Author Topic: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes  (Read 2772 times)

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Offline allewartenaufdaslicht_

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Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« on: July 18, 2020, 11:11:11 AM »


About 7 years ago when I was still in school I was struggling with an algebra class. Via some flyer on a street corner I found this nice but weird guy, he claimed to be a self-taught mathematician and help out students for relatively small money. So I started meeting him twice a week at his place and he helped me get better at my class. We would just work on math problems for hours and during that time he always made green tea with soy milk and played music that back then I just perceived as extremely weird.

Most of what he played turned out to be by Jon Hassell, as I learned a couple years later. Somehow it really helped with what we were doing. We rarely took breaks and worked one problem after another and the music functioned as an atmospheric soundscape that was just going on the whole time... it kept us concentrated and left only little space for conversation or distraction... This album in particular left a huge impression on me. It was my first contact with music of the experimental ambient spectrum ever. Now, years later I am a gigantic fan of Hassells work. In my opinion, he is the absolute master of creating a weird and simultaneously soothing atmosphere sonically.

This album is called "Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street". Back in school, the title track used to be stuck in my head for days... It makes me feel lonely but somehow it also makes the loneliness seem okay - maybe even comfortable. It's hard to explain and this might be extremely subjective, depending on your individual environment while listening, but I think that's exactly what I love so much about ambient music. It leaves air for you to use it to nuance a moment with a layer of sound that changes the way you perceive the situation. Once you get into this, it is highly addictive - and Jon Hassells music, this album in particular, work perfectly in this context.

Anyway sorry for the tiring monologue but maybe some people here enjoy this kind of music as much as I do and/or use it for the same purpose.

- I posted this before in the "What are you listening to"-section, but it did not really resonate and since I am new here I didn't know that you could also just open a new discussion, which I did because there seems to be no thread about this kind of music yet. Other artists I frequently consume for the same purpose are Nils Frahm and Tangerine Dream, furthermore my best friend Fritzinger recently got me aware of Steven Wilsons bass communion, also going in this exact direction.

I mainly started this thread for all the atmospheric-music nerds here to share their favorites for me to check out. Thank you in advance!

Cheers
to the beautiful and the wise, the mirror always lies

Offline Fritzinger

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2020, 12:47:07 PM »
Pretty bummed that this thread got ghosted like this...


I have developed lots of love for ambient music during the last few years. The trigger might have been Steven Wilson stating that Tangerine Dream's ZEIT is his favourite album. His favourite album! That's a pretty big statement for an artist that covers such a huge variety of music within his own output. While listening to it, I couldn't understand why I loved it, but I couldn't stop.

I proceeded to listen to more Tangerine Dream albums. Until now, I worked my way up to Stratosfear (what an awesome name for an album right?). And I checked out a few other ambient/electronic artists, like Klaus Schulze, Brian Eno, Nils Frahm and Steven Wilson himself. I have posted this in other places before, but: Bass Communion's/Steven Wilson's ambient stuff is amazing, at times it's even hauntingly beautiful (the Drugged trilogy... wow). I feel the same way about piano master Nils Frahm, who has dived into electronic/ambient music on his last few outputs. These ambient guys have helped me appreciate electronic music more in general. I can't say I have become a techno fan ever since, but I no longer have that attitude that "computer music" is always shit and everything has to be made by guitar, bass, drums,... Also I came to appreciate silence even more in music. There's no need for something to be "going on" all the time in music.

I have yet to get to know MOST of Hassell's music, but what I heard of him left me pretty impressed. His 2018 album and follow-up to the mentioned Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street, named Listening To Pictures, once again combines his electronic, weird and masterful scapes with his characteristic trumpet playing (what a combination). He released a new album this year, I haven't heard it yet thought. Looking forward to diving into his music a lot more!
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Offline MrBoom_shack-a-lack

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2020, 01:21:29 PM »
Interesting album, love to have this kind of music in the background when you're doing something creative.
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Offline dparrott

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2020, 02:25:42 PM »
Don't know if this qualifies, but Secede's album Vega Libre
https://youtu.be/CJnFHopfj9I

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club made a soundscape album years ago
https://youtu.be/_kX5bAcSqyo

"I don't know nuttin about nuttin" - Marshawn Lynch

The very soul of what was once real music is now lost in a digital quagmire of emotionless sonic madness.

Offline darkshade

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #4 on: September 26, 2020, 04:19:40 PM »
Whoa I just got into Jon Hassell recently with his "Power Spot" album, I must have listened to that one 5 times already.
The rest of his output looks interesting. I have been listening to a lot of music released on ECM over the past year as well. So much good music on that label if you like jazz and world music.

Offline Fritzinger

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2020, 05:25:46 AM »
Whoa I just got into Jon Hassell recently with his "Power Spot" album, I must have listened to that one 5 times already.
The rest of his output looks interesting. I have been listening to a lot of music released on ECM over the past year as well. So much good music on that label if you like jazz and world music.

Haven't heard the Power Spot album, the initiator of this thread has told me it's quite hard to get on vinyl (even worse with Last Night The Moon). I agree with you opinion on ECM however, I have many Pat Metheny albums from this label, all of them sound and look lovely.
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Offline darkshade

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #6 on: September 28, 2020, 10:59:29 AM »
Whoa I just got into Jon Hassell recently with his "Power Spot" album, I must have listened to that one 5 times already.
The rest of his output looks interesting. I have been listening to a lot of music released on ECM over the past year as well. So much good music on that label if you like jazz and world music.

Haven't heard the Power Spot album, the initiator of this thread has told me it's quite hard to get on vinyl (even worse with Last Night The Moon). I agree with you opinion on ECM however, I have many Pat Metheny albums from this label, all of them sound and look lovely.

Going through the ECM catalog, Power Spot was brought to my attention and I checked it out online. I don't have a vinyl player but I hadn't checked to see if it's available on CD either. Some ECMs are just out of print, unfortunately. But this one moved up my list pretty quickly. I'll be sure to check out more of Hassell's work.

Offline Sacul

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #7 on: September 28, 2020, 05:38:55 PM »
I think I sampled a few tracks of Hassel and added those albums to my wishlist. I've also gotten into ambient music quite a bit lately, I highly recommend Bohren & der Club of Gore's Sunset Mission to anyone that wants ambient and slow, dark jazz music, amazing record.

I'm also pretty glad to see some love for Nils Frahm, guy's been an inspiration for so long. I'd love to see him live, his performances are insane.

Offline Fritzinger

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2020, 04:48:44 AM »
I've also gotten into ambient music quite a bit lately, I highly recommend Bohren & der Club of Gore's Sunset Mission to anyone that wants ambient and slow, dark jazz music, amazing record.

That's cool to hear, I just looked it up and realised I have seen this record many times while browsing through different record stores. I always thought it looked interesting but never heard it. Will fix that soon :)


I'm also pretty glad to see some love for Nils Frahm, guy's been an inspiration for so long. I'd love to see him live, his performances are insane.

I saw Nils live in Dresden, October last year. It was amazing. He's also a very nice and down to earth guy, I got to talk to him for a few minutes after the show. I can only recommend anyone to go see one of his shows.
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Offline allewartenaufdaslicht_

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2020, 10:35:47 AM »
I think I sampled a few tracks of Hassel and added those albums to my wishlist. I've also gotten into ambient music quite a bit lately, I highly recommend Bohren & der Club of Gore's Sunset Mission to anyone that wants ambient and slow, dark jazz music, amazing record.

I will make sure to check this bad boy out ASAP. Thanks for the suggestion!

Again, I strongly encourage everyone reading this post to drop their ambient favorites here, I‘d love to get to know more of this genre. Glad to see some responses here!
to the beautiful and the wise, the mirror always lies

Offline Fritzinger

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #10 on: November 22, 2020, 02:43:57 AM »
I think I sampled a few tracks of Hassel and added those albums to my wishlist. I've also gotten into ambient music quite a bit lately, I highly recommend Bohren & der Club of Gore's Sunset Mission to anyone that wants ambient and slow, dark jazz music, amazing record.

I will make sure to check this bad boy out ASAP. Thanks for the suggestion!

Again, I strongly encourage everyone reading this post to drop their ambient favorites here, I‘d love to get to know more of this genre. Glad to see some responses here!

I tracked down a vinyl copy of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore's Sunset Mission and I am listening for the first time right now.
I love what I am hearing so far. It got an ambient character, but it's also Jazz. Very dark, but also cool and bluesy. Hard to describe. I'm excited for what this album still has in store for me.
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Offline darkshade

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #11 on: November 22, 2020, 09:23:27 AM »
I checked out Hassell's 1970s albums that are available on Spotify (Vernal Equinox and Earthquake Island) and both are very fine world music affairs featuring Nano Vasconcelos from Pat Metheny Group and CODONA. I plan on checking out some of his later work some time soon.

If anyone's looking for more "slow, dark jazz music" I recommend any recent albums by Jacob Bro. I can only speak for his last 3-4 albums I have not heard his earlier stuff or albums with other artists.

Offline Ben_Jamin

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #12 on: November 22, 2020, 10:36:37 AM »
 :omg: :omg: Amazing timing of that OP post.


I enjoy atmospheric music quite a bit. I enjoy just letting go and getting lost in the landscape of Ambient Music. Carbon Based Lifeforms got me into the genre. Which I then listened to Sync24. I then found OTT on bandcamp and enjoy this kind of Ambient, he mixes many styles, and it adds a good amount of variety.

Ambient Music is great background music to study, and focus on certain task that require thinking, Ambient Music is the very definition of Background Music for me. Background Music to me, is music your mind doesn't need to spend energy focusing on, so it lets your brain focus on other things, a reason for why I listen to more Ambient/Atmospheric music when I would study or do other things that require my mind. The music actually, helps my mind focus, it's neat really, the same way an environment and listening to it can inspire the mind.
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Offline Sacul

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #13 on: November 22, 2020, 02:07:42 PM »
I think I sampled a few tracks of Hassel and added those albums to my wishlist. I've also gotten into ambient music quite a bit lately, I highly recommend Bohren & der Club of Gore's Sunset Mission to anyone that wants ambient and slow, dark jazz music, amazing record.

I will make sure to check this bad boy out ASAP. Thanks for the suggestion!

Again, I strongly encourage everyone reading this post to drop their ambient favorites here, I‘d love to get to know more of this genre. Glad to see some responses here!

I tracked down a vinyl copy of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore's Sunset Mission and I am listening for the first time right now.
I love what I am hearing so far. It got an ambient character, but it's also Jazz. Very dark, but also cool and bluesy. Hard to describe. I'm excited for what this album still has in store for me.
Glad you enjoyed it! It's a very unique band indeed, I can also recommend you their follow-up, Black Earth. It's a little more sparse and even darker but still a splendid record.

Offline emtee

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #14 on: November 22, 2020, 02:34:32 PM »
I will explore. At times, like when I'm writing, I love this kind of backdrop.

However, what's weird is, I will reach a point where I need to shut it off. It's very enjoyable for about 45 minutes and then I'm done.

Offline emtee

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #15 on: November 22, 2020, 02:53:02 PM »
This pianist often helps me too. Very soothing.

https://music.youtube.com/channel/UClbZb5qu6fZd5X3gVRxqqNA


Offline Fritzinger

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #16 on: November 26, 2020, 02:35:22 AM »
I think I sampled a few tracks of Hassel and added those albums to my wishlist. I've also gotten into ambient music quite a bit lately, I highly recommend Bohren & der Club of Gore's Sunset Mission to anyone that wants ambient and slow, dark jazz music, amazing record.

I will make sure to check this bad boy out ASAP. Thanks for the suggestion!

Again, I strongly encourage everyone reading this post to drop their ambient favorites here, I‘d love to get to know more of this genre. Glad to see some responses here!

I tracked down a vinyl copy of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore's Sunset Mission and I am listening for the first time right now.
I love what I am hearing so far. It got an ambient character, but it's also Jazz. Very dark, but also cool and bluesy. Hard to describe. I'm excited for what this album still has in store for me.
Glad you enjoyed it! It's a very unique band indeed, I can also recommend you their follow-up, Black Earth. It's a little more sparse and even darker but still a splendid record.

More sparse and more dark  :lol
I will check this out, looking forward to it!

Sunset Mission is still spinning daily and I like it more and more!
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Offline Fritzinger

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #17 on: April 19, 2021, 09:14:46 AM »
My friend allewartenaufdaslicht recommended the music of duo Kruder & Dorfmeister to me. Which is pretty embarrassing, since I've been living near Vienna for almost 4 years now  :lol

I subsequently bought their latest album 1995 on vinyl and am currently spinning it for the first time. This music ranges somewhere between trip hop and late 90's/early 00's soundtrack music (you know the kind of scene: Brad Pitt and George Clooney explain how they are going to pull off this insane robbery and then, groovy, cool music starts playing while the scene cuts to the cast actually performing the job).

This is not ambient music per se, but it's flowing, repetitive (in the best sense) and instrumental electronic music which manages - like ambient music often does - to remain interesting even after minutes of little movement. I absolutely love it. Now I will have to invest into their K&D Sessions box set.


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Offline darkshade

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #18 on: June 26, 2021, 07:52:35 AM »
Having listened to most of Jon Hassell's first 8 or 9 albums at this point, I have to say he is quite an innovative, unique musician. Much of his music that I've heard so far, is at the level of Miles Davis' electric period, for mood, color, osinato, and deepness of the sound. I still think Power Spot is my favorite so far, but they all have their charms. Soon I'll be exploring his later work, can't wait.

Offline NoseofNicko

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #19 on: June 26, 2021, 08:51:08 PM »
Having listened to most of Jon Hassell's first 8 or 9 albums at this point, I have to say he is quite an innovative, unique musician. Much of his music that I've heard so far, is at the level of Miles Davis' electric period, for mood, color, osinato, and deepness of the sound. I still think Power Spot is my favorite so far, but they all have their charms. Soon I'll be exploring his later work, can't wait.

Sadly he passed away today.

Offline Fritzinger

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #20 on: June 27, 2021, 12:30:42 AM »
Having listened to most of Jon Hassell's first 8 or 9 albums at this point, I have to say he is quite an innovative, unique musician. Much of his music that I've heard so far, is at the level of Miles Davis' electric period, for mood, color, osinato, and deepness of the sound. I still think Power Spot is my favorite so far, but they all have their charms. Soon I'll be exploring his later work, can't wait.

Sadly he passed away today.

 :omg:

That hits hard. He was in his mid 80s, but still. He was an amazing musician that I feel often flew under the radar. I just listened to his latest two albums yesterday and the days before that. Very special music. RIP Jon.
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Offline darkshade

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #21 on: June 27, 2021, 04:54:42 AM »
Having listened to most of Jon Hassell's first 8 or 9 albums at this point, I have to say he is quite an innovative, unique musician. Much of his music that I've heard so far, is at the level of Miles Davis' electric period, for mood, color, osinato, and deepness of the sound. I still think Power Spot is my favorite so far, but they all have their charms. Soon I'll be exploring his later work, can't wait.

Sadly he passed away today.

RIP. That's sad news, strange that I bumped this thread yesterday.

Offline Fritzinger

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #22 on: October 26, 2022, 08:16:18 AM »
I saw Nils Frahm in Vienna's beautiful concert house a few weeks ago and (like the first time I saw him) it was amazing. I even got to meet him and take a quick picture with him, he really is a very nice dude.

I bought his new 4 LP album Music For Animals, which is essentially an ambient album - his first ambient album and his first without any piano. I've been spinning it two times now and am at the third listen right now (the album is over 3 hours long) and it's absolutely beautiful. I like what Nils said about the music, because it's absolutely true. This album brings you down after a long, stressful day.

Quote
“My constant inspiration,” Nils explains, “was something as mesmerising as watching a great waterfall or the leaves on a tree in a storm. It’s good we have symphonies and music where there’s a development, but a waterfall doesn’t need an Act 1, 2, 3, then an outcome, nor do the leaves on a tree in a storm. Some people like watching the leaves rustle and the branches move. This record is for them”.
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Offline allewartenaufdaslicht_

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #23 on: February 17, 2023, 05:57:55 PM »
It has been a bit slow here and the website tells me to consider starting a new thread but I don't see why since this one is still nice and short and I think there is still a lot of potential to this entire topic.

If anything, my fascination with ambient music / atmospheric soundscapes and the consecutive motivation to discover new artists within the genre has grown since I originally started this thread way back in 2020. Right now I am working my fourth night shift in a row. I am a physician at an ICU, which means nights are usually one of two things: EITHER extremely chaotic and filled with action when a patient is very sick and needs immediate care OR super quiet and calm, telemetry and blood gas analyses tell me all my patients are stable, leaving time for me to write their reports, read up on current guidelines, all the while listening to soundscapes, which somehow really help me stay awake and give this interesting atmosphere to it all.

An album I keep returning to almost every night is the 2001 self-titled masterpiece album by Steven Wilsons ambient project Bass Communion. It is haunting. "Drugged", the flagship piece on the album, always fills me with a very beautiful and kind of nostalgic feeling of wanderlust and self-reflection. To anyone enjoying the genre, I highly recommend Bass Communion.

Anyway if anyone has more suggestions on artists or albums that haven't been mentioned in this thread and need to be brought to attention, go right ahead and let me know! It worked before, initially Bohren & der Club Of Gore were mentioned here with their album Sunset Mission, which since then has turned to a regular heavy rotator for me, so thanks for that.

 :hat
« Last Edit: February 17, 2023, 06:11:01 PM by allewartenaufdaslicht_ »
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Offline Duetsch Dream Dates

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #24 on: February 17, 2023, 10:19:45 PM »
Anybody here like Klaus Schultze? I've been getting into his stuff the last few year, going through a bunch of live boots from the 70s through 2000s and some of the material on his 50-cd (!!!) box set that has made it to youtube.

Offline Sacul

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #25 on: February 24, 2023, 01:04:55 PM »
I've only listened to Irrlicht, which I found very interesting at first, but has kind of passed in excitement with time.

An album I keep returning to almost every night is the 2001 self-titled masterpiece album by Steven Wilsons ambient project Bass Communion. It is haunting. "Drugged", the flagship piece on the album, always fills me with a very beautiful and kind of nostalgic feeling of wanderlust and self-reflection. To anyone enjoying the genre, I highly recommend Bass Communion.
Despite being a big fan of Steven, I think I've barely listened to any of his Bass Communion albums. Now that I'm more into Ambient stuff these days, I'll give them a go.

Offline allewartenaufdaslicht_

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Re: Jon Hassell and other atmospheric soundscapes
« Reply #26 on: February 27, 2023, 03:37:02 AM »
I've only listened to Irrlicht, which I found very interesting at first, but has kind of passed in excitement with time.

That is an interesting point. It kind of raises the question of what purpose ambient music is supposed to fulfill. Does it have to uphold excitement for the listener as you would expect from progressive rock music for example? Does it have to constantly inspire or change as soon as some sort of "monotony" kicks in? For me that is a clear no. A lot of the ambient music I enjoy stays exactly as it is, sometimes for spans as long as 60 minutes without really changing much apart from layer shifting soundscapes between the auditory foreground and background. IMO this is the basis for real soundscaping since you need to become somewhat familiar with the music to let it define and alter the situation that you are in. It needs to be accepted for what it is within the context of genre. Like perfume, it just sits there, not demanding the listener to actively engage all the time but rather concentrate on something else. But then again it has an influence of how you perceive the moment. So excitement is not what I would personally be looking for when approaching this kind of music.

 :hat
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