Yesterday I wrote about bringing on the digital quiet by turning off social media for the remainder of the year. I’d already begun to listen to a new album, For an audience of not a single cow, from the prolific Montréal-based musician Le Berger, and it’s quite likely that music was on my mind when the phrase “digital quiet” came to me. Because if one invokes digital quiet, it isn’t to remain in solitude. It’s just to make one’s space a little smaller, one’s life a little simpler, for a period of time. There’s an end built into the plan; you’re not retreating to the woods with a typewriter and a book of rabbit recipes. And if retreating temporarily as the year comes to a close is what you’re up to, then the six tracks on For an audience of not a single cow are exactly the music to fill such a private space. It’s comprised of slow-moving melodies, each note echoed so that there is no intensity to the instrument, and the decay goes on, seemingly, forever. Angelo Badalamenti, Brian Eno, and Steve Roach will come to mind as the cloud formations emanate from your speakers. It’s a soundtrack for the digital quiet.
Album originally posted at leberger.bandcamp.com. It was mastered by Ian Hawgood.