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FROM ANDROMEDA AND BACK RADIO: SKIES THAT DO NOT FADE

I remember being in Chicago back in the day, listening to an FM rock station. After a bevy of alternative rock, the DJ suddenly put on the Waltz from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. At the art store where I worked, one of the young hipsters immediately yelled, "Tchaikovsky!" and began conducting with her hands. I'll never forget that moment. We had gone from, say, Throwing Muses to Tchaikovsky, and I remember thinking: How cool was that? Here was music making its own case. It didn't plead. It didn't demand. In its own way, it rocked. And then, after that glorious interlude, it was back to alternative rock. The funny thing was that the classical piece had not seemed out of place. It held its own. It brought to the table its own heft, its own weight. It wasn't preachy. It wasn't better than. It was simply another fiber in the fabric of the day. And maybe that's the way great music should be heard. Not fenced off by genre. Not placed behind glass. Not approa...
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THE SWEET REFRESH 1: NALA SINEPHRO'S ENDLESSNESS

 

So...
Welcome to a new occasional series.
A place to pause, breathe, and share whatever is currently refreshing my heart and mind.
You've just finished a 400-page novel.
You've published it on Amazon.
It's beginning to find its audience.
Naturally, you start thinking about the next one.
Right?
Of course you do.
As Biggie put it:
"Can't stop, won't stop."
But first...
You need the bridge.
That quiet place between one climb and the next.
The place where the soul catches its breath before setting out again.
Sometimes it's Bach.
The Six Partitas.
The French Suites.
Notes falling like summer rain.
Today, though...
it's Nala Sinephro's extraordinary album, Endlessness.
Extraordinary.
I don't use that word lightly.
This isn't music that demands your attention.
It quietly earns it.
Sinephro understands something many musicians never do.
Space is part of the composition.
Every note seems to arrive exactly when it should—and never a moment sooner.
The bass is rich and quietly insistent.
The orchestral colors bloom almost imperceptibly.
Jazz, ambient music, and classical textures drift together with remarkable patience.
Nothing feels forced.
Nothing is hurried.
The album simply unfolds...
and before long...
you're somewhere else.
It's the kind of record that prepares you for the next heavy lift.
Or perhaps...
helps remind you why the heavy lift was worth attempting in the first place.
May I suggest a gentle challenge?
Listen to "Continuum 3."
It offers a wonderful glimpse of what Nala Sinephro is capable of.
I've since learned she has an enormous reputation.
After hearing Endlessness...
I understand why.
As I sat listening and thinking about the road ahead, another traveler came to mind.
Wordsworth's immortal tribute to Isaac Newton in The Prelude:
"...The marble index of a mind for ever
Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone."
Is that not the life of every novelist?
Every composer?
Every artist?
We all set sail toward strange seas of thought.
Much of the voyage...
we make alone.
Fortunately...
we don't always travel without companions.
For this journey, mine is Nala Sinephro's Endlessness.
And as everyone is always reminding the Doctor in Doctor Who...
"Doctor, never travel alone."
Neither should we.


More Sweet Refresh: The Sweet Refresh 2: The Triumph of the Wide Wide Sea

I'd love to hear your thoughts, so speak your mind. Leave me a comment or feel free to hit me up at: fromandromedaandback@gmail.com. And thank you!

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