MELANIE RADFORD - For the Sake of Stillness MELANIE RADFORD

For the Sake of Stillness, her debut solo album, is an offering of music that asks you to pay attention. Most of the songs are at a walking pace, mimicking the long walks through foreign cities and the observant headspace they come from. Stillness was recorded during and in-between touring, coming together over years as a centering practice and statement of self. An ambient score of natural sounds from these wanderings flows under many of the songs, records of place: the rhythm of footsteps on crisp ground, birdsong, rain falling outside, an impatient car shouldering into distant traffic, the pulse of the ocean, the warm texture of unintelligible and overlapping conversations. These pocket recordings interweaving with the music give an added impression of closeness. We hear the place in the music, and the music is a window into what was felt there. Like an invitation into a daydream, a view into someone's private world. The music is quiet, dreamy, steady and self-assured. There's a rhythmic heartbeat and little flares of exuberance: touches of magic and awe everywhere.