balearic
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You might not know it, but every mix I’ve made for this site has been the product of searching for a certain state of mind. When I reflected on what I wanted to capture for this mix, I kept coming back to just how many mixes I’ve hosted.
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Much like many of you, once you’re done catching up with Maya Hayashi’s life, you’ll come to the same conclusion I did: glad she made it out the other end. Before her current career as a farmer and television personality, Maya had a quite short but very memorable career as a model turned singer, culminating…
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When I listen to Harumi Kitagawa’s Love & Flowers, I’m instantly transported to what I love about music. It’s its ability to show maturity in a way that is simply mature. Coded in phrasing, couched in a certain sophistication, one can be “adult” without falling for the adult trappings of trying to compete with youth.
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There’s just something about Valentine’s Day that stirs me to share music steeped in that feeling. If you know me, you know I love “love songs.” I firmly believe that the hardest songs to write are those that touch on love (in its myriad meanings). It’s what led me this time around to cut to…
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One of my favorite things to discover and hear in music is how ideas translate across genres and borders. Listening to Midori’s Vortex Symphony, I get the sense that they share a similar spirit of discovery. Yes, this is “dream pop,” but it isn’t the dream pop we usually imagine – it’s the kind that…
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Life is something, right? When I conceived of my latest mix for my LYL Radio show, I wanted to capture a certain spirit: that of gently percolating music that bubbles at the edges but never quite reaches a boiling point. My thought was, “On certain trying days, we all need music that consoles us, that…
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To quote a famous repartee: “Nevertheless, she persisted.” If one could attach a north star to Kay Huang (黃韻玲), it would be that – a persistence that paid off, showing the mettle she’s made of. With fall hovering in the air, and just days past its recent reissue and Kay’s birthday, let’s revisit (or more…
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As I write, it sometimes takes me a beat to realize just how connected I am to a person’s story, just as much as I am to their music. Reflecting on the life of the recently departed Serge Guirao, whose long struggle with multiple sclerosis ended in 2021, I’m reminded that for some of us,…
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Sometimes, you just have to go where the breeze takes you. That’s something that’s become clear to me lately. This summer, I decided to scale back the time I’ve devoted to the blog and simply go outside and enjoy life (with music). So, when it was time for my LYL Radio show, I thought: why…
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When I think of “relaxation music,” I envision music with a Brazilian touch. It’s that kind of music that carries a certain breeze, a sense of yearning, and bittersweetness that evokes the transition between the heat of summer and the coolness of fall. In considering Japan, as we often do, my thoughts turn to Jun…
ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist Mix neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic