The City Harmonic

Emerging in 2010, the Christian rock outfit the City Harmonic fused Brit-pop-infused indie rock with an overtly spiritual outlook on its charting debut EP, Introducing the City Harmonic. The release earned the group the Dove Award for New Artist of the Year as well as a Juno for Christian/Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year, honors tied directly to the 2011 long-player I Have a Dream (It Feels Like Home). Three successive Christian Top 40 albums followed before the ensemble marked the end of its run with the 2017 farewell tour and the accompanying fourth album, Benediction: Live.

The quartet came together in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in 2009 when Elias Dummer (vocals, keys, guitar), Aaron Powell (guitar), Eric Fusilier (bass guitar), and Josh Vanderlaan (drums) joined forces for a local student religious outreach initiative. Within roughly twelve months the worship collective struck out independently and issued Introducing the City Harmonic in November 2010. The EP registered on Christian charts in both Canada and the United States, prompting the Canadian Gospel Music Association to bestow three Covenant Awards: New Artist of the Year, Recorded Song of the Year, and Modern Worship Song of the Year. The band’s first full-length effort, I Have a Dream (It Feels Like Home), arrived in 2011, again performed strongly on the charts and secured a Dove Award from the American GMA for New Artist of the Year. A Juno Award for Christian/Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year preceded the September 2013 release of the sophomore album Heart, which entered at number one on Canada’s inspirational chart and reached the Top 20 of Billboard’s Christian Albums survey.

That same year brought a cancer diagnosis for Eric Fusilier, yet he had entered remission by the time the group delivered its third album, We Are, in September 2015. The set once more topped Canada’s inspirational chart and entered the Christian Top 40 in the United States; a documentary titled We Are the City Harmonic: The Movie appeared simultaneously. In late 2016 the members posted an announcement on their website declaring the band’s dissolution. Capturing performances from the farewell tour, the live worship collection Benediction: Live was released in June 2017. Elias Dummer subsequently began a solo career with the 2019 album The Work, Vol. 1.