Hanan Townshend is a New Zealand-born composer living in Austin who has spent his career creating music that speaks to the soul. He became famous globally for his unique work with the legendary film director Terrence Malick. Hanan helped create the music for the award-winning film The Tree of Life and later wrote the main scores for movies like To the Wonder and Knight of Cups.
In the movie world, he is known for making “musical timber,” sounds that grow and change naturally alongside the story. However, with his newest song, “What We Lost II,” Hanan moves away from big movie orchestras to share something much more personal and quiet.
“What We Lost II” is the first song from his upcoming 2026 album, What We Lost. It is more than just a piece of music; it is a deep look into the very beginning of human sadness. Hanan takes away all the fancy instruments to ask one simple, heavy question: If music played the very first time loss ever happened in the world, what would it sound like?
To find the answer, he chose to stay away from a perfect recording studio. Instead, he recorded the song in his own living room using his child’s small upright piano. This detail is very important.
What We Lost II
When you listen, you are so close to the music that you can hear the “thud” of the piano keys and the wood of the instrument creaking. This creates a powerful mix of two worlds: our private, heavy feelings of sadness happening at the same time as the steady, quiet presence of the room around us.
The song itself is a conversation between Hanan’s piano and the violin played by William Fedkenheuer. William, who is part of the Miro Quartet, plays with a raw and shaky feeling that shows how vulnerable we are when we hurt.
His violin doesn’t play a simple, happy tune. Instead, it drifts in and out, sounding like “grief before we have words for it.” At over five minutes long, the song doesn’t have a big, loud ending like most music. It moves like the waves of the ocean.
The first half is slow and feels “stuck,” just like how we feel when we first lose someone or something. The second half starts to flow more, showing a heart that is trying to move forward even though it is still tied to what was lost.
This kind of playing, where the pauses are equally as significant as the notes, is quite similar to how we live our lives every day. We often try to hide our “messy” sentiments or “fix” our unhappiness quickly in a world that is noisy and rapid.
But Hanan shows us that just sitting quietly with our feelings is really honest.Our lives are a mix of modest, everyday moments and major, life-changing events, much like the room stays the same even when the piano creaks. “What We Lost II doesn’t aim to make the suffering go away; it just helps us understand it better.
For the best experience, I suggest listening to this song in a very quiet place, maybe early in the morning or as the sun goes down. Let the natural, “homey” sound of the recording wrap around you. It is a special piece of music that asks us to stop running and finally listen to the memories we carry inside.
For more songs like this, follow Hanan Townshend on Spotify, Hanan Townshend on Soundcloud, Hanan Townshend on Bandcamp, Hanan Townshend on Facebook, Hanan Townshend on Instagram, hanantownshend.com
