The Living Music List #47: On Checking In
A reminder to take stock of yourself amid the escapism + 10 new ambient records to get lost in afterward
Currently listening to: goodnight in muav ♭ by elijah jamal asani
Live in someone else’s world for a while. Listen to the sounds of their wood and their wind chimes. Feel the textures of their space. Taste the oxygen in their air. Smell the spice in their food. Drink in the warmth of their sun, then bathe later in the light of their moon. Say goodnight as a grateful guest. Then sleep, and let the color of their world seep into your dreams. Dreams that deliver you back to a world of your own. Rise to a morning burning brighter than before. Believe in what you saw. Remember. Cherish. Hope. Then continue.
Reflection
Hello, friend.
Where have you been?
I missed you last week. Sorry about the lapse in my usual letters to you. I needed a recalibration, I think.
I’ve been thinking lately… I don’t want this thing to feel like a chore, you and I. I don’t want to wonder about all the other letters you must be getting and how to make sure you always open mine. I just want to share a moment in time and space with you. At our own pace. Without any expectations, comparisons, or imaginary milestones of how many versions of you there may be.
It’s just you and me. Chatting here and there (one-way, mostly, and that’s okay). Sharing music. Sharing stories. Moving through time like symmetrical sine waves, constantly parting as friends while knowing we will oscillate back to each other eventually.
Anyways, I just wanted to check in and get that off my chest. I’ve just been confronted with how easy it can be to overlook our own needs. So, this is me post-self-check-in, checking in with you to let you know: I’m still here for you, and I’ve realized something…
When I wrote the little poem at the top of this letter in response to that elijah jamal asani track, I was piecing together quiet hints of thoughts I’ve been having. Solidifying ideas. Calling on my senses to understand repressed emotions. Checking in on where I was and where I had been.
I often think I know all there is to know about myself, despite how many weeks and months I’ve already spent writing to you about how art is about realizing things about ourselves. “Art is the question. You are the answer.” This is the artist’s paradox. We know we aren’t finished sculptures—we never will be—yet, we so easily shirk our responsibility to keep carving.
We watch others carve and witness the refining of their form, the evolution of their craft, the little discoveries they make along the way, and we live vicariously through it all. It’s like a drug or a dream. It is intoxicatingly real, the way we connect with it and fleetingly feel the echoes of our own sculpture, sillhouetted in shadow on the shelf across the room. But it is a hallucination, nothing more. A call to carve ourselves out of the fiction we comfortably sit in.
Today, I’m checking back into my world. My mind. My history. I’m ready to stand and walk over to my desk, take the crude hunk of stone down from the shelf, pick up my tool and start shaving off the layers. I’m a bit nervous, honestly. “It ain’t much, but it’s honest work,” though. It’s necessary.
If I’m going to experience the effects of the activity below my surface (doesn’t the surface of water ripple and distort when disturbed by movement below?), then I have to go down, inward, to investigate. I’ll have my theories, but maybe it’ll turn out that I was wrong all along about the things I contain.
Maybe I wasn’t wrong. Maybe, I just wasn’t able to accept that I was right.
New Music Recommendations
Hello again, friend.
Thank you for reading today’s post. I hope you enjoyed the reflection—and I hope you take a moment to check in with yourself today. But if you’re wanting to visit another world instead, that’s okay. Maybe this new music will help.
Happy listening.
The Living Music List—Ambient
Note: All of the below ambient projects are available on Bandcamp.
,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,, by elijah jamal asani (album / field recordings, ambient piano) [AKP Recordings / Bandcamp]
Lake Deep Memory by Pye Corner Audio (album / drone, field recordings) [quiet details / Bandcamp]
a letter, a number by weareforests (album / downtempo, field recordings) [Seil Records / Bandcamp]
As You Wish by Krystian Shek (album / field recordings, drone) [rohs! records / Bandcamp]
with flowers by Nobuhiro Okahashi (album / ambient piano, drone) [Lᴏɴᴛᴀɴᴏ Series / Bandcamp]
The Stillness by Warmth (album / drone, dark ambient) [ARCHIVES / Bandcamp]
Music for Airport Delays by Kilometre Club (album / drone, minimalist) [Imaginary North / Bandcamp]
Hosana: The Messe de Nostre Dame by Jesse Q-T (EP / experimental, electroacoustic) [Whited Sepulchre Records / Bandcamp]
Eternal Equinox by Mike Cooper (album / ambient guitar, field recordings) [Room40 / Bandcamp]
STROUD by GEF (album / drone, dark ambient) [Aural Canyon / Bandcamp]
The Living Music List—All Genres
Note: All of the below projects are available on major streaming services.
Nilam by Ganavya (album / worldwide)
Instant Holograms On Metal Film by Stereolab (album / alternative)
Fiction by Eric Plackis (album / alternative)
Dissever by emptyset (album / electronic)
RV Lights by sleepdial (album / downtempo)
Orbital 2 (The Brown Album Expanded) by Orbital (album / electronic) {note: new, expanded version of the 1993 album}
ICYMI: Instrumental Conversations #2 is here
While I needed a brief break from publishing my weekly series last Friday, I was excited to share a new issue in my Instrumental Conversations series in its stead. In the latest issue, I interviewed Canadian electronic artist Buildings and Food (
) about her new album Provinicial Park. The album is 2 weeks young now, and in case you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, you can check it out on Bandcamp here.A Walk in the Park with Buildings and Food
Welcome to Instrumental Conversations, an interview series with artists, label owners, and other creatives in the ambient and instrumental music space.
You can also go back to issue #1, in which I spoke to Joachim Spieth & Andrew Thomas about their first collaborative ambient piano album, Nocturna. I hope to have more conversations on the way soon!
One More Thing: Sonic Tapestries x ROVR Radio
I first heard today’s Currently listening to track in a mix made by
of Sonic Tapestries. Mat has recently begun curating mixes for the always-live online radio station, ROVR—another excellent source of human-hand-picked music I was previously unaware of. After the live streams, he shares the mixes on his Substack, which is very worth subscribing to.Mat’s most recent Playlist #6 for ROVR is a wandering, cerebral journey across planes both natural and spiritual, inwards and outwards. It’s 2 hours of deep listening music that winds through a web of minimalist ambient jazz, experimental electroacoustic, odd field recordings, lowercase-dappled drone, and more.
Thanks for the music, Mat!
Join the Hum, Buzz, & Hiss Community
Music is best when we listen together. That’s why I’ve created the Hum, Buzz, & Hiss Discord Community, where music lovers, indepedent artists, and small label owners converge to hang out, share great music, and inspire each other.
If you enjoy my letters and want to connect directly with others in the ambient/DIY music space, then come join us on Discord. There, you’ll also find more music recommendations from me, custom playlists, giveaways, and more.
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That’s all for this week’s issue. Thank you 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.
Read the previous issue of The Living Music List:
Afterword—Let’s Get In Touch
Are you an artist, a label owner, or a member of the press? Want to share an in-depth feature of your upcoming release, an advertisement, or a guest post for a future Hum, Buzz, & Hiss issue? Get in touch with me at meltedform@gmail.com. As always, I would love to hear and recommend your music, especially if it’s new and ambient/electronic/experimental.
A stunning selection as always, thanks!