Bing & Ruth - “Rails” (Official Video)

Bing & Ruth are a minimalist indie-classical ensemble led by pianist and composer David Moore. Following the release of Tomorrow Was The Golden Age last year, they’re reissuing their debut full-length, 2010’s City Lake, in remastered and expanded form, and they’ve just shared a new video for “Rails,” the album’s most immediate and pop-adjacent cut. Unlike the amorphous ambient textures of Tomorrow Was The Golden Age, “Rails” sharpens the abstraction into forward-driving motoric momentum reminiscent of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. A circling piano figure, rhythmic handclaps, upright bass, strings, clarinet, and wordless vocals ebb and flow over the course of eight minutes, coalescing into — as the title suggests — a piece of music perfect for watching the landscape pass by through a train window. Fittingly, director Seba Cros matches it with a lovely, impressionistic visual paean to rail travel. It may be eight minutes long, but those eight minutes wash over you like a warm sigh.