1. Pleasewakeupalittlefaster, please...

This is a gentle anthem, an instrumental chant. Something that I feel deeply as an urgent, mellow cry - for humanity to wake up! I cannot make anyone do anything (I don't even really want to) but this piece (produced to feel like a DJ Premier track from the early 90s) has a yearning for the madness in the human world to give way to awakened consciousness. A balanced harmonious exchange.

2. The World Stage, 4321 Degnan Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90008
Recorded live at the World Stage in Leimert Park, Los Angeles. No edits. It's an excerpt of spontaneous composition.

3. Nightswimming
My Dublab friend Dntel started this piece with his modular synthesizer rig. I then added multiple layers, created loops, and gave it to Jira >< to flip.

4. Now the background is the foreground
Aaron Shaw and Jamael Dean came to my studio in early June 2020 to record a live set for La Terraza Magnetica virtual festival by La Casa Encendida in Madrid, Spain. I excerpted a section of our set and sent them to Adam Rudolph for him to create his parts with, I then finished the mix.

Here is the full live set:

5. Thanking The Earth
We are here, now, living with earth, and I am so grateful! I am learning from earth's vast rhythms, intelligence, and magnificent heart and grateful to be making music with Sam Gendel and Nate Mercereau. They are both totally unique, creative beings! My dear child and collaborator Azul Niño edited and effected some of my personal video footage that I took while in Maui with Iasos in November 2020 to make this:

6. Salon Winds
This is another 100% live representation, excerpted from a Backyard Salon concert in Malibu California, that I presented the music for, in August 2020. At that event I met director Cara Stricker, who months later agreed to make an animated short film for the song:

7. Ripples, Reflection, Loop
The source of this one comes from live recordings from the duet tour that I did with Laraaji in 2017. Once again, I excerpted, edited, looped and layered new sound energy over it. The last touch was having both Laraaji and Sharada Shashidhar sing on it. They sang separately, and I was so excited by how well it all fit together, a real collage energy in effect.

8. Togetherness
'Togetherness' was the original end of this record. I love this piece so much. It started with synthesizers and percussion that I played. I sent that through to Devin Daniels, then later to Jamael Dean.

9. lasos 79 ‘til Infinity
An interlude, a bridge, leading us back to the trailhead...

10. Please, wake up.
This track is an extended, alternate version of the opening piece. It features more of the song's basis, from the Duet that Shabaka Hutchings and I recorded in Venice Beach, March 2019.

Nick The Record // 06-12-16

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