The Living Music List #11: On the Dedication of Waterfalls

Erosion is an important reminder for how we should approach art and life. Plus, new music and re-releases from winterkeep, GAS, Robert Rich, Markus Guentner, and many more

Read the previous issue of The Living Music List:

The Living Music List #10: On the Aversion and Allure of Alleyways

Currently listening to: Traces (River) by Somnolent

Reflection

Hello, friend.

Gone on any interesting vacations this summer? The season seems to be slipping away like sand through my fingers. I’ve desperately tightened my grip this week in response, spending the last several days enjoying the quaint countryside here in the Pine Tree State—Maine. 

This most northeastern state has constantly inspired me, relaxing my futile attempt to strangle time’s unstoppable passing. The cool temperatures here have reminded me that I prefer autumn the most, and they’ve offered some relief from the reoccurring heat wave we’ve felt further south all season. Our cozy wooden cabin set on the bank of the Saco River has provided a much-needed retreat from the urban noise of north New Jersey. The days spent hiking and kayaking before nights spent roasting marshmallows and playing cards have fulfilled every urge and desire to fully embrace this time away from work.

This week has felt like a reset, as the best vacations do. It’s quiet here, save the crickets, the gurgling water, and the muffled hum of a rare vehicle passing by on the two-lane road a hundred feet from the house. I frequently regret not yet having bought a proper field recorder to bottle this peace for later listening, but my phone has dutifully picked up the slack.

There is an unflappable aura around the nature here that I wish I could capture and copy. Our cabin and all the little shops in the surrounding towns don decorations adorned with bears and moose, though we haven’t been lucky enough to spot either star tenant of these woods. The trees surrounding us are massive and ancient. The unrefined spaces between homes and towns stretch far beyond any open distances in more condensed states like New Jersey. This wider scale and the untarnished state of it all is complemented by a sparsely spread but kindly population of Mainers (though my fiancée’s brother prefers to call them Mainiacs). 

Among all these pleasant sights, sounds, and interactions was one that stuck out. On just the second day of our vacation, we made a day trip to a small town in neighboring New Hampshire where I bore witness to something unexpectedly inspiring: a waterfall.

At first glance, Diana’s Baths in Bartlett, New Hampshire isn’t the most impressive waterfall I’ve seen. The site consists of a series of small falls and pools, and it is named after the Roman goddess of wild animals and the hunt. The decline is steady and impeded by clusters of large boulders and plateaus, resulting in a relatively slow flow. This made Diana’s Baths serene and safe enough for small children to splash around or hop between the exposed rocks jutting out of the shallows.

The magic of Diana’s Baths first washed over me when her water did—I abandoned my shoes and socks and plunged my feet into the frigid water. My tender skin settled on the field of smooth stones six inches below the water’s surface. The current pushed water past my ankles, excitedly inviting me to travel with it but physically incapable of forcing the issue.

I took one step against the water’s pull, then two, delighting in the gentle resistance. I crouched and dipped my hands. As cold and shallow as this little slice of the stream was, I wanted to submerge my whole body.

I walked uphill, clambering across rocks and pausing here and there to marvel at the cairns stacked atop some—I am not patient or skilled enough to build them myself, but I always wonder how long those that I discover have stood, even among the cascade of elements threatening to topple them.

At one point, I stopped and hauled myself onto a larger boulder to sit for a while and observe. Going further up the falls would be a taller ask, as there was a large, sheer rock face covering most of the falls with the water running beneath it.

It was here that I noticed the tunnels and grooves where the water passed through the stones. Seeing the way the falling water has carved its own path through these seemingly immovable objects, the way it has forged its own path and stripped away the stones’ skins, diminishing them to mere pebbles in the mud, drowned beneath its current—it made time stand still.

Erosion. Forces of nature like water and gravity care not for barriers like stone and mud.

This moment I had found myself in—sitting on a slowly shrinking rock as the water passed mindlessly below me, staring down the barrel of the space where the water had seamlessly cut through the wall in its way—this was a reminder.

Consistency and time are often all we need to break through the barriers in our way.

The artist does not stop creating because they are blocked by lack of skill, lack of inspiration, lack of time, or any other lacking resource. They practice, they study, and they keep creating, no matter what, because they must—because creation erodes every barrier to creativity.

We gain skill through practice. We inspire ourselves just by trying when we know we aren’t forced. We make time because we realize that we want to spend more of it creating. And then we share our creations with the world, and they erode barriers interrupting others’ lives. 

To achieve the progress we desire as artists and as people, we must always remember to be as dedicated as waterfalls.

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Music Recommendations

Hello again, friend.

Thank you for reading today’s post. I hope you enjoyed the reflection and the river recording—it’s a nice break listening to pure field recordings here and there, especially when writing about the nature you’re hearing.

Let’s get on with today’s lists of new releases. Happy listening.

The Living Music List—Ambient

Note: Most of the below ambient projects are available on Bandcamp. Duology (#11) is available on other major streaming services.

1. A Cyclical Process From Isolation by winterkeep (album / post-rock, drone [P.S. consider subscribing to winterkeep here on Substack!]) [Bandcamp]

2. GAS by GAS (album / experimental, dub [reissue of 1996 album]) [Bandcamp]

3. One Universal Breath by Veryan (album / electronica, chill-out [includes some percussion]) [Bandcamp]

4. Long Tail of the Quiet Gong by Robert Rich (album / drone, minimalist) [Bandcamp]

5. Trilogy Mix by Markus Guentner (compilation / drone, space) [Bandcamp]

6. Everyone Is An Island by Pallette (album / drone, field recordings) [Bandcamp]

7. The Cerenarian Sea by Nacht Pank & Solipsism (album / drone, dark ambient) [Bandcamp]

8. tone alone by sea + i (single / drone, ambient guitar) [Bandcamp]

9. Esplanade by Mint Deluxe (album / dark ambient, drone) [Bandcamp]

10. Tiny Lights Kingdom by 58918012 (album / dark ambient, experimental) [Bandcamp]

11. Everyday Situations Of My Neighborhood by Navaja Opinel (album / experimental, field recordings) [Bandcamp]

12. Duology by Sharon Bezaly & Rosey Chan (album / new age, contemporary classical)

The Living Music List—All Genres

Note: All of the below projects are available on major streaming services.

1. Acid Forms Volume One by Mick Chillage (album / acid techno)

2. AR^C by ARrC (EP / dance)

3. Speaking Across Time by Gilligan Moss (album / electronic)

4. Curve 1 by Mura Masa (album / dance)

5. Harmonics Remixed by Joe Goddard (album / dance)

6. For the Dreamers by Ingrid Michaelson (album / jazz)

7. Solos by Bryce Dessner & Various Artists (compilation / classical)

8. American Road Trip by Orion Weiss & Augustin Hadelich (compilation / contemporary classical)

9. Anna Clyne: SHORTHAND by The Knights & Eric Jacobsen (album / contemporary classical)

10. Introducing Anders Malta Almost Big Band by Anders Malta (album /

11. Short n’ Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter (album / pop)

12. Majordomo by Teenage Dads (album / alternative)

13. Kantos by Kishi Bashi (album / alternative)

14. Romance by Fontaines D.C. (album / alternative)

15. lovelytheband by lovelytheband (album / alternative)

16. GREIF by Zeal & Ardor (album / metal)

17. The Hard Way by Pete Yorn (album / folk)

18. & Stone Between by Forest Claudette (single / pop)

19. 25! by Hamzaa (single / R&B/soul)

20. Illuminator by GIFT (album / indie rock)

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That’s all for this week’s issue. Sorry for skipping news stories again—next week, I swear!

Thanks again for reading. Until next time.

Your friend,

Melted Form

Remember to listen to the hum, buzz, & hiss of the world around you—there is music to be heard there.