Episode 49 attempts to reconcile and to express, in the context of recent days, when music has felt especially vital. Setlist:
M. Sage – Montrose Harbor (two positions)
Emily Reo – Spell
Danny Clay – 5.12.2016
Weyes Blood – Generation Why
Ricky Eat Acid – Spinning About Under The Bright Light In Bliss
Naps – work
Noname – Freedom Interlude
Carla Sagan – Heroes of Space Travel
Danny Clay – 6.12.2015 (II)
Sunwoo Jung – A Far Away
Rayon – Kona
Julie Byrne – Natural Blue
Danny Clay – 6.12.2015 (IV)
Steve Hauschildt – A False Seeming
Loscil – Weeds
Mickey Newbury – Here Comes the Rain, Baby
Danny Clay – 10.15.2015 (II)
“With Love”, a short mix by ssurfacing (tracks listed below)
Enya – Exile
Paul Horn – Jumna
Pale Blue Sky – Attempt
(scanning am radio)
The Mamas & The Papas – Dedicated To The One I Love
Below are a few thoughts, collected from friends, and other inspirations.
“In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will also be singing.
About the dark times.”
– Bertolt Brecht, via Nina Mashurova
“…At that time in my life, I had given up home in service of something I longed for and there was a real freedom in knowing that no place waited for me. I lived where I stood at that moment and I traveled thousands of miles with that longing as my guide.”
— Julie Byrne to NPR
“Most folks would not consider ambient music to be political. It’s not in a traditional sense but it’s the genre I’ve been turning to the most as White Supremacy takes its last gasp. It’s been difficult to find the joy in listening to any music at all post-election but the work of artists such as Hiroshi Yoshimura and Huerco S. have been key for my own healing and reflection. Music that glides slowly through a space — allowing me to escape for a brief moment and imagine advanced Black and Brown Utopias where marginalization does not exist.”
— Tyler Andere, Portals
“This I mean to whisper to my mind
This I mean to laugh within my mind
This I mean my mind to serve
Til’ service is but magic
Moving through the world
And mind itself is magic
Coursing through the flesh
And flesh itself is magic
Dancing on a clock
And time itself
The magic length of God”
— Buffy Sainte-Marie, via Owen Pallett
“All pursuits we claim creative serve a higher purpose. Beyond the benefits we commonly identify with creating, is an uncommon, untamed stasis begging affection. Invariably, we are all vulnerable, and it’s here that we can purposefully communicate and create together.”
— Matthew Werth, RVNG Intl.
“My partner put on Debussy’s “Reverie” the other day, and for the length of that piece it felt okay again to feel real human emotions beyond just dread and despair. It is crucial that we identify and embrace the full spectrum of our human experience in the years to come.”
— Ben Martin, Wez & Portals
“Charlotte Day Wilson’s music was the spark I needed to feel hopeful in a time that has continuously felt more and more hopeless. Struggling with my own mental health and the constant visual of black bodies like mine laying lifeless around the world, I’ve been trying to hold onto voices that re-inspire my willingness to live, be creative, and continue to walk through life. Something about her vocal style and lyrics is hopeful and aspirational in a sense. Women like her in music are the only thing keeping me alive right now. It’s a tough time, but I realize I have to hold on. We all have to hold on and love the ones around us.”
— Max Mohenu
“Behold this compost! Behold it well!
It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions.”
— Walt Whitman, via Matthew Sage
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.”
— Emily Dickinson
“Everything vibrates and everyone resonates. For me, making music is about connecting with our environments and communities to explore potential realities + amplify neglected narratives. A way of tracing intersections between ideology and practice to sketch a map of a world that we can inhabit if we work together. Art is prophetic, and within the cultures that music cultivates is a deep radical imagination. Nurturing this imagination so that it can grow and manifest is transcendent… to guide music outside of a sonic realm and utilize it as a tool to constructively transform the societies in which we live.”
– Noah Klein, Cuddle Formation
“At least we still have music.”
— Celeste Egedy, November 8th at 10:14pm
And here is a good database for women’s rights, POC, LGBT+, immigrant, Muslim-American and climate change advocacy groups.
S&S Radio broadcasts every other Tuesday night on Newtown Radio. Something else that may be of interest: a seven hour playlist we made on Spotify called Sleep.