Isolation Music I Like

Solitude and art have always gone together. But the past year, even the most extroverted among us [hint: that’s not me] is finding themes of isolation relevant. I added at least three recent releases to various other draft posts before I noticed how often those themes pop up. Lately things have started opening up, but I suspect we’ll have another round of solitude before this whole thing is over. So here’s a whole post of albums to listen to alone.

aswekeepsearching

I discovered this post-rock band from India last winter. I like a lot of post-rock, and I’m instantly intrigued by anything from India, especially when it overlaps my usual genres. When I was there 20 years ago, there was (at least in the area where I stayed) no awareness of Western pop culture. Rooh, by aswekeepsearching, was a thoughtful, revery-inducing post-rock album with lyrics in Urdu and well-placed Indian influences.

By the time I got around to writing about it, though, they had put out a new one. This time, they went full ambient on sleep, which is literally intended as a lullaby. In their words

This is us looking inward more than ever, for mental wellness and a safe space for our and our fans’ minds.

And it’s lovely. There are minimalist videos to go along with the album over on their YouTube channel.

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Jeffrey Silverstein

Bandcamp Daily introduced me to the Jeffrey Silverstein album You Become the Mountain. The Portland-based artist’s mellow instrumentals and gentle, repetitive vocals layered with samples from old mindfulness cassettes could be peak Portlandia. But the pedal steel guitar gives it a sense of nostalgia and makes the mellow more interesting. And let’s face it. Sometimes things that would seem cheesy AF during better times are genuinely healing when things are hard.

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Dopamine

Dopamine is depressive post-black metal from Nanchang, China. On Dying Away in the Deep Fall, mostly instrumental music is exquisitely beautiful until black metal vocals rip through the delicate fabric of their songs – and then it’s somehow still beautiful. Those vocals are so incoherent, I’m not even sure what language they are. So I don’t know if solitude and isolation are themes. The song titles indicate confusion and watery deaths. But I can’t imagine listening to this music any way but alone. The distraction of other people would break the spell.

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Unreqvited

I discovered Unreqvited in the fall of 2018 with the release Mosaic I. Since then, the one-man post-black metal project has had six more releases. But Mosaic II: la déteste et la détresse is the first one I noticed. (This despite following Unreqvited on Bandcamp. What can I say? I get a lot of email.) I’m glad I noticed this one, as it picks up where Mosaic I left off, with the same “depressive yet uplifting” tone. And with song titles like “Nightfall,” “Pale,” “Wasteland,” and “Disorder,” it’s perfect listening for social distancing.

{I didn’t even notice the solitary figure on the album cover until I opened the image to create the collage for this post.}

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Caspian

Usually instrumental, Caspian includes some vocals with the track “Nostalgist” on the album On Circles. Released before lockdown, the album title couldn’t have been meant to refer to the Groundhog Day feeling of our social isolation schedules, any more than the track “Nostalgist” refers to the lonesome feeling of lockdown that it evokes. Nevertheless, those connections fit nicely. But that’s not why I’m including it here. Sometimes isolation gets you down. But most of On Circles feels like the sort of uplifting epiphany you can only achieve in isolation. And doesn’t the open door on the album cover feel like hope even though it’s looking inward?

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Afsky

Ofte jeg drømmer mig død (Often I Dream Myself Dead) by Danish band Afsky showed up on so many year-end lists I finally gave it a listen. Although I just meant to check out one track before moving on to something else, I forgot to stop and let it play. I thought the 19th century agrarian artwork was an odd choice until I heard the music, which sounds as lonely as leaning over the body of a spouse collapsed from overwork with not another soul in sight to call for help.

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