“I was thinking about the freedom that comes with feeling that one has finished a project—a recording, a tour, a piece of writing—to one’s satisfaction and that the road ahead is clear to embark upon something that feels different, and that you’re not tackling the same ideas over and over again.  That’s one reason why I’ve always liked toggling between different working situations—solo, duo, group and largely composed versus largely improvised methods.  To start again, differently, afresh—that’s always the dream.”

- David Grubbs

More

Recorded in 1981 in the studios at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, this beautifully rendered track by Cheri Knight unfurls with the kind of shimmering undulations that artists like Yasuaki Shimizu were capturing around the same time. The music bristles with the raw spirit of DIY experimentation of that period of music-making. The other single from this work, Prime Numbers, is similarly wonderful. 

Listening

From Dublin-based artist Hilary Woods’ upcoming Acts of Light. The video is, in Woods’ words, “from old newsreels of archive footage on film, (it) muses on the beauty of community and resilience. This music video is a visual love letter to the Dublin City I grew up in, to the spirit of familial roots and the extraordinary moments in ordinary life that leave their lasting impression."

“a nature-focused aesthetic became appealing precisely because it promised a break from cultural pressure, from the pressure to constantly navigate complex human-built environments. It wasn’t so much that the natural world was actually simple, but that it offered an experiential simplicity for human observers. Nature wasn’t saying anything in particular and didn’t demand anything in return. By offering compelling forms in isolation from human contexts, natural imagery tended to support the kind of attention Brian Eno had earlier highlighted as central to ambient music, the experience of perceiving something “as ignorable as it is interesting”

More