dave horner aka relmic staute

Where does music end and our consciousness begin? Which begets the question, where do we actually hear music—in our ears or in our minds? I can’t say for sure, but I can tell you that Relmic Statute has the curious ability to heavily blur the lines between music, ambience and atmosphere, taking the mind on a hypnotic journey through an odyssey of sound on their debut album Morning Tapes. Relmic Statute doesn’t create music in the traditional sense, rather they sculpt moods and textures—rich, sensual experiences that provide a soundtrack to life, illuminating with incredible subtlety and finesse the audible rhythms that were always there, but perhaps had gone unnoticed by the conscious mind amongst a larger palette of sound that we encounter in our day-to-day lives. Often times when I listen to Relmic Statute, I forget I am even listening to music at all. I lose my sense of self and float out into the etheric soundscape that is created by the exotic blends of sound they fuse on each track. By combining elements of the natural world with obscure instrumentation and field recordings, they manage to capture the essence of our various life experiences with incredible detail. Writing this review, I know this is something difficult for the mind to fully comprehend, let alone create consciously, but somehow they manage to do it on every track. This is music driven by feeling and emotion, and it’s these qualities that make their work truly unique. Somehow they weave the tapestry of sounds that make up a passing moment of life into a lush, hypnotic song, if you can even call it that. It’s music for sure, but music that straddles the line between ambience and melody so closely that at times its impossible to distinguish the two. This is not music you sit and listen to, but music you live to. Put it on in the background while you work, read or drift lazily into a hazy daydream sprawled out across the floor… this is music to get lost to.

About The Author

Justin Faerman is the Co-founder of Conscious Lifestyle Magazine.

image: tomonari nozaki/elementperspective

There’s not much information to be found about artist Tomonari Nozaki, the enigmatic and mysterious Japanese musician behind Soleil. But one need not look far for clues as the music he makes speaks volumes about his inspiration. According to the fragments of Nozaki’s hyper-minimalist biography you can find spattered across a handful of equally soft-spoken websites that have some sort of loose connection to his work, his music occupies the space between “liminality” and “the sublime”, which is about as accurate of a description as I’ve ever heard. But it’s pretty clear what’s going on here: Nozaki wants it to be about the music, not the musician. He’s not in this for fame. He’s in this to share his beautiful slice of reality with the world. And clearly, we have much to learn from the depth of experience of this man. Nozaki’s music is intensely lush and emotional—listening to it you can’t help but be lulled into some sort of lucid daydream that floats you off into distant worlds, evoking primal feelings of peace, joy, and love. That’s a big statement, I know, but I really can’t think of anything that more accurately describes the beauty of this music. The subtly evolving ambient textures are an acquired taste, but only because they’re so starkly different to the vast majority of formulaic music we hear in our day to day lives. This is part of the beauty of Nozaki’s work. It’s incredibly and undeniably unique in the most gorgeous way. It is literally feeling translated into sound and, as far as I’m concerned, that is the mark of a musical genius. Sure, there is a cerebrally appealing quality to most music, but let’s be honest, we listen to it because of the way it makes us feel. And in that sense, Nozaki is a master composer. Mysterious, silent, sublime. Learn More unknownjp.com elementperspective.com

Listen to Soleil by Tomonari Nozaki

Download the Album Soleil

Bandcamp: Soleil

About The Author

Justin Faerman is the Co-founder of Conscious Lifestyle Magazine.

Salif Keita – musician from Mali, Africa. photo: prisca lobjoy

Every exotic instrument on Salif Keita and Kante Manfila’s The Lost Album, including Salif’s raspy yet soothing voice, seems to be wandering in a different direction, like leaves being blown about in the wind.  And yet, it all manages to come together in some mysteriously beautiful way, weaving everything into an incredibly rich and complex polyrhythmic symphony of sound that evokes visions of the North African republic of Mali, where Salif was born and raised. Keita and Manfila’s work is infused with a visceral passion that manages to transcend time and space to pull you into their vibrant and soulful existence, which is a world away from the hectic pace of modern Western life.  That’s a big part of the charm of The Lost Album—it transports you to a place lost in time where life still moves in a relaxed flow dictated by the rhythyms of the natural world. To be able to capture that with music is quite a task and yet somehow Keita and Manfila pull it off effortlessly.  The entire album seems like it was recorded in one take and made up right there on the spot, and who knows… maybe it was.

About The Author

Justin Faerman is the Co-founder of Conscious Lifestyle Magazine.