Hanan Townshend grew up on a dairy farm in New Zealand, which he acknowledges is an easy upbringing to romanticize. He does have fond memories of his childhood tending to the rhythms of farm life, but refers to the work as requiring “constant devotion.” It may have been those tedious, never-ending chores that nurtured Townshend’s ability to sit with a song and tend to the beauty and ache it can offer a moment.
Townshend began piano lessons at a young age. Although his teacher believed he needed a “proper” acoustic piano to practice on, he only had a digital keyboard.
“That piano really opened up an entire world of possibilities,” he told me in a recent video conversation. “It had an arranger built into it, and so from a very young age, I was able to sketch out all my ideas. I became fascinated with combining sounds and how adding different instruments would shift the emotions.”
In those early days, he was just a “kid in a sandbox playing around with sounds,” he said. But around the age of 12, he began writing songs. It was also around that time that his nondenominational church allowed him to play drums and guitars on stage.
“Because the music at the church had a lot of freedom in it, there was a lot of room for improvisation,” he said. “So I really got to flex those muscles at quite a young age.”
Townshend studied film scoring and production at the University of Texas. His big break came when he wrote piano arrangements for Terrence Malick’s 2011 film The Tree of Life, a collaboration that has continued in subsequent projects.
His latest solo project, What We Lost, is a reflection on grief and loss. Its spring release was intentional, designed to explore the spirituality of grief with piano and strings during the holy seasons of Ramadan, Passover and Easter.
Though not explicitly religious, What We Lost explores the mysteries of life and death and the many ways we either embrace or run from pain.
Mystery is central to Townshend’s faith and work. It was that yearning for mystery that led him to the Anglican Church.
“As an adult, I began to really wrestle with faith,” he said. “And then I realized that faith is a mystery. The whole thing is a mystery—some things just can’t be explained away.”
That mystery influences how Townshend approaches music.
“I’m not setting out to create specifically Christian work,” he said. “But I do want to create work that leaves an imprint on people. I like to think of it as carrying the torch of beauty into the world.”
What We Lost
(Credit: Hanan Townshend)
What We Lost comprises 13 tracks that range from ethereal “mood music” to dissonant, even jarring compositions that reflect the pain of loss. It was recorded in his Austin home on his children’s upright piano. Three thematic songs anchor the project—What We Lost I, II, and III—which appear at the opening, middle, and closing of the album.
“What We Lost I” is a delicate, sparse introduction—an invitation to what is ahead. “I think of it as the discovery of a pathway,” Townshend said. It invites the listener to “come and walk down this trail” of grief.
Whereas the first track seems more solitary, Townshend sees “What We Lost II” as a more communal exploration of grief. It has more movement and developed melodies. “There is something bigger and more harmonic in the second one.”
For the final track, Townshend recruited vocalist Jon Guerra to sing the only lyrics on the entire album. Townshend initially wondered whether a song with lyrics would disrupt the album’s flow. “But ultimately,” he said, “I wanted some language for what people might have just gone through—even if that language is sparse.”
The Impetus
(Credit: Hanan Townshend)
As someone whose life has been marked by loss and shaped by art that explores the themes of grief, I wondered whether there was a specific loss that sparked the project.
“It wasn’t one specific event,” he said. “But it’s been a collection of events. Some of the theology I have been taught over the years has done a lot of damage [around the subject of grief]. I really appreciate the community I’m a part of now, because grief and lament, and even the season of Lent itself, are important and held as just a part of the human experience.”
I found What We Lost to be a deeply moving meditation. It makes painful stops at the emotional signposts Christians encounter during Holy Week and refuses to offer listeners a false resolution. It doesn’t walk through and beyond grief, but embraces the reality that whoever has experienced loss will have grief as a traveling companion throughout the rest of their lives.
What We Lost was released to streaming platforms on April 27. More information on Hanan Townshend can be found at his Bandcamp page.
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
Senior Editor at Good Faith Media.