12. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial OrchestraHe Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms
I have recently become obsessed with this album. I came across it a couple of years ago. Then I saw one of their tracks was used on Top Boy meaning I must have experienced it, but I wasn’t conscious of them at the time. I connect with the record on a few levels: the classical element, the vocal manipulation, the poetry of the lyric. You could even say it is similar to the work of Nitin Sawhney. Within the album there’s a song of silence. I don’t know why, but I just like things like that. I played on that with my album’s first track where I put you in 30 seconds of silence. It works on the fact that I know as a musician I offer escapism. But sometimes as society I feel we are too escapist, sometimes we need to face what is in front of us more. I work from home most of the time–isolated–so when I step outside, I want to see what is going on in the world. So when I was travelling I wouldn’t put headphones on, I would just leave my ears open to whatever I hear and experience, and have to accept that, whether it’s good or bad. I wanted to be part of the world. So that is what I did with that track. I took you into my world and threw you back to your own thoughts and your reality through the silence. I really liked that playfulness and juxtaposition from this album. I don’t know their explicit intention but I liked it nonetheless.
