Some music is reserved for those days when things get too much and you feel all the feelings all at once. Australian artist Ry Cuming aka RY X makes exactly that. You just have to glance at the emotional rollercoaster that is his recent music video for Only to see the rain streaming down the side of his car in the best case of pathetic fallacy we’ve seen since GCSE English. Toying with our emotions under red darkroom lighting, a tumultuous night comes to an end as the sun rises on a new day and all is right with the world once more. Even his press shot – annotated with hand-drawn tears – recognises that sometimes all you need is a good cry. As he prepares to release his debut album, Dawn, and set off on his European tour, the serial hat-wearer reflects sombrely on the most thought-provoking and emotive songs of all time…
Yoshi Wada, Earth Horn with Electronic Drone
“There are very few things that allow a mind to explore music as much as a 77 minute drone piece dedicated to the idea of sound and mind merging. This is a beautiful piece that I play a lot in my house; it becomes a mediation of sorts, even if it’s playing while body and mind do other movements. There is a calm and space for quiet reflection every time I hear it begin.”
Bohren & der Club of Gore, Piano Nights
“I stumbled across a genre called ‘doom jazz’ once and this remains with me from the stack of those findings. It has so much emotion tied into its pieces. I connect with both the quiet darkness it holds and the unhidden sense of possibility too.”
Keaton Henson, Emissary (ft. Ren Ford)
“I love that Keaton poured his energy into this album, Romantic Works. It is just that; a world of strings and purest expression of emotion. We sometimes don’t need the voice that others know us by to communicate just as well. This is proof of that.”
Sigur Ros, Svefn-g-englar
“When I first heard them as a teenager I was struck by the depth that they explored both emotionally and sonically. The letting go of structure over wants to explore more deeply in the ten minute songs capes of their earlier makings.”
John Adams, Dharma At Big Sur
“Big Sur is a sacred place between LA and San Francisco, where the towering worlds of mountains and redwoods pour and collapse into the sea a thousand feet below. It has been a place of refuge and recluse for me more than a few times. John Adams wrote this piece with all of that captured somewhere within it.”
Gaussian Curve, Broken Clouds
“A fairly unknown project and one that came into my world almost by accident. Minimal ambient melodies for ears to focus on or to allow to soak in as you move your body to do other things.”
Nihls Frahm, Ambre
“There is such deep beauty in simplicity; in stripping something to its core where space itself plays an equal role to the music itself. This song has that emotive connection. Made originally as a score for a film, maybe it allows even more story on its own.”
BJORK, Undo
“It is so rare to see an artist remain true to creation for so long, and to have a voice as deep and pure both in and out of song. Bjork is a majestic force, and I have always felt inspiration from her makings. She has both power and softness, all the makings of the goddess that is the female energy.”
Jon Hassell, The Surgeon of the Nightsky Restores Dead things by the Power of Sound
“I discovered Jon Hassell’s work recently from my explorations into the world of modern minimal composers. A lot of this playlist lives in that world. For me, these pieces allow nothing but thought and exploration for the mind. The lyrics are very powerful, sometimes maybe too powerful in that they overcrowd the listener’s mind and prevent it from being taken to new places. Jon’s work its explorative and innovative; there is less to grasp onto than with most music, but I think its important to allow those experiences too.”
Steve Reich,Music for 18 Musicians
“Another journey.. of overlapping worlds and soundscapes. There is something about the repetition that becomes magnetic. I have been able to watch this piece before live in France and can confirm it is a magic world to disappear into for 20 minutes of lapping sound and absorption.”
Dawn is due for release 6th May via Infectious Records