While readers and listeners by and large look forward to all the album lists that fill up our social timelines from December to January, it seems musicians increasingly take a dimmer view of them. It is understandable. Any list, no matter how thoughtfully curated or diverse, is by definition exclusionary. Many argue compellingly that art is expression, not competition. So, it is with a certain amount of guilt & self-consciousness with which I publish my own annual round-ups, but it must be said that at the end of the day they prove to be useful vectors of discovery for a great many people.
When I wrap up the year for Stationary Travels, I often enjoy surveying what others have shared and I always find gems I’ve neglected or overlooked completely that become new favorites. So it is with Marek Kamiński‘s wonderful release from the spring of 2019 entitled Not Here which appeared on Headphone Commute’s selections under the theme Music for Withered Leaves and Lonely Fishtanks.
Continue reading “Sound Impression: Not Here by Marek Kamiński”
Providence, RI-based composer/producer Daniel Fine is poised to release his sophomore full-length album under the moniker of still life next month on Hush Hush Records, a Seattle-based label curated by KEXP-FM DJ & Pacific Notions show host Alex Ruder. ‘for a long time time i went to bed early‘ is a kaleidoscopic montage of reflection and memory that revolves around crystalline piano lines, prismatic textures, shimmering electronics, cinematic vignettes featuring strings and trumpet, euphoric post-rock crescendos, samples, found sounds, and spoken word. The constant shifting of mood, pace, and color is reflective of life itself exactly as Fine intended when he started working on the album.
