If you don’t like orbit, you need better speakers. Nostalgic and heartfelt, with emphasis on community and shared experience, Marcel Heym’s debut album, Countless Feelings But So Few Words, is unskippable and, true to its title, unspeakably moving.
orbit’s last London show was three years ago. Since then, the project has developed a broader and more sophisticated discography, while steadily accruing a larger and more devoted fanbase.
On their return to the UK capital, playing the ICA, the band opened with the titular closing track of the latest album, “Countless Feelings But So Few Words”, and went on to perform one of their biggest hits, “Youth”. “Berlin” may be his most nostalgic track, with his main idea being an outlet for his feelings of homesickness and reminiscence of his hometown and friends. On his Bandcamp, Marcel says, “After school, I went to Berlin aiming to become a professional musician. Instead, I got homesick. And I realized that I don’t make music to reach out for something – I make music simply because I love it.” As Stephen King learned and shared: “Art is a support system for life, not the other way around”.
The intention behind the album was to celebrate orbit’s community, his friendships, and his home. Many of the songs carry the familiar sour-sweet flavour of nostalgia or homesickness, and this feeling sits at the very core of the album’s conception. orbit’s nostalgia, however, is not an aching one tinged with loss, but something beautiful that has a presence. Like a warm image in a rearview mirror, blurred with the sun and radiating a golden glow. Not something lost, but something remaining with you, just solidified like amber in the golden; the comfort of the weight of a stone in your pocket.
Some shows fall short of the studio versions because of echoes, technical limitations, and imperfect equipment, which fracture the sound and can make it muddied and compromised. With orbit, however, the opposite is true. Everything is so mellow and ambient, anchored by rhythmic bass, luminous synth melodies, and siren-like harmonies from the background singers. It is all only enhanced greatly by being present for the making of his music right there in the room.
“Perspective” and “Ocean” felt like entering a sound bath or swimming in an ocean diluted with sound; suspended underwater, listening to the sound travel slowly throughout the room and the swaying bodies within it. The atmosphere and melodies were captivating, but so too was the comfort and sense of shared community orbit cultivated in the space. Much of his music is a siren call towards home, but I’m certain many people have found a home in his music as well.
Some music encompass worlds that strike right at the core of your soul, and Orbit’s debut album does just that. It is bittersweetness embodied; delicate, nurturing, and gentle, but also quietly heartbreaking.
