Soek is the outlet for composer Grant Borland when he steps away from briefs and trailer work and writes for himself. Under his own name he scores ads, films and TV, but with Soek he pares things down to piano, a few electronic touches, and live strings from players in Croatia, giving him a small but flexible palette to work with.
“We Were Taller Then” sits right in that lane. The piece turns on a repeating piano figure, almost like a quiet engine, looping through most of the track without drawing attention to itself. It’s light and steady rather than showy, the sort of pattern you only really notice once it stops. At first the strings feel more like a soft backdrop, hanging under the piano like a low cloud. As the track moves on they slowly take a clearer role, tracing out longer lines and small swells without ever tipping into full symphonic drama.
There are faint synth tones tucked underneath, but the focus stays on the conversation between keys and strings. The mood lands somewhere between memory and observation, neither fully sad nor fully sweet, more like looking back at a younger version of yourself from a bit of distance.
It’s easy to hear “We Were Taller Then” sitting under slow camera work in a drama, a coming-of-age story, or a reflective documentary scene, where the picture needs movement but not a full orchestral statement.
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