warm and energetic arpeggios and delays bounce off many mirrors and explore and soothe the sometimes chaotic and untethered nature of our thoughts making midtempo dream pop/shoe gaze warpy swirls. this episode of synthquest invites you to spend some quality time with yourself and your reflection, however and whoever you are.
welcome to synthquest: relaxing, ambient soundscapes, 100% improvised, unedited, live and of the moment. meditation music for music lovers and an ambient music anti-show! put on your sleep mask, sit in meditation, settle into shavasana, embark on your evening walk, draw yourself a bath, and get ready for synthquest!
when I was a kid, I would spend most summer days at the local public pool with my friends. there was a huge room with like 4 or 5 ping pong tables in it. when it happened to be empty, we would play a game of Super Ping Pong in which we used the entire room and all surfaces to hit as many balls as we could chaotically back and forth.
lately I’ve been trying to revive my daily meditation practice and I’ve been finding my brain and thoughts remind me of a game of Super Ping Pong — many thought trajectories flying illicitly around in a thousand directions with the aim, seemingly, of sowing chaos.
perhaps it’s no surprise then that many arpeggios and bouncing delays are two of my all time favorite sound palettes to play with, like the ones you hear in this improv.
I’ve been meditating again because when I don’t, I sometimes lose touch with the voice that is there in the middle of the room, trying to speak loud enough to be heard whilst being assaulted by many flying little balls.
it’s made me learn that knowing yourself is not an objective accomplished once but a process cultivated continually...
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i highly recommend listening to synthquest through headphones. i'll also suggest settling into someplace comfortable to listen, or listening during a bath, massage, on a walk, while you make dinner — basically wherever you go or whatever you do to relax and decompress.
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about jen starsinic
synthquest is created by Jen Starsinic, a music artist, multi-instrumentalist, and community organizer from Harrisburg, PA currently living in Nashville, TN. In addition to her creative work, she is the co-founder and artistic director of Girls Write Nashville, a nonprofit organization providing music mentorship and creative community to youth artists, whose works as been featured on NPR's Here & Now and is a winner of the Lewis Prize for Music. Said of her last studio release, EP Bad Actor —"there is a blissful aura that surrounds Starsinic’s sound, making for one of 2020’s must-hear albums."
about synthquest
synthquest is recorded live and livestreamed on Twitch currently on Monday and Wednesdays at 9pm CT/10pm ET/2am GMT. It is 100% improvised and unedited.
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When I was a kid, I would spend most summer days at the local public pool with my friends. The pool had a huge room with like 4 or 5 ping pong tables in it. Sometimes we would find this room totally to ourselves on which occasion we would play a game of Super Ping Pong in which we used the entire room and all surfaces to hit as many balls as we could chaotically back and forth. (It was not a game to regulation standards of the International Table Tennis Federation.)
Lately I’ve been trying to revive my daily meditation practice and I’ve been finding my brain and thoughts remind me of a game of Super Ping Pong.
Sometimes my mind is like many trajectories flying illicitly around in a thousand directions with the aim, seemingly, of sowing chaos.
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that many arpeggios and bouncing delays are two of my all time favorite sound palettes to play with, like the ones you hear in this improv.
I’ve been meditating again because when I don’t, I sometimes lose touch with the voice that is there in the middle of the room, trying to speak loud enough to be heard whilst being assaulted by many flying little balls.
It’s made me learn that knowing yourself is not an objective accomplished once but a process cultivated continually.
Because our selves are sneaky. Ever-changing. There behind the curtain of our flurry of thoughts, we become many people over the course of a life.
Sometimes spending time with myself is like reconvening with my first and oldest friend.
Other times looking in the mirror is thrilling and disorienting. Shocking to look up and see a new image where my same old familiar picture used to hang.
It makes me think of those scenes in the movie Black Swan where her reflection starts moving on its own, revealing her own inner darkness to herself. I was terrified to look in a mirror for months after seeing that movie.
Ultimately though, it feels pretty joyful to me that it’s true in this life that we can surprise ourselves.
I hope you use the time listening to this episode to spend some real quality time with your self, however and whoever you are.
Please enjoy "music for reflection", and thank you for listening!