Soothing Sunday: Flowering Tree by Sanae Yamada
This series seeks to highlight options for musical escapism for those of us who find the end of the weekend, and the looming resumption of the hustle and stress of the “work week”, with a level of dread. It’s been described as the “Sunday Scaries,” and it’s a bummer. While we actually should work to change this broken system where we are made to feel lucky getting a few hours off before being send back into the gaping maw of propping up a system that only seems to work for billionaires, in the meantime we’re going to suggest some chilled out, calming or otherwise soothing music for you to listen to in hopes of at least sanding off the edges of capitalism’s ongoing dread machine.
Longform Editions is an amazing series where artists create experimental or ambient standalone songs that get posted a few times a year on the labels Bandcamp page. If you aren’t plugged into the series you should change that as soon as possible. One track from the latest drop of songs is an hour-long song from Sanae Yamada, an artist best known for her work with her partner Ripley Johnson in the great psych rock band Moon Duo and as a solo artist under the name Vive la Void.
Flowering Tree is an ambient balm that allows the listener to get lost in music’s peacefulness, exploring throughout its running time always staying grounded in a quiet glow. There is a low drone that centers the song, with a ripple of guitar loop that breezes through the windows of the song. Occasionally the song is punctuated by glistening keys that give the impressions of birds out the window, adding just the right amount of flavor to the track without being jarring.
“Flowering Tree” is named after the apple tree in Yamada’s back yard that, along with the sounds of a summer day in Portland inspired the track. If life is rushing too fast, hit play on this song and try to see if you can slow it down just a little. It’s a beautiful song that grabs you with its simplicity, wrapping its arms around you with its lack of desire to do anything more than capture a bit of beauty in a chaotic world.
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