Mesmerism

TL;DR: Hella, Takashi Okonogi, Kieran Hebden+Steve Reid; Mt. Eerie

Had dinner with Amy, Rea and Christina after seeing a show, and talked about compartmentalizing work in favor of pursuing creative practice. I mentioned the self-mesmerism article in the NY Times that came out a couple months ago, in which the author describes a beautiful transition ritual into “writer mode.” I think my ritual plodding on instruments or sewing clothes always gets me to a place of writing— playing and sewing get me oiled to write for all of five minutes sometimes, all night and other times, and sometimes the mesmerizing activity of playing and sewing is the final outcome. I wanted to make a playlist. This is an hour and a half of music that I play between a car, a phone, an office, my studio. They help me switch gears. I link to outlets that make the most sense short of owning the files. Download or bookmark the way you see fit.

Women of the 90s, Hella (Acoustic). Hold Your Horse Is is such a great album and the acoustic version is really special.

Morning Prayer, Kieran Hebdan and Steven Reid. This is in a Tidal account but no one uses Tidal so this is a YT link.

Last World, Takashi Okonogi. This is on a Japanese CD that costs $25 if you can find it, and not on YT because: Japanese. So I’m just linking to the video I made specifically to keep it public ten years ago. Of course you can ignore the video and well, you can ignore all of this but you can especially ignore the video and just listen to the song.

Microphones in 2020, Mt. Eerie. I think Wind’s Poem is maybe the most played thing in my library (like if Spotify did count my shit, that album would represent a pathological number) but this recording from Phil Elverum last year is pretty special. Also it’s a 45 minute track so just, know that it’s a 45 minute track.