Meditations | Volume I

Greetings from the Pacific Northwest, where we’re savoring the waning warmth of a lingering, delightful summer.

As I mentioned last week, August’s Meditation 012 marked the end of Volume I — 12 new, original instrumental songs and visuals, shared here with you first. Before we jump into the next volume, I’ve decided to share all of these songs with you in a single audio file.¹ While some are available on streaming platforms, this collection hasn’t existed anywhere as a single unit until now.

🎵 I invite you to click play above to listen to every piece from Vol. I. They’re all instrumental, making them good companions for working, writing, focusing, cooking, reading, sleeping, walking the dog, throwing clay, fly fishing, sitting, etc. How do you like to listen?

📷 Above, you’ll see all 12 original photos shared in Volume I.

» Paid subscriptions

Last week I also shared how this newsletter came about and why it means so much to me and why I hope you might be inspired to show your support in the form of a paying subscription. Not because you'll get extra perks or because I'm putting anything behind a paywall (which I'm not), but because you value these meditations and the work they take, and what they add to your life.

A paid subscription is just $5/month. Your support will: 

• Support independent music;

• Keep Fog Chaser paywall-free and available to everyone;

• Ensure that I can do this work sustainably over the long-term. 

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Meditations, Volume I

The 12 songs that make up Volume I were released one at a time, one each month, September 2021 - August 2022. Each piece is listed here in order of appearance.²

» Song list

1. Flight | C Major (Stream | Original Post)

2. On The Path | A Minor (Unreleased | Original Post)

3. Foreign Morning | G Major (Stream | Free Download | Original Post)

4. Seeking / Calling | E Minor (Stream | Purchase | Original Post)

5. An Opening | D Major (Stream | Original Post)

6. At Smith Creek | B Minor (Stream | Original Post)

7. Unmoored | A Major (Stream | Original Post)

8. Florescence | F-sharp Minor (Stream | Original Post)

9. Contentment | E Major (Unreleased | Original Post)

10. Resolve | C-sharp Minor (Pre-save | Original Post)³

11. Alluvial | B Major (Stream | Original Post)⁴

12. Alpine | G-sharp Minor (Unreleased | Original Post)

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Reading & Listening List, Volume I

Each issue of Volume I also included a few things I was reading and listening to. I’ve put these in a few lists here:

» Poems

1. “Roses, Late Summer” by Mary Oliver

2. “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson

3. “Day in Autumn” by Rainer Maria Rilke

4. “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver

5. “Unlocking” by Alice B Fogel

6. “Final Curve” by Langston Hughes

7. “Otherwise” by Jane Kenyon

8. “The Trees” by Philip Larkin

9. “Today” by Billy Collins

10. “From Blossoms” by Li-Young Lee

11. “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver

12. “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W.B. Yeats

» Books

1. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

2. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

3. Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

4. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

5. Beloved by Toni Morrison

6. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

7. In the Cafe of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano

8. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

9. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

10. Lean On Pete by Willy Vlautin

11. No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. Le Guin

» Songs

1. Summer’s End by John Prine

2. Green Bus by The Innocence Mission

3. You Needed Love, I Needed You by Angelo De Augustine

4. Morning Dew by Kelsey Lu

5. Holy Deja Vu by Black Books

6. Fellowship by serpentwithfeet

7. Broken Harvest by Madison Cunningham

8. I’m Alright In The World by BC Camplight

9. Dear Thomas Wolfe by Damien Jurado

10. Chinese Satellite by Phoebe Bridgers

11. Ocotillo by Loma

12. Mohabbat by Arooj Aftab

» Spotify users can listen to all of these songs in this playlist:

So, that was Volume I. Feel free to bookmark this page so you can come back here and hit play whenever you need a breather. And stay tuned for the first installment of Volume II, a piece in F-sharp major, which will land in your inbox next week.

As always, thank you for being here. And if you missed last week’s note, you can read it here:

Celebrating One Year 🎉

1. I was thinking about sending this out tomorrow, but my friend Jon said, and I quote: “People need that Fog Chaser chill to get through hump day bro.” So here we are.

2. I wrote and released the songs in the order of major key, then its relative minor, then the next major key, and so on, making my way around the circle of fifths.

3. Released with record label Sonder House.

4. Also released with Sonder House.