Comprised of David Österle, Daniel Hämmerle, Johannes Mandorfer and Peter Paul Aufreiter, the Vienna, Austria-based quartet Hearts Hearts specialize in a brooding slow-burning, elegiac sound that meshes elements of classical music and contemporary electro pop in a way that seems to channel Sigur Ros, Flying Lotus, The Darcys and Radiohead, as you’ll hear on the hauntingly gorgeous new single “I Am In,” off the band’s debut effort, Young. Sonically, skittering, percussion, subtly off kilter-syncopation, twinkling piano, guitars and strings played through gentle amounts of reverb, atmospheric synths and Österle’s achingly tender and yearning vocals are paired together in a song that drifts like curl of smoke yet feels constrained.
Reportedly, the Austrian quartet’s album focuses on the sense of tension and release — in the sense of attempting to break through and out of the familiar patterns of our lives. As the band’s David Österle explains in press notes “Our lives are so over-defined and over-structured (that) we are measuring and weighing and then cutting off what’s undefined. And in reaction to all this, we are seeking spaces of temporary escape.”
Directed by Eyup Kuş, the recently released video is a dark and broodingly abstract video that tells the story of a relationship slowly disintegrating before the couple’s eyes — and in a way that can’t quite comprehend.
