Bells Larsen - Blurring Time [CD]

How can we forge new forms of coming home to ourselves? On his sophomore album Blurring Time, Bells Larsen collapses time into a series of patient ceremonies. Guided by the satisfaction of simply “being” as a political act, the record explores the ways we write the ever-arriving self into existence. Oscillating between lo-fi 90s indie and searing folk ballads, Larsen’s project features the haunting accompaniment of voices frozen in time. Aligning with his transition timeline, he recorded his previous “high” voice and instrumentation in 2022, waited for his voice to drop after starting testosterone, and asked longtime friend and frequent collaborator Georgia Harmer to arrange harmonies for his new “low” voice. Together, they created a multilingual, intentional act of surrendering to change. Unlike past projects where vocals were set in the backdrop, Blurring Time unites both voices at the forefront, delivering an unyielding devotional.
Produced by Graham Ereaux, Larsen’s intricately-crafted arrangements evoke Elliott Smith, Sufjan Stevens, and Adrienne Lenker. His lyrics meditate on sibling dynamics, queer world-making, and shared epiphanies, enveloped in soundscapes of quiet intimacy. Larsen’s debut album Good Grief (2022), created during an artist residency in Banff, mourned the death of first love as a collective empathy exercise. Featured in The Line of Best Fit, Under the Radar, and CBC, he has shared stages with Buck Meek, Martha Wainwright, and Land of Talk. If Good Grief reached outward in loss, Blurring Time archives Larsen’s journey of self-actualization, harmonizing voices of past and present into a quiet yielding to the constant state of becoming.