Songs of Light and Dust (the post where I review some new music by my brother)

My brother's amazingly complex (but also relaxing) album, Songs of Light and Dust, is coming out in just two weeks--I am psyched. One track, "Echoes Down the Corridors of Time"is already out at WXPN's site The Key. Julie Miller put together a nice eighty-word write-up.

I've been listening to the song all day, and I love it. For a piece of ambient music, the straight-forward rhythm surprises me, but the track also contains so many rich colors of sound: sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle. One minute, my brain is getting its groove on; the next, I'm floating in outer space watching the planets glide through the void. The song gets progressively more "spacey" while also referencing melodies, rhythms, and sounds from earlier in the song. Not to impose too much of a narrative onto it, but I liken it to humanity's development. The flow of the song reminds me of the most sensible title I ever heard given to a world history textbook: "World History: Patterns of Change and Continuity." Patterns of change and continuity--those are the two primary conceptual elements of this song, and it makes for both a relaxing and engaging listen. Where have we been? Where are we going? Where are we now? What matters? These are the questions this track asks.

My brother has been at work on this album for months. From time to time, I have listened to him working on other tracks, and I love what he has crafted. Not every track is as narrative or as in-your-ears rhythmic as "Echoes..." but they all reflect my brother's ear for how sound can tell stories, convey moods, and create new ideas. I can recall at least a few occasions listening to tracks-in-progress where I realized that so many of his interests were coming together so beautifully in the album--electronic music, his interest in how light affects the human body, the natural world (recently the Pine Barrens, but also Dark Sky areas), various technologies, space. Weeks ago, as I heard a few tracks here and there--before the album had a title--I told him to title it "music for space ships."

He ignored my idea. I'm glad. After hearing this completed track, I realized, yes, sure, the music is sometimes "spacey," but it's also very much of the body. The body? Yes. There are noticeable regular rhythms in "Echoes...", and at least one track later in the album, if I remember correctly, has human voices. Here's my point: in the void between bodies--be they heavenly bodies or human bodies--there is basically only light and dust and sound. What a gift to have these songs to acknowledge the void, but then to resist it, and ultimately, traverse it.

I think Data Garden is giving this away at six bucks. But, hey. I know. I'm biased.