On dreaming and playing

Monday, November 15th, 2010 // Paperhouse

The Library Catalogue Music Series is Sufjan Stevens’ label (Asthmatic Kitty) recently-created series of albums. For those of you who are intrigued by Stevens’ recent electronic compositions, you should know that much of the music in this series is part of the same lush electronic lineage. I highly recommend exploring the series, as it’ll open your ears to the goings-on of Asthmatic Kitty.

One prime example of the diversity of this series is Kristin Miltner’s Music for Dreaming and Playing. For starters, it’s warm, playful, ethereal, and devoid of lyrics. The album is all about mood. If you’re looking for some contemplative touches of digital femininity, pop this album into your CD player.

As the album’s title would suggest, the album has two distinct sections: dreaming and playing. The dreaming portion consists of the first four tracks, while the rest is play of the video game sort. Imagine that you’re listening to little morsels of music that Miltner has created for the soundtrack of some warm and fuzzy indie game, and you’re there.

“Altamont Pass” is the most outstanding track on this album for those looking for an acoustically rich experience.

To describe this song in more lush language: Harmonics pulse in and out, resonating and creating a shroud similar to muted bells. As a listener, you are now wandering through a desert in your dreams where purple and white clouds drip by slowly and the hologram horizon seems to flicker. Harmless ghosts, about your size, their auras tinged with nacreous greens, pass through you. As they pass, you can see clearly into their muted neon robes. They’ve been precisely where you are. They’ve made the journey and they’ve watched you pass.

You are neither hungry, thirsty, lonely, tired, happy, nor sad. You simply are observing.