Ghost Bridge

Hour’s fifth album, Ghost Bridge, finds Michael Cormier-O’Leary pushing the project deeper into intricate chamber orchestration. Written for a 13-piece ensemble with woodwinds, strings, vibraphone, and rock rhythm section, these six instrumental pieces feel searching, cinematic, and emotionally open.

The title comes from an unrealized film idea about a bridge that starts disappearing, and that vivid image runs through the nearly ten-minute title track. With production from Lucas Knapp, recurring guitar and keyboard melodies meet spectral strings, free-time percussion, unconventional harmony, and sophisticated counterpoint.

There’s a real sense of motion in pieces like Centralia and Pearls, while the jazz-tinged Sky is Blue brings the record’s only vocal, sung beautifully by Heeyoon Won. Rooted in contemporary classical, film music, and indie rock, Ghost Bridge is Hour at its most fully realized.