This 4.5-minute piece by Matthew Mercer has the inherent sense of forward motion of its title, “Headlong,” but takes it at an admirably slow pace. This isn’t the pace of something slowed down so much as something experienced in a perception-altering state. Waves of counterposed undulations form a wall of ambient noise, ethereal sounds made from masses of sharp shards. An ever-rising tone suggests something passing out of the atmosphere. All in all it’s like the doppler effect in full majestic mode.
Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/mercerm](https://soundcloud.com/mercerm/head-first). More from Mercer at [mattmercer.com](http://www.mattmercer.com/). Based in Portland, Oregon, he is half of the group Microfilm [microfilmmusic.com](http://www.microfilmmusic.com/), the other half being vocalist Matt Keppel.