Once again I’m ending back at the beginning. Nothing quite occupies my headspace than preparing one last “summer” mix to share. And for my latest hour “Digging Deep” for LYL Radio my whole attention (for some reason) was dedicated to crafting something special for, seemingly it turned out, a nebulous audience of one.
How does one capture the transition from summer into fall? Ecologically speaking, the are environmental things that function as triggers — early sunsets, cooler evenings, color-changing foliage — signaling that so too our life will change. Music, I think, can speak to such life cycle. And in the not-so-distant past, personally, I’ve been ruminating on such ideas permeating a certain album I shared last year: Gary Knox’s Life At The Beach.
Life At The Beach was this lovely, bit of transcendent New Age jazz that seemed like a communique between one man’s love for his “happy place” and the art form that could help him describe and connect it to others. Turning away from the stereotypical summer vibes associated with “beach music”, Gary (fortuitously) spun ideas that spoke to those feelings evoked when the boardwalk is sparse of tourists, when the locals come out of the woodwork to simply enjoy a quiet walk on the beach.
It’s that lovely spirit pouring through the album that spurred more than a few to contact me, wishing I had more information to share about their long gone friend. What you heard in his music, it seemed, was a vibe Gary resonated affirmatively (in life) with others.
And for me, one song that stuck with me was Gary’s “Eduardo’s Beach” — it’s the one I can convincingly say inspired this whole mix. Who was Eduardo? What was his relationship to Gary? Questions I couldn’t answer led me to explore if I can create an alternative soundtrack, a dreamt up compilation, curated for this unknown friend (who inspired such an album). Since I’ve started this blog, I’ve been blessed with getting to know a few of you, even if music is primarily the way we remain connected.
So, in those quiet moments, I wanted us to have a new set of music that could evoke a fleeting moment, a fleeting dream, one filled by us in the cracks left by others. It’s a love of life at the beach.
Hopefully, in these songs you can hear just how many sunsets lead to new beginnings (even at summer’s ending).
Seaside In The Twilight
Tracklist:
Bruce Becvar – Waves
Eduard De Negri – Despertar Sobre El Mar
Strunz & Farah – Cassiopeia
Santi Vega – Isla Mujeres
Joan Bibiloni – Marina
Miguel Braga – Da Sara
Air Suspension Club Band (エアー・サスペンション・クラブ・バンド) – Seaside In The Twilight
Shigeru Suzuki (鈴木 茂 ほか) – 回遊
Hiroya Minakuchi + Missing Link (水口博也) – Summer Days
Gary Knox – Eduardo’s Beach
Louis Winsberg – Cora Cor
Phil Keaggy – The Reunion
Editor’s note: All images in post generated by Midjourney with prompts by author.