Two albums of instrumental music were made this season. It is largely digital and made via a home studio during otherwise inarticulate moments.
Made and mixed in private through headphones so as not to disturb my partner or neighbors, etc. It is recommended to be heard the same way.
The first is entitled Esperanto and was produced by the end of January.
The second album is entitled The End and was produced by mid-May.
Eight tracks, 35 minutes total.
Track Listing with timestamps:
00:00 Modesto
06:16 Energia
09:23 Intimeco
14:00 Kuneco
19:42 Zenito
22:37 Velkado
26:28 Ŝvebado
32:02 Nescio*
*The briefest, for cursory consideration.
Esperanto was part of the previous body of work, looking forward and centered around the “Hundo” character driving the art at the time. As an intentionally constructed language and political gesture, actual Esperanto itself appealed to my sensibilities and fit the spirit of my art. “Esperanto” translates into “One Who Hopes”, while “Hundo” translates to “dog”.
It is generally sedate and self-soothing, consisting of simple, clear, cheery, often percussive melodic moments as mantras constructed against broader, synthetic, fuzzy or corroded sounds. This produces a sonic environment meant to evoke the small wandering questioner through growing and overwhelming uncertainty.
The interplay of the clarity and often woozy corrosion shifts, with sometimes the two echoing each other exactly – or at least in supportive interplay – and at other times one clearly asserting over the other. In this way, Hundo is confronted with circumstances, alternate viewpoints, uncomfortable truths and so on. At other times the optimistic melodies push out over the noise, at other times they are drowned out. It is a narrative work that ultimately ends in a woozy dissolve.
And months later, this:
Six tracks, 41 minutes total.
Track Listing with timestamps:
00:00 The Secret Meaning of “Let’s Get Together”
13:25 Needing to Breathe
17:14 Last Flag
26:43 Moment of Concern*
32:50 Horticulture Is A State of Mind
38:02 Robert Smith Is Not Dead
*The briefest, for cursory consideration.
Less directly narrative than Esperanto, this was made during the early course of the Covid-13 pandemic and was an important outlet for both coping and rumination on what seemed like imminent cataclysm. It is much less concerned with unified storytelling, but there are still local narratives at work through the relationships of sounds. There is more jumble and freeform seeking than Esperanto, with some whole tracks produced and reversed to find new forms, then continued and finished as such. It is more dour and low and personal.