Sedentary Nomad

Hi everyone!
Since I first posted here, I’ve been making new music, and I’m now starting to put it out, yay!

Here’s a first track as a teaser to a full album that will be available in about two weeks.

As far as teasers go, it’s pretty substantial though: a meditative piece of 20+ minutes – bit of an odd one out in the forthcoming album, which has more upbeat, wacky stuff than the previous one--but more on that later.

Feeling stressed, drained, overstrung? Just lie down with this for a while, let time pass. There’s nothing you need to do, achieve or control. Simply but truly taking a brief rest can work wonders.

Available – if not already then soon – on all your favorite streaming platforms.

Life in the Background by Sedentary Nomad Stream and Save Life in the Background - Distributed by DistroKid

Looking for a soundtrack to your autumn rain?☔️

M.U.F. (Mold Until Free) is now available on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and many more.

M.U.F. (Mold Until Free) by Sedentary Nomad Stream and Save M.U.F. (Mold Until Free) - Distributed by DistroKid

Thanks for liking and following, everyone.💚

FYI, a few tracks can now also be found on the streaming services. Just type in "Sedentary Nomad" on your favorite platform: Spotify, Apple Music, ...

Full album to follow in a couple of weeks.😊📀

THE STORY OF HOW Sedentary Nomad CAME TO BE:
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A little over a year ago, I got into a burnout. This started me on a process of soul-searching and what turned out to be an at times daunting, and ongoing, trajectory of recovery. At the very beginning, I direly needed rest, but simply couldn’t rest. My system was still used to keeping on – like a mental law of inertia. Even making music was challenging because I had become as obsessive about it as I had about other domains in my life, trying in vain – as I realize well now – to achieve the perfect production, the perfect mix, the perfect track. But still I felt the need to reconnect to the joy and healing power of music-making.

So, I began, cautiously, making loops of ambient soundscapes, at first consciously not aiming to do more than immersing myself in the act of layering sounds and in the soothing repetition of synth and noise textures – as a kind of self-therapy, really (which is not even a silly idea; music therapy is a thing). I often gave loops titles referring to the lower forest layers, as if trying to ground myself symbolically. Soon enough, I had gathered a collection of those loops, and this is where it got tricky, because I started thinking: hey, let’s make an album out of this! Fellow burnouters will recognize that treacherous love of projects. A project can lift you up to life-affirming heights, but it can also burn you out to dispiriting depths. I quickly stumbled headlong into my quest for Absolute Perfection again. And each time, I had to let go soon after, because I noticed it was draining me. Then after a while I picked up the tracks again and regained my enthusiasm for them.

Oddly enough, all this starting and stopping, with plenty of needed recuperation in between, after a longer time began to resemble a progression of sorts. At the same time, I gradually learned – and am still learning – to ease up on the neurotic getting-it-just-right routine. Eventually I understood I needed to bring out the project into the world, as the last and necessary step of my self-fangled therapeutic process – perhaps the most important one. If one stays hidden all the time, one’s capacity for withstanding the possibility of failure is never truly tested. I can see now clearly how the whole struggle with creating and (drastically) loosening up on meeting expectations and trusting enough in my own judgement was a micro-instance of my bigger path. But I needed time, lots of time; I had to grant myself time.

So, here it is, that album – warts and all. It’s not “perfect” but neither am I. I’m just glad enough it speaks of a time and place for me that haven’t been easy, but in which I was still lucky and thankful enough to be able to tap into some kind of beauty. It strikes me now how the tracks either reproduce the turbulent nervousness I was living, or project the peace and stillness I was seeking. As if I wanted to simultaneously release the pressure and sculpt the calm. I can only hope a listener, battling similar issues, may find similar comfort in them.

This is not a tale about persistence, a “just press on and you will succeed” type of thing. There is valor in pressing on, but never to the detriment of one’s body and health. Sometimes you just have to give up. Perhaps you’ll take up what you were doing again later, perhaps not. It’s a question of luck. And, reality check: it doesn’t really matter in the greater scheme of things. I guess what one needs to discover is the point at which a striving becomes life-sapping rather than life-giving. Beyond that, all one can do is mold, and mold, and mold… until free.

One last thing: if you’re struggling with issues of burnout, depression, anxiety or the like, seek out help. It’s true, you yourself have to take the first step, but – even if I referred to my “self-therapy” – do not for one minute believe you can do it all yourself. Reach out to others, professional or otherwise, and allow yourself to be taken by the hand. I did, thankfully, and it’s saved me.

https://sedentarynomad.bandcamp.com/album/m-u-f-mold-until-free