Frustrated, Elijah began writing his own piano compositions at age fourteen. Bossenbroek started lessons at six, but says he often hated the dull repetition behind learning notes and playing to metronomes. He has since returned to his roots, reclaiming his lost, childhood knowledge of piano playing. Visiting places as diverse as Japan, Kuwait, and California, Elijah returned home, married, and raised two kids. At eighteen, Elijah went for a stint in the Marine Corps, which took him on a five year tour of military installations all over the world. Equally interesting is the man's backstory itself. Highly mature and very thought-provoking, Harmony in Disarray features absolutely no words, but will inspire you to think much harder than CDs that do. Tracing out intricate arrangements with his nimble fingers, Elijah weaves aural tapestries of stunning, introverted wisdom. Maybe it's my mood, maybe it's the local weather (tons of snow and not many place to go) or maybe it's just the sheer, minmalist power of nothing but piano key structures for music, but the songs on offer here are very emotional and at times even visceral. Elijah plays an album full of elegant, graceful, and oddly melancholy piano arrangements. Elijah Bossenbroek is a fantastic musical artist. However, after spinning Harmony multiple times (mainly on my mini-field trip to Detroit this weekend, but that's another story), I find that my traditional avoidance of classically-themed music is both ignorant and downright stupid. It is, after all, nothing but instrumental piano compostitions. To be honest, I had some aversion when it came to listening to this album, Harmony in Disarray. He's the first of (hopefully many) musicians I intend to cover for my column that hail from the same area as I do, so he's definently a trailblazer in that regards. Born in raised in nearby Grand Rapids, Michigan, Bossenbroek now resides in my own hometown of Hudsonville. Elijah Bossenbroek's Harmony in Disarray In every sense of the word, Elijah Bossenbroek is truly a hometown hero.
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