6. William Tyler, Luke Schneider‘The Going Through’
I’ve got various instrumental country and folk playlists that I’ve built from scratch over the years but sometimes, we have to acknowledge that the algorithm popping new song suggestions in there is a really useful thing: this choice came about by one of these. I’m an occasional DJ. I’m not a natural record collector or seeker. I never enjoyed hunting through things in record shops. For me, and it’s not laziness so much, it’s just that I put all my musical attention into creation as a rule so the [algorithm] discovery stuff has actually been great for me. I’ve found loads of music through it. I randomly found Kevin Morby through that one day. I said ‘Oh shit, he’s really well known but I didn’t know!’ I think it’s just a new version of synchronicity. It’s a new version of the universe like showing up to provide you with what you need to hear at the right moment. The iPod Shuffle used to do that. People used to talk about how it seemed like the right thing would come on at the right moment. I think we’re just looking at a more universal version of that.
I was listening to a playlist with my girlfriend, we were having a glass of wine and this track appeared [via algorithm]. A lot of difficult stuff had been going on for both of us and it was a really sad day. This track started and she described seeing me hear it for the first time. She said my eyes were shut and I just smiled, and apparently, I had my hand on her heart as we were just sitting there together. I didn’t know the title but then found out it was called ‘The Going Through’ and that’s just what we were doing – we were just going through it at that time. The work is so joyful and brought some relief to that time. Whenever we’re listening to music together and put that on, it just takes us back to this moment and I can never get bored of it. It’s a pleasure to listen to and personally a very special piece of music to me.
