Eric Heitmann & Amy Wallace - Where Spirits Sleep

If you’ve been keeping up with either LOTR: The Rings of Power or House of the Dragon and you need just a bit more of that ethereal and fantastical music in your life, then you most certainly need to check out the breathtaking collaboration between composer Eric Heitmann and soprano Amy Wallace, ‘Where Spirits Sleep’.

There is a rhythmic element of world music mixed with a bit of Middle Earth music in the style of the elves. So, I suppose what I’m saying, for you like-minded nerds out there, is that Wallace walks the borders of the Undying Lands with the likes of Enya.

The demure introduction of the piece immediately introduces the greater theme with a heart-wrenching piano and a sonorous vocal melody complete with some airy harmonies to fill the void. The percussion builds ever so slightly as the strings soar, with piano holding firm the foundation of the theme. With what seems to be, at first, the silent leap before the drop, the listener is pulled from the edge of the musical cliff with what sounds to me to be a rather calming oboe. I very much enjoy this misdirection from Heitmann as Wallace begins to make her way back into the mix; there is an interesting conversation here between instrumentation and vocalization.

The following cliff approach, this time, does indeed peer over the edge with a bit of a hop, but not to a soaring climax as one might expect. As the cymbals collide and reveal the full breadth of the theme and all instruments come together in what seems to hint at an even grander stretch of the music, one must recall the title of the piece and since this song is ‘Where Spirits Sleep’, the brief jolt of overwhelming emotion is set to slumber, and all fades away.

That swift slip back to slumber did leave me wanting more which can certainly be viewed as a matter for both hands. On one hand, I want the piece to continue building and overwhelm me with the beautiful sound it could have. On the other hand, I can hit repeat and let this song wash over me at cliff’s edge and fill me with desire from the beautiful sound it does have.