Brothers Jared and Michael Bell might live at opposite ends of the country — Jared in Brooklyn, Michael in Phoenix — but their long-running project Lymbyc Systym sounds as cohesive as ever on the latest album Split Stones, which comes out on 16 October. Its combination of vintage synthpop, contemporary indie pop, and subtle traces of krautrock make for a shimmering, ebullient piece of work, and you can listen to the album in its entirety below.
“The metaphor of split stones refers to our relationship as bandmates,” Jared explains. “We’re internally connected by blood and music, but physically, we live on opposite end of the country. Despite the distance, we’ve developed a pretty fluid writing process from years of shared experience together. I think this was more unique at one time, but in the current digital landscape, long-distance writing is quite common. So, on Split Stones we made a point of embracing the physical distance and our personal differences. We live in different climates. We have different daily lives, thoughts and friends. We used this divergence as a starting point for fresh ideas and alternative ways of writing.
“Split Stones also refers to the mind/body dichotomy and how these two connected halves play against each other. The sense of solidity in the physical self is often in direct opposition with the fragmented nature of the mind. Musically, this idea is personified on our new album through the push and pull of organic instrumentation against synthetic sounds, as well as the tempos, which often live somewhere between cerebral introspection and more physically-driven dance beats. We’re constantly striving to find that authentic and harmonious space between human subtly and electronic precision.”