If Tangerine Dream wrote soundtracks for Alfred Hitchcock, the results wouldn’t be far from Waterbox.
Besides masterminding WaSP, the Web Standards Project, Jeffrey Zeldman is the primary conspirator behind a collection of what he refers to as ‘ambient music.’ ‘Ambient’ comes from the Latin for ‘surround’, and allowing yourself to be completely enveloped in the music is the best way to appreciate it. When I first discovered Waterbox, I listened to the tracks as if I were listening to the radio on my drive to work. I didn’t get it.
Recently, I gave Waterbox another listen, but this time, with headphones. I was working on the redesign of another of my websites, and just let the songs loop while I worked. After while, I wasn’t so much listening to them as experiencing them emotionally. My propensity is to dissect a work, instrument by instrument, note by note, looking for the patterns and structure. Ambient music is better served (or better serves) by allowing yourself to feel what the composer conveys.
- Tether Part7 — Awakening in a strange place, we find ourselves unwillingly embroiled in a mystery, experiencing the disorientation of discovery.
- Invaders — Rather than fear, we feel strength. We are the invaders.
- The Years — Yearning, across æons of time.
- Brunette — As with any relationship, the first moments aren’t smooth, but we soon settle into a comfortable rhythym, an interweaving of the delicacy of love and the pounding of lust. In the end, we find fulfillment in the former. My favorite of the collection.
- Sleep — So titled, perhaps, because ‘Lying Awake Worrying’ didn’t sound as good.
- Gaslight — Wonder, perhaps even awe. Nice companion to ‘The Years.’
- Fruhling — ‘Frühling’ is German for ‘Spring’; even Zeldman calls it ‘an awakening’, but we’re not reading titles, we’re experiencing emotions, so let’s listen. Although this awakening has peaceful undertones, it is an awakening driven by outside forces, an awakening we don’t necessarily welcome.
- Arena — Sounding more like a movie soundtrack than most of the cuts, we’re propelled into action; first seeking, then being sought; in our heads, first confidence, then uncertainty.
Zeldman is a pioneer. It is his habit to think new thoughts, to see things in a different light. His music is emphatically not ‘easy listening’; it demands thoughtful attention. Or better, thoughtful inattention. Let it percolate into your subconscious at its own pace, rather than at the frantic rush of ‘fast food’ pop music.
All eight of these tracks are available at Mr. Zeldman’s Waterbox site (http://zeldman.com/waterbox/) (They are free downloads.) Get ’em, and listen to ’em.
What do you feel?