Hello! We meet here again! This week, we are going on a journey together into our collective mind (or perhaps I’m bringing you into my mind? Not sure – let me know in the comments below if you like!). I don’t know about you, but my mind is like a hurricane sometimes. And the calmest place is in the center, right?!
So here we go. If you’re ready, locate your most neutral (as in not boosting of any frequency ranges, or “hyping” them, as some people call it), music friendly speaker/headphones, set them up, and press play on the track below.**
“A World Away” by Melbourne duo, Farafield, is warm, felty, and I start breathing more deeply the moment those first notes play on the piano.
I think a lot of the music I enjoy, is made to take you into yourself. This piece feels like it’s inside my head, which is in part because I usually listen to music on headphones, but there’s more to it. Listen to the piano playing and imagine if you were in the room with the player, where would you be? What does the room look like? What does the floor look like? For me, I feel like I’m either under the piano or inside it somewhere. The room feels dry and warm. The floor is soft. So, take a gander, what does this place inside your head look like? This is the first step of our journey. Whenever you’re ready, stop player above and clicky clicky on “DANCE” by BOGIE below.
My favorite thing about this track is how the chord progression and guitar melody lead seamlessly right back into the start of themselves in a never ending circle. Even though by the end of the track, we’ve heard this descending, somewhat scalar guitar line over a dozen times, I’m not tired of it at all. Anyone else with me?!
Some other things to note, the arpeggiated synths are chilling in the back, the flute is floating around somewhere, the drums are right next to us. Hear that tambourine in the upper left corner of the space? And where is that guitar coming from?!?! It’s…INSIDE OUR HEAD!!!
“In My Head” by Gina Livia accompanies us through the cloudy doubt-y layer of the mind. The vocal, guitar, synths, kick…pretty much every instrument feels close to us, pulling us in. I think our minds are merging with Gina’s mind…
where in this world
am I supposed to be…
It’s in my head
This song also has a seamless cyclical chord progression and melody combo that makes me want to put this piece on repeat. But it’s not time for that! It’s time to dive deeper into OUR HEAD!
This next track is “Highway 5” by Amsterdam based Johannes and the starworld. When I first heard this track, I listened closely to all 5 minutes and 3 seconds, unsure of how I felt during it, and at the end, I realized I felt better than before I heard this music. I felt brighter. I felt calmer. This is actually the piece that inspired the theme of this minimix. So, through this magical piece of music, we hopefully emerge through the cloudy doubt-y layer and move into acceptance. Something like, “my mind is a hurricane and I think I’m ok!”
Which brings us to our next piece, “Alone” by Ivory! – a young Chicago born drummer and songwriter. She’s in the center of this calm, and ads joy on top of it.
Hardships
The process
Where the only concept is progress.
You’ll never be alone.
I could spend some time explaining why this groove is so solid and how delightful the instruments are, but it would take more time than I have left today to explain groove, so that’s a topic for another minimix. But, we are here now. Together. In the calm in the storm.
Which means, it’s time to wrap it up for today with one final track.
“Dias” is a funky, Latin influenced ditty by German based Georgisound with guitar lines that sound like you can actually see the fingers playing them. I love hearing the human in the music (a lot of that is engineered out these days, so this is a refreshing sound for me). Because it’s bittersweet to wrap up, this meloncholic jam fits the bill perfectly.
Thank you for spending this time with me and listening to sounds from our fellow humans around the globe! Hope you enjoyed and have a wonderful weekend.
love,
TRJ
** headphones/earbuds/bluetooth speakers > built in phone/laptop speakers
