"Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins

It's May...

Here is "Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins (previously here).

https://cocteautwins.com/

"Sympathy Magic" by Florence + the Machine

Florence Welch (previously here) has done it again...she has released a song that blows me away -- well, the recent "One of the Greats" seen here also blew me away, but let's stick to this new gem. "Sympathy Magic" is one of those anthems that soars upward, taking my breath with it. It is from her new album "Everybody Scream" coming out this Friday, Halloween of 2025, which explores themes of spiritual mysticism, witchcraft, and folk horror, as well as womanhood, partnership, aging, and dying.

The costumes for this video set it in the Edwardian period with Florence and her coven performing a ritual in the open fields of England on Tor stones which are the low, flat stones that dot the countryside. And the sense of the ritual is revealed in the lyrics where Florence declares to the ground and to the sky her agency, her power, as she sings in a dazzling combination of exasperation, rage, new-found freedom, and ultimate joy, "So I don't have to be worthy / I no longer try to be good / It didn't keep me safe / Like you told me that it would / So come on, tear me wide open / 'Til I'm losing my mind / 'Til I cannot contain it." It is important to note that she and her coven are stripped down to their lace undergarments to declare their independence.

I love her expression of a belief in animism, a sense of being connected to nature as a part of creation itself, of...well, a sense of magic when she says, "And light coming in the window just so / And the wind through my fingers / The only God that I know / And it does not want me on my knees to believe / Head high, arms wide / Aching, aching, aching / And alive / And alive."

But the song kicks into highest gear with her screaming into the wind, at the everything, "So come on, come on, I can take it / Give me everything you got / What else? What else? What else? What else?"

Please do take a moment to click on the image from the video below to go to the Florence + the Machine Youtube page to watch this inspiring, ascending piece of art.

https://florenceandthemachine.net/

"Ritual" by Jon Hopkins

Simply extraordinary music... "Ritual" by Jon Hopkins, his new release.

His website says:
"By turns devotional, empowering and nurturing, Jon Hopkins’ forthcoming RITUAL is a 41-minute ceremonial epic built from cavernous subs, hypnotic drumming and transcendent melodic interplay.. Tense, immersive and ultimately triumphant, it is a culmination of themes explored throughout his 22-year career, and acts as the kinetic counterpart to 2021’s Music For Psychedelic Therapy.

A single piece unfolding over eight chapters, RITUAL is personified by depth and contrast. Taking ceremony, spiritual liberation and the hero's journey as inspiration, it taps into an ancient and primal energy."

Clear vinyl copies of this album are available for order on his website!
https://www.jonhopkins.co.uk/

"Andrá" by Sigur Ros

The power of Music.
The power of Sigur Ros.

Like the people in this video, I have my own Sigur Ros story:

It was late summer of 2001 and my mom had been diagnosed with end-stage lung cancer and given six months to a year to live -- we found out her diagnosis on 9/11, the day the Towers came down. A few months later, not wanting to be around for his wife’s death, my dad shot himself in the temple. I took care of my mom as best I could, but the grief of my dad’s death and watching her slip away took a toll on me. One afternoon while shopping in a homeware boutique looking at pretty objects to take my mind off things, I became aware of a song playing on the store’s sound system. The sound and texture of the song caught me and I stopped at a table of handmade ceramics. I stood frozen, pretending to look at bowls and plates while listening to a song so gentle, so lulling, so ethereal, so otherworldly, I literally did not know what was happening to me. An organ and music box contrasted with a primal roaring … then a rhythmic pinging sounded like sonar … and then a singer, with the voice of an angel, kept singing what I heard as “It’s you…it’s you…it’s you…” This song did not come from this world, it did not belong in this world. It was huge, cosmic, echoing. It shook me, comforted me, spoke to me about my grief. It said: there is something bigger, there is something else, it’s okay, everything is going to be okay. It was the sound of compassion. I went to the counter to ask what was playing, and found out the song was "Svefn-g-englar" (literally “Sleep Angels” or “Sleep Walkers” in Icelandic) and the band was called Sigur Ros. The feeling of the song stayed with me and I can still feel it 22 years later when I hear it. It is as if it holds the liminal idea of being born and dying at the same time. When I discovered the song’s lyrics translated in English, and learned that the chorus of what I thought was “It’s you” is actually Jónsi, the lead singer singing “Tjú, tjú, tjú,” an Icelandic cooing sound traditionally used to calm a baby to sleep, it all made sense. I have always said if heaven had a houseband, it would be Sigur Ros.

https://sigurros.com/

"Seraphim II" by How To Disappear Completely

I am thrilled that How To Disappear Completely (previously here) has released another collection of incredible ambient drone music, "Seraphim II" which is a follow up to the equally stunning "Seraphim." Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream...

https://htdc.bandcamp.com/

"Ephemera" by How To Disappear Completely

"Ephemera" is a new three-song collection just released by How To Disappear Completely. It's dreamy, ethereal, melancholy...described by the artist as:

Flowing in a state of deafening solitude. Visions of sadness murmured in dreams. We know how the end always is.

https://htdc.bandcamp.com/

"A Drop In The Ocean (Paul Corley Remix)" by Frakkur

Some calm transcendence in a troubled world.

"A Drop In The Ocean (Paul Corley Remix)" by Frakkur (a nom de musique our beloved Jónsi from Sigur Ros used to record ambient music several years ago).

https://frakkur.bandcamp.com/
https://jonsi.com/
https://sigurros.com/

"Vetiverol" by Jónsi

I am currently lost in--and weeping from--this exquisite, transcendent track by Jónsi. From his album "Obsidian" released last year, "Vetiverol" captures the sound of ultimate compassion...it's full of a gentle wistfulness, a sense of an ending, of letting go without regret...

https://jonsi.com/

"Circle 26" by Robert Koch & Foam and Sand

What a glorious piece of music this is: "Circle 26" by Foam and Sand, the ambient soundscape and visual project of award-winning composer and conceptual artist, Robot Koch. The background buzz, the swell of the song, the keening of the violins...it all makes me swoon. The BBC’s Bobby Friction noted of Koch’s music, "It sounds like artificial intelligence discovering religion."

"I started meditating 7 years ago. It’s interesting that meditation and medicine have the same root syllable. Meditating before working on my music resets my brain and helps me access ideas that are layers deeper than my conscious mind. Foam and Sand started as a self-soothing project which I now share with the intention of providing healing and inspiration to others."

--Robot Koch

https://www.robotsdontsleep.com/

"Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins

It's May...

Here is "Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins (previously here).

https://cocteautwins.com/

"Spirit & Decline" by Gem Club

Wow, I am so glad to hear some new music from Gem Club, the nom de musique of Christopher Barnes (previously here). This new track "Spirit & Decline" is just tremblingly, agonizingly beautiful. Although the song has apparently been around for a little while, he just officially released it earlier this year and I am really hoping this means a new full release is on the horizon.

hushed among the bells
the arrow struck your shoulder
forced to the ground
with the shredded pulp
of red apples

and you're near
your hands are touching hands
and you're near
the violence swells with its song
i am starting to lose focus
the distance in decline
while i'm watching your spirit

rise

watched for the point
when you'd wake from it
with the sun against your back

http://iamgemclub.com/

"Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins

It's May...

Here is "Throughout the Dark Months of April and May" by Cocteau Twins (previously here).

https://cocteautwins.com/

Embody It

"Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it."

--Epictetus

"Pandora" by How To Disappear Completely

I am floating in a delicious, transcendent Alpha state listening to this phenomenal ambient/drone track called "Pandora" by How To Disappear Completely, a live collective based in Poland. The song is part of a new release called "Mer de Revs II," intended to aid in relaxation.

Their release notes say:
"Mer de Revs II - Music For Insomniacs

A study in deliberately soothing textures designed to give the listener space to find stillness and collapse into rest - late night lullabies.

How To Disappear Completely presents Mer de Revs II, second installment of our experimental sleep music project. Almost eighty minutes of new music composed and recorded over twelve month period (a song per month), 2016/2017. Recording this album we wanted to keep the same aesthetics - simple as possible, minimal amount of gear as possible. We hope you enjoy our latest release as much as we did recording it and we can't thank you all enough for your support. As always, thanks for listening.

Mer de Revs Sessions (Recorded in 2016/2017)

NOTE: The sound contained on this release is intended and specially designed to fit the headphones. All perceived silence and audio deformations were intended."

https://www.facebook.com/HTDC-319195858174808/

Currently listening to...

...the live version of "Future Lovers" by Madonna. I seem to be stuck on this song...

First of all, the song itself--even the studio version--is pulsing, mesmerizing, hypnotizing...ecstatic. The key and the musical arrangement are arresting, gripping. Even though it is ostensibly about leaving behind this reality ("I'm gonna tell you about love/ Let's forget your life/ Forget your problems/ Administration, bills, and loans/ Come with me") there is a delicious abstract sense about the following repeated phrase, like a mantra or ritual praise, "In the evidence of its brilliance." What possesses this brilliance? That is the unspoken core she is singing of--perhaps a place in some kind of shimmering future, a place beyond words, a place, as Rumi said, "beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing." Indeed, she next sings, "In the demonstration of this evidence/ Some have called it religion/ This is not a coincidence/ Would you like to try?"

Peak experience? A transcending altered consciousness? The sinking, thrilling sensation of being--finally--separated from your body outside of time? Regular readers of OBTW might recognize these ideas as recurring themes of the art, films, music, and literature I share with you, and as a motif in my own original writing and poetry (usually featured here in April for National Poetry Month). These ideas are "the evidence of its brilliance." Its brilliance: you can't see it without it destroying you. You can't be near it without becoming it. Words cannot be used to describe something beyond words. Images cannot be employed to show something that is beyond the physical. All we can do is feel it, follow it parallel, and intone endlessly, "In the evidence of its brilliance."

But back to our powerful performance at hand: Madonna opened every concert for her 2006 Confessions Tour with this piece of stunning performance art. The equestrian theme somehow blends beautifully--perhaps because the music is so pounding and relentless, like a horse at full gallop. The tensions and anticipation building up to her entrance is palpable--she knows how to choreograph a moment. And giving a nod to the original inspiration to the song--the classic Euro-disco hit "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer--is a wonderful, dreamlike touch.

Here, listen to the studio version too: just as powerful...

In the evidence of its brilliance.

http://www.madonna.com/

Currently listening to...

...the exquisite, grand, transcendent, cosmically enormous instrumental "Lower Your Eyelids To Die With The Sun" by M83 (Anthony Gonzalez).

http://ilovem83.com/

Currently listening to...

..."Great Spangled Fritillary," a genre-defying classic track by the legendary, sublime, enigmatic, and thoroughly magical Cocteau Twins from their "Echoes In a Shallow Bay" EP from 1985.

http://www.cocteautwins.com/

"Matilda's Dream" by Demdike Stare

I have always been a huge fan of ambient music (I heard Eno's "Music For Airports" in the late 70s and have been hooked ever since)..."Matilda's Dream" by Demdike Stare (DJ Sean Canty and producer Miles Whittaker) is completely hypnotizing. I can feel myself slipping into alpha brain waves as I listen...

"Stigmata I and II" by Tim Hecker

Enigmatic, ethereal, hypnotic. Ambient noise compositions by Tim Hecker. "Stigmata I" and "Stigmata II" from his album "Virgins."

http://sunblind.net/

"Let My Key Be C" by Nils Frahm and Anne Müller

Simply glorious.
"Let My Key Be C" by Nils Frahm and Anne Müller.

http://www.nilsfrahm.com/
https://www.facebook.com/annemullercello