As you listen to this track, you’re hearing what giving up sounds like. Not in a bad way, I suppose, but I’ve decided that I’m just stressing myself out trying to force “songs” this month. Both A Tiny Thing and Pigeonhole were surprise appearances, more so than my normal level of surprise when an idea for a song shows up.
- Kef Ray Toler 4:57
But there was no lightning strike today, so I was in the studio for about an hour trying out different sounds and textures and ideas, when finally I just decided to start recording what I was doing. Kef is a great example of the type of tracks I’ve written exclusively for myself to listen to over the last decades. Aside from some of the more modern glitchy sounds, this could just as easily have been something I did in the late 90s.
Part of what I like about these tracks is that they hit a zone that I didn’t really understand until I read a quote from (again) Brian Eno:
Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.
–Brian Eno
He also said that one of the chief purposes of his ambient explorations was to give “space to think” and that’s exactly what tracks like Kef provide me. There’s often a lot more going on in the track than it might seem, especially if you’re listening on headphones, Nothing is demanding your attention, but you may be rewarded if you give it a more critical listen.
Or you may not. I normally find myself drifting back and forth between thinking and listening. It’s not exactly meditation, but it’s a calm pool on a nice day. Thus the title, which means, “a state of dreamy or drug-induced repose.” I wasn’t experiencing the latter, but definitely the former while writing it.
If I had to subtitle this song, it would be “Give up, give in, and sink.” I suspect there will be more of these little journeys this month.
Colophon
- All instruments: Omnisphere
- Mastering: Ozone 9
Image Credit: Dream On by Cassandra Miller
