretched strings. There’s searching here: a slow unfolding of something familiar, but just out of reach. The arrangement holds space between its notes, allowing nostalgia and anticipation to blur into one. No rush; but reflection. A quiet reckoning with the past that never quite left.
We wrote 'Return' years ago - before we even knew what Ad Harmonium was. It started with a fragment: a four-note arpeggio in F minor. Every time we revisited that pattern, it felt like we were knocking on the door of something wanting to be opened, waiting to begin. Something took root.
For a long time, Ad Harmonium existed in the quiet — a shared secret we kept behind the curtain. We didn’t want to force it. Life had us in different places, and when we came together to record, we would pick it up from where we had left off; and each time leave with something more.
'Return' is a testimony to the quiet resilience it takes to stay true to yourself — especially in the early days, when there’s so many reasons to give up before you’ve begun. But keep heart and persevere. That’s a message so many artists starting out can resonate with.
From the artist
Unsettling and restrained tension towards a redemptive resolution. Minimalist piano drifting in and out of focus, circling itself in a trance. Eerie chord stabs cut through the elongated horns which rise in the background like foghorns. There’s order in the dissonance.
'Misdirection' came a bit later, almost by accident - it arrives uninvited but entirely honest. It wrote itself in one sitting. There’s hesitation, not quite knowing where it is - but it never fully unravels. It lingers in doubt, traces the edges of being lost, and yet... it never disappears. It finds its way back.
From the outside, looking in, the process of writing music seems to come from a sweeping moment of brilliance. When in fact it can be quite painful. Misdirection speaks into that hardship of wrestling with a new creation; where your sensitivities are overly heightened and they’re exposed to the elements.
That feeling - of questioning, circling, straying just far enough to wonder if you’ve gone too far - it’s one we’ve both come to know well. But Misdirection reminds us that even in uncertainty, there can be movement towards something worthwhile. It doesn’t offer answers. Just a quiet reassurance: keep going.
Return was the opening track on James Grants Movement Vol. 3 Live from Bali
