Meditation 019 | Gathering Light

Thank you for being here for the nineteenth installment of this newsletter.¹

» I’ve become aware of the fact that you, my dear subscribers/listeners, tune in to this newsletter from nearly 80 countries. If you can, leave a comment letting me know where you are in the world:

🎵 This month’s piece is in E-flat major.²

I was inspired in part by one of my favorite pieces from the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt — “Spiegel im Spiegel” — which was written for piano and violin. So when I was first dabbling with the main piano piece, I immediately thought of bringing in my friend and fellow composer Niamh Fahy to add some strings.³

Niamh and I have worked together many times over the years. We started the alt/folk band Reddening West together back in 2015 (along with her husband, Kevin, and our friend/band-dad Todd). She’s an incredible musician and gifted violinist. For this piece, she graciously wrote and recorded viola and violin parts from her home studio in Austin, TX, adding so much to this song in the process. I hope you enjoy it.

📷 I took this month’s photo in England’s Lake District National Park.⁴

Working on this piece with Niamh reminded me of traveling to Ireland — where she’s from and where her family lives — for her and Kevin’s wedding back in 2016. After the wedding we made our way to England’s Lake District National Park — a favorite locale for both Wordsworth and Coleridge.

The Lake District remains, to this day, one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I often return to its idyllic simplicity in my mind: its winding footpaths, rough-hewn stone walls, sweeping slopes, glistening lakes, and dramatic skies. This photo captures an idyll of sorts, a simple moment in a quiet valley. If you’re thinking about taking a trip to Ireland or the UK, don’t wait. Just book it.

There were also dozens of sheep that kept bleating my name over and over again — “Matt! Matt!” No one believes me. Luckily I have video to prove it:

I invite you to sit with this month’s song, photo, and poem and make them a small part of your day, whether that’s your morning ritual, afternoon break, or your evening wind-down.

As always, if you feel like it, let me know what you think in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.

Thank you again for being here.

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A Poem

After the Winter

by Claude McKay⁵

Some day, when trees have shed their leaves
     And against the morning’s white
The shivering birds beneath the eaves
     Have sheltered for the night,
We’ll turn our faces southward, love,
     Toward the summer isle
Where bamboos spire the shafted grove
     And wide-mouthed orchids smile.

And we will seek the quiet hill
     Where towers the cotton tree,
And leaps the laughing crystal rill,
     And works the droning bee.
And we will build a cottage there
     Beside an open glade,
With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near,
     And ferns that never fade.

---

Currently

Reading

• Tenth of December: Stories by

  George Saunders
  (Powell’s)

  • Also see:

    Story Club with George Saunders

• “It’s Time to Rethink the Idea of the ‘Indigenous’” by Manvir Singh (The New Yorker)

Listening to

• Can I Believe You by Fleet Foxes (Listen)

  • Note: I put all the songs shared in the newsletter into this Spotify playlist

• What have you been listening to? Let me know:

• Looking for more music recommendations? Check out some of my favorite music discovery newsletters:

  • Shuffle Sundays 🎶
    from
    Leo Mascaro

  • On Repeat by Kevin Alexander

  • Record Store
    from
    Amaya Lim

  • Music Club
    from
    Lora Larson-Miller

Sharing

• Last month’s piece, daydream, hits streaming platforms this Friday. V13 was kind of enough to premiere it yesterday:

  “Words are such a valuable aspect of modern music, but when you hear Fog Chaser you realize they aren’t necessary to instill a song with passion, emotion, and intensity. Dreamy, atmospheric, neoclassical, ambient music that hits you in all the right places.” - Aaron Willschick / V13

1. We’re picking up where we left off on our journey around the circle of fifths before last month’s special collab with Kyle McEvoy (as Sunlight Jr.) and Wowflower.

The circle of fifths in music essentially places the most closely related key signatures next to one another in a visual format, which just provides a logical order for me to move in, so that’s what I’m doing — following the well-traveled path of musicians before me who have written pieces in all 24 musical keys.

2. Gathering Light in E-flat major / Written and produced by Fog Chaser / Strings written and recorded by Niamh Fahy / Recorded in Logic Pro

3. Niamh Fahy is a musician and composer based in Austin, TX. She is a music therapist by trade but also provides remote string recording for others through her business StringPress.

4. Gathering Light / iPhone (unedited)

5. About Claude McKay