Some of the most profoundly poignant, hauntingly beautiful pieces of music I’ve had the trembling pleasure of hearing have come from the cello. It’s the closest a musical instrument has ever come to the innate cries of the human heart, and I can say (even as an atheist) that if there is a god, surely his/her voice speaks through one. It moves me beyond words.

But don’t let my description deter or confuse you. I don’t mean to imply that the sounds of a Cello are purely mellow or forlornly. A Cello also stimulates me into pure, unmitigated eargasm. Case in point…

Spelunking YouTube recently, I stopped on this magnificent duo who call themselves 2Cellos. Their names are Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser and they are from Slovenia and Croatia and what they have done to Michael Jackson’s classic “Smooth Criminal” is, to overuse an often overused cliché, nothing short of breathtaking.

Classical purists might scoff (probably because these boys are beautiful), but that’s what purists do. Me? I’m in musical ecstasy (oh, and not because these boys are beautiful).

Update July 24 – Initially, the duo originally uploaded their video to YouTube independently, but that has since been taken down. They signed with Sony Masterworks and have released their debut CD, a thrilling rock/classical hybrid running the gamut from Nirvana to Jackson to Nine Inch Nails to Coldplay. They have their own official Vevo/YouTube page which you can click to see above, and have reuploaded “Smooth Criminal”.