nixpertise

June 10, 2021 A few weeks ago Benjamin Woo - a friend from college - sent me his album, " Blessed Be ." It's him singing solo, with simple guitar accompaniments. His lyrics mix the prosaic with the spiritual, moving between sentiments of faith, renewal, isolation, and struggle.     My two favorite tracks are " Hallelujah " and " Across the Sea ." In "Across the Sea," Ben slowly strums chords, grounding his lyrics in a periodic, but expressively uneven ebb and flow. He sings to an unnamed lover across the ocean: "[...] talking everything the mind can't think of while I'm in prison wishing I could be there" "[...] won't you call me when you're free" There are multiple meanings of 'freedom' in the album - there's freedom as peace of mind, as the pleasure of companionship, as a mode of witnessing and roaming. Throughout "Blessed Be," this state of togetherness seems to be in the past, or e...

May 24, 2021 In September 2020 I came to Auckland, NZ with my partner, who grew up here. Then a few months ago I began playing with the violinist and composer Johnny Chang, who also moved back here after living in Berlin for 11 years.      Recently Johnny suggested we take a look at some of Catherine Lamb's music. He and Cat played a bunch together while in Germany, and recorded an album of music by the "late Vedic" composer, Viola Torros .      Here are a few scattered thoughts on the Viola Torros album, which I've been somewhat obsessively listening to. It's a long album: three 40-minute tracks, another half-hour track, and a fifth clocking in at 14 minutes. It's become something of a companion for me on my regular evening walks along the Hauraki Gulf coast, the feature sight of which is Rangi toto Island: a volcano that erupted around 600 years ago.     A few weeks ago while I was playing violin in the APO I was talking to a friend of Johnny's...