The Living Music List #48: On One's Creative Environment
Do you work better with silence or with noise? Experience with both may be necessary
Currently listening to: quiet the crowd (demo) by Melted Form
surrounded, encircled, ensnared a pin's point within a universal plane a silent spectator bathed in noise waiting for the volume to abate grasping at rhythm's lost straws solidarity from irregularity a vicious cacophany incivility echoing through billions of hollow bones i am an obelisk in an ocean holding tight to its foundation as the waves slap against my face over and over again when will the waters calm so i may wade my way through without resistance wandering off into the blue
Reflection
Hello, friend.
Do you work better with silence or with noise?
Some people find their flow on the couch in a coffeeshop, as the milk steamer whistles and customers converse over croissants or cappucinos. A Pandora playlist plays from the speakers overhead, pumping out early 2000s folk pop. Movement and sounds abound all around. But the person on the couch zones it all out, locked in to the genesis of words whipping across their laptop screen like firecrackers fired from their fiery fingers.
Others shake their heads side to side and remember their elementary school days when they needed noise-cancelling earmuffs to read in an already-quiet classroom. Now, they enter the café to pick up their coffee or tea from the counter and then head right back out in the direction of an undisturbed domain. A soundproof fortress of solitude in which they are encapsulated, protected from stray sounds that seek to lead their brains astray with them. It is in this even atmosphere that they can hear their own voice with enough space to trace its line of thinking and translate it into something of meaning.
Are you like the person in the coffeeshop or the person in the fortress? Can you be both?
For perhaps sometimes the itch inside that calls us to create must be scratched by outside noise, and other times it asks us to hide from it all to feel the relief it needs.
Maybe it isn’t about which person we are at all. Maybe it’s about what the work of the day requires—what we require in the moment. Distraction, direction, inspiration, instruction… concentration, concern, singularity, silence.
Let us not always shun the silence or the noise. Embrace the environment that feels easy now. Shake up the soundtrack. Soak up the solace. Soften the senses and let the thoughts pass through. Snag the ones you’re looking for out of air thick or thin. Hold them tight amid whatever song you’re in. Then let them go wherever they must, however they may. And afterward, look up and away, and listen again to the sound of the day.
New Music Recommendations
Hello again, friend.
Thank you for reading today’s post. I hope you enjoyed the reflection—and I hope you have a chance to find your flow in whatever environment works best for you today. Maybe you’re feeling like music will do the trick? If so, try some of these great, new records.
Happy listening.
The Living Music List—Ambient
Note: All of the below ambient projects are available on Bandcamp. Bold and ^ denote reader-submitted work.
Quiet Pieces by Abul Mogard (album / drone, contemporary classical) [Soft Echoes / Bandcamp]^
Total Surveillance Lifestyle by Massive Head (EP / experimental, noise) [Independent / Bandcamp]^
Glory to the Victor by ab9st8 (EP / drone, dark ambient) [Independent / Bandcamp]^
Endling by Qasim Naqvi (album / electronic, melodic) [Erased Tapes / Bandcamp] {note: some spoken lyrics on track 4}
May We Find Our Way by Robert Rich (longform single / drone, electroacoustic) [Independent / Bandcamp]
resolve / relate 05 by fields we found (longform single / minimalist, electronic)
The Living Music List—All Genres
Note: All of the below projects are available on major streaming services. Bandcamp links only provided for reader-submitted work in this list.
Whirlwind by Socool (single / drum & bass) [Dragon Trax / Bandcamp]^
caroline 2 by caroline (album / post-rock)
2 by Foxwarren (album / indie alt rock)
Birthing by Swans (album / experimental rock)
Evangelic Girl is a Gun by yuele (album / alt pop)
Black Hole Superette by Aesop Rock (album / hip-hop/rap)
Bella Wakame by Bella Wakame (album / electroacoustic jazz)
One More Thing: Interview with ab9st8 via Abducted Android
Polish ambient artist and friend of the Hum, Buzz, & Hiss community, ab9st8 (Antoni), was interviewed for the Abducted Android blog out of Belgium. Antoni discussed his creative process, influences, gear, and more. Click the button below to read the full interview, and make sure to check out the new EP Glory to the Victor from ab9st8 that’s out today (#3 in the ambient list).
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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.
