On Hold!
I am re-visiting the concepts of "pause then play, play then pause" for contemplative arts practice at the Mindful Beacon studio. My inquiry is leading me to re-re-visiting what happened to the world back during the great pause of the pandemic.
Tuning into the ambient music of that time as the musicians’ visceral responses to being on hold, to the forced pause, is lighting up my little meditator's heart!
I’ve been assisted in this process by past issue of the Flow State Substack newsletter:
This first quote is from 5 years ago, in an article where Flow State interviewed drummer Even Shornstein.
“an ambient album called On Hold, which takes recordings of hold music and slows them down to create beautiful lofi focus music. He wrote, ‘I felt an urgency to self-release this project ahead of schedule as the concept feels very relevant to the current state of our world. Most of our lives are currently on hold.’”
And then there’s this quote from last week:
“As a drummer, the idea of ambient music had become enticing over the years and the concept of On Hold came about in a very natural way. I was sampling call waiting music and making these blurry looped arrangements. After creating about 10 or 12 tracks, I was traveling internationally and got sick during a layover. As a result, I missed my connection and had a long night in the chilling airport fluorescence. Luckily I had the On Hold tracks in headphones soothing my soul on repeat. These tracks become a personal companion and I was waiting for the right moment to release them. It wasn’t until March 2020 that I felt the relevancy and urgency to put out the record.”
At the mindfulness studio, the paid members had the option to attend a retreat this weekend in Gloucester. We are exploring true rest at the ocean.
How does one integrate pauses into real life?
Member discussion