Ask me about my ambient music
Welcome to Hella Immaculate, I love you. Please consider forwarding this email to one friend and/or joining my Patreon. You’ll keep me alive, which has historically been an issue for me, and enable me to make more things you enjoy.
Album cover for Merope’s Salos
I think it’s funny, my newfound passion for ambient music. Maybe because it’s the peak of obscurity I’ve been building toward since Christian ska ignited my “music guy” journey in 8th grade. Maybe because I’m a fucking comedian, and what makes me think people want to hear what nature sounds I like just because they enjoyed my jokes about my coma? Maybe because it’s so slight, it’s like being passionate about rugs, which, actually, I guess some people are.
The satisfaction ambient-leaning music is giving me recently is a supreme value I seek in albums: an absorbing experience. Something that transports you Somewhere Else completely while you’re listening. A dis-orienting experience.
Right after college, I discovered two albums that represented this ideal for me. When I heard them, I thought, “This is what I’ve been buying album after album searching for.” They weren’t ambient. They were DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing..... (layered, downbeat, instrumental hip-hop) and The-Dream’s Love/Hate (suuuuuper slick, hook-packed R&B).
Another thing I love about ambient might seem pretentious, but I think it’s actually what makes the music accessible: You decide what it means.
Vocals are rare on ambient albums, but stories around their creation are plentiful. Many albums sample sounds of melting glaciers and near-extinct species. Some stories involve exciting combinations of new jazz players in the studio together. But with so few overt narrative clues in the music, things like titles and liner notes become more important in making meaning.
Initially, this strikes me as cheating. “You shouldn’t need the song’s title to understand it. It should speak for itself!” my brain tells me. But… what??! The title is part of the song! Otherwise, the artist wouldn’t have titled it. In most cases, they’re the ones who made the liner notes. It’s okay to use these things to interpret the music. Sometimes you root for a team just because they wear cool colors or you like their mascot!
I find ambient music accessible because it’s interactive. Sure, there’s history to the genre and often complex musical concepts at play. But on a very important level, it’s just sound. Whatever you hear is right. You don’t need to understand a swimming pool to take a dip, or dive in.
Here are a few recent-ish ambient-ish albums I’ve enjoyed to guide your dips and dives:
Masayoshi Fujita: Stories
If you wanna use song titles to make meaning, here’s your album. Titles like “Deers,” “Story of Forest,” and “Story of Waterfall I. & II.” make clear the subjects of these stories, but their plots are up to you! Instrumentally, it’s almost all vibraphone, which is variously soothing, light, and playful.
Merope: Salos
Acoustic and synthesized sounds with lyrics and melodies from traditional Lithuanian folk songs. Feeds my Lithuania obsession, and sounds like magical fairy shit.
Sam Wilkes: WILKES
My favorite album of the last, I don’t know, at least 5 years? Maybe 10. Bass, synth, sax, and drums creating a thick atmosphere of melody and rhythm. Listening to this feels like floating through clouds, looking down, and reflecting on mortality.
Got a response to something here? Want to join my weekly workshops for storytelling or kickstarting your creative practice? Reply or comment, and I’ll hit you back.
THIS IS MY PODCAST, THIS IS YOUR AFTERLIFE
Painter, writer, and musician Ross Simonini get out there in this first part of our conversation (part 2 coming Tuesday). If you’ve ever thought about the value of life (not even just human life), how to describe the unknown, or you like zen koans, don’t miss it!
MOOD BOARD
Wanna join a workshop in February? Hit me up now! I’ve got space in Personal Storytelling and Unblock the Artist.
Shattering Gleam: A Podcast About Music and Gender released its first episode this week about the way Prince pitch-shifted his voice. These are the kinds of conversations I love having about music, and I’m excited to hear where the show goes.
I’ve been almost fully locked down during Omicron, but this week I broke my lockdown to host bar trivia from a store room in an N95 mask like the Wizard of Oz, to ensure I keep the job going forward. It was the weirdest performance of my life, and there’s something horrifically satisfying about the thing I risked my health for being literally trivial.
We donated $10 to Chicago Quarantine Funds to help struggling service workers. I mean, that’s just me, and that’s okay! I hope you all are staying safe and fed and approaching as close to sanity as you can.
MAY I PLAY YOU A SOUND?
Well, I already did! Sometimes all I am is a music recommendation machine attached to an insulin pumping machine.
Hear you later,
DM