Threads of love, loss, and transformation are all woven into Michael Ess' debut album, Where The Light Breaks, a seventeen-track musical tapestry.
For Seattle-based singer-songwriter Michael Ess, the road to becoming a recording artist was a winding one. Music was always Ess' passion, but his mother, a professional musician, urged him to pursue a more stable career. Ess grew up to become an engineer, but continued to make space in his life for music, playing guitar and singing in choirs. He later formed a musical partnership with Wayne Bliss, an audio engineer active in Seattle, and their collaboration led to his new album, Where The Light Breaks, which hit streaming services August 11th, 2025.
Ess draws from his background in poetry and musical composition in Where The Light Breaks, which explores themes of introspection, sincerity, and redemption, and showcases his particular blend of "progressive rock, melodic blues, dream pop, and lyrical storytelling."
The first track, "Aphrodite Dancing", begins with moody guitar and percussion, full of yearning for someone who's just out of arm's reach. "Every move of yours enchanting," Ess sings of the distant woman he compares to the Greek goddess of love. "I'm just a fool longing / For you, oh for you, oh for you."
"I See Your Eyes" rumbles with thundering drums before, like a ray of sunlight breaking through dark clouds, an uplifting acoustic guitar picks up the tune. "The fire burns low, but these embers won't die," Ess sings, perhaps to a partner in a relationship that's had its ups and downs but managed to preserve. "We're always connected, you and I."
In "Never Said Goodbye", Ess mourns the abrupt end of a relationship. Unlike "I See Your Eyes", which provides a sense of emotional catharsis, "I Never Said Goodbye" is slower, sadder, its bare vocals accompanied by the strumming of a solitary guitar. "I can see you're not coming back to me," he concludes of the ephemeral connection.
The album shifts focus with "First Snow", a purely instrumental track where the guitar speaks for itself. Subdued percussion keeps the beat as Ess picks out notes that would feel at home in a smokey jazz bar, a musical meditation that contributes to the album's introspective mood.
The tone lifts on the final track, "Perfect," which describes a relationship made stronger by its rough patches. "Through unarmed grace, love is reborn," Ess sings, which feels like the thesis for Where The Light Breaks. "I have seen into your heart /Y ou are perfect, perfect as you are." A gentle touch of guitar and piano end the album on an uplifting note.
Ess is on the look-out for musicians who "want to co-create something new," and will be performing live in Seattle this fall.
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