WILT_2023-36

A playlist of songs that intrigued me from Sunday to Saturday. Week of 3 Sep 2023 to 9 Sep 2023.

1. Rothko Chapel 5 – Morton Feldman
2. Your Lord – Flying Lotus
3. 856 – Josh Johnson
4. FALLING RIZLAS – Actress
5. Blood in My Mouth – DjRUM
6. There Is No Time (Prelude) – Madlib
7. Wave II – Elori Saxl
8. Woodward Avenue – Yusef Lateef
9. Apoptose, Pt. 2 – Floating Points
10. Eine Alpensinfonie: X. Nacht – Richard Strauss, Bernard Haitink, London Symphony Orchestra
11. Blue – Elori Saxl
12. Floor Position – Perila
13. Today I Learned What Makes Bugs Sick and How To Tie My Shoelaces – Dylan Henner
14. Corners – Jason Kolàr
15. Samara – Ann Annie
16. Scrub Your Ego – Suso Saiz
17. Gone for a Wonder – Domenique Dumont
18. Stuck in Pause – Astrid Sonne
19. Red Storm – Kelly Moran
20. Uncertain Instruction – K. Leimer

Hyperlink to Spotify playlist: WILT_2023-36

Notes

This week’s playlist was born from some sort of escape away from anxiety. I had missed the stirring orchestral arrangements in some of my previous playlists and I sought out that music. Somewhere or another, I came across Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel 5 and that laid the foundation for the rest of this playlist.

This playlist is not so much orchestras and symphonies, but more vast and expansive soundscapes that are achieved through both a methodical as well as experimental approach to music. I find the blend between analog, electronic, and digital arrangements immensely organic in this particular outing. Take for instance, Elori Saxl, whose compositions sound like take you on journeys that transcend space and time because of the different kinds of instruments being featured. There is no set dogma for what to achieve save what needs achieving. 

Apoptose, Pt. 2 by Floating Points also shows why the producer is one of the foremost electronic music producers at the moment. There is a tenacity behind its musical arrangement, one that constantly pushes forward with smatterings of new tones and sine waves. Or take the uneasy static of Perila’s Floor Position, so wondrously cradling the breaking psyche as it hushes you to rest.

Today I Learned What Makes Bug Sick and How To Tie My Shoelaces by Dylan Henner is also a gentle stream of arpeggio tones, enough to wait the world by.

Final standouts for me include Samara by Ann Annie, whose delicate and brittle guitar playing fortify the swells of cathartic synthesisers; Scrub Your Ego by Suso Saiz, which almost sounds like a tune-up but turns into brisk walk amidst the quiet of terror; and Stuck in Pause by Astrid Sonne, which is an stark and bold musical arrangement that can give courage despite dwelling on particular anxieties.

All in all, if you are faced with a heavy heart, mind, or soul, perhaps the music found here will help ease or release the things that you are holding on too tightly.