All Songs Considered: Even more songs to calm the nerves

It said people are drinking like it's 2020. (laughing) We are. That's what the headline said. People are drinking like it's 2020.

And I shared this with a friend of mine and he said, that's awesome. And I said, I don't think it's actually supposed to be a good thing.

“- No, I mean, for me, I'm drinking far less”

than I ever had in my adulthood. - Are you? Is that intentional, are you? - Yeah, it's intentional. I, a good friend of mine said,

it's always a good idea to reassess your relationship

without the hall, just kind of take a step back and like, how do I interact with this substance? - Yeah. - Does it help me? Does it hurt me?

Does it hinder me? - Yeah. - You know, I've been thinking a lot about the last couple years and I, you know, I still have a beer like on a Friday night,

but that's about it. - You're being very good.

“Is that how you stay grounded then, right now, or you?”

- I think so. I think it's like having, having routines. That's true. And having things that I do regularly and then allowing yourself deviations

when it's just the crisis calls for it, you know? - Yeah.

- I think the problem is every day feels like a,

if it feels like an exception, I'm going to break that rule today too. - Yeah. - Well, some, some days, you know, I do work for journalism company,

but some days I do try to tune out. What's happening in the world? But, you know, sometimes you just can't help it. - You know, around this time last year, we did an episode of all songs considered

called "Songs to Calm the Nerves," which was exactly what it sounds like. It was an extended playlist of grind core and death metal. (laughs) Hell yeah.

(laughs) And then a bit later, last fall or so, we did more songs to calm the nerves. And here we are, we're making it a trilogy. Even more songs to calm the nerves and large gotrich,

even though I know you do love you some grind core. - Yeah, and death metal, I can also count on you for the complete opposite at least sonically. - For what it is worth, I too find comfort in heavy metal.

- I know you do too, and for the show, you've been very good to me. I thought he's going to bring some noisy thing on, because I did think about it, but the funny thing is, after looking at your playlist,

you're actually balanced me out with kind of noise here. - Oh, you think? - Okay, okay, we'll get to that though. - All right, well, let's just start with what we've been listening to here.

It's one of your picks, a band called the choir, and this piece is called, you don't have to smile. (upbeat music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music)

(dramatic music) - I can already feel everything sort of melting away. This is a great pick. (sighs) - And you know, I have to admit, I didn't know the choir,

so I did a little reading about them, and they've been doing this for a minute. - The choir has been a band since the early '80s. They've made all sorts of music, but they're ostensibly their rock band,

and more specifically to my growing up,

“but I think a lot of listeners know this,”

but I grew up on Christian rock. So this is a Christian rock band that I loved. - They must do more sort of ambient stuff, and are they instrumental rockers?

- This is their first instrumental album ever.

- Oh wow.

it's primarily been a vehicle for the songwriting

of Steve Hendellong and Dary Daarty.

“And Dary has one of the most beautiful voices.”

Ever heard, he has his gorgeous tender that Virgeson Alto, it's very high in lofty and airy, and he sings songs about wonder and curiosity. And even without you hearing him sing here, you can hear that wonder and curiosity.

- Oh, yeah. - And this, like, cathedral swelling ambient music. (upbeat music) - Well, I love this.

This is a great pick and a great way to start the show off.

So the album is from is called Translucent. - Came out just earlier this year in January, so it's pretty brand new. - Oh wow. - Well, I want to follow with something that's maybe

another kind of ambientity track from an artist known as Orbital Patterns. This is a project of artist named Abdul Alam, an electronic artist and composer based out of Michigan. He had what is, I mean, I guess I would call it an ambient album.

And he put out last year called Imposter Syndrome. And while actually that came out in 2023, last year he had an extended version of it called Extended Imposter Syndrome.

“And that's what I want to play a cut from.”

They're all pretty long. It is the extended version. - Yeah. - Extural. But I want to play a bit of one called Cantel if I'm awake.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)

(upbeat music) - You know, I'm previous installments of music to call them the nerves.

“We've talked about the different kinds of songs”

that can lower your shoulders and slow the blood. And it doesn't just have to be ambient music. There certainly lots of different kinds of music that'll do that. But it is, I find it is what I reach for the most.

Anything that can sort of lull me into a trance. And you know, the longer the cut the better because I think Stephen Thompson said on one of the episodes we did, then you don't have to get up and hit play again.

Or first, get into the next track.

- Right. - Flip the record over or whatever. - And it means like a certainly what I feel drawn to. I have a personal playlist that I've, I update every now and again called,

has the next song started yet. And it's just, you know, 10, 20 minute ambient drone tracks. And this seems like a good contender for that playlist. - Yeah. - Great name for a playlist, actually.

I just, I find this really transfixing. This is really beautifully done. And I don't really know what he's making the music with, either, which is something else I really love. Could be guitars, maybe.

Could be run through a bunch of pedals. Could be sense.

- I actually have another song on that playlist

that I was just talking about the, has the next song started yet. - Oh, okay. - It's one that's been in my life for a long time that I returned to often when I need to reset my pulse. - Right.

- Clear. (laughing) - Yes. That would be a good name for a playlist. - Clear, I'm sure.

It's a song, Logic Moon, from the album Insen,

which was a collaboration between the German artist Alvin Noto and the Japanese pianist and composer Ruchi Sakamoto. (gentle music) , (gentle music) (gentle music)

(gentle music) (gentle music) - I'm so glad you picked this and picked something from Ruchi Sakamoto.

“Honestly, I can't believe that we didn't play anything”

from him on either of our, (laughing) - I was looking at previous episodes and I was like, why is this not going on? - It's not going on.

Not on how many of these. - I know, I mean, his music is just so perfect for calming the nerves and he's obviously produced so much. I'm gonna forgive myself for not knowing this albumer and I really don't know Alvin Noto either.

They did a handful of these collaborations and all of them are stunning and beautiful and I've loved every single one of them. If this is your mode, this is a great place to be.

“I remember when I first moved to Washington, DC,”

I didn't know anybody here. I was trying something new for myself for somebody who grew up in the south

and had you never really lived anywhere else?

- You never lived? - I'm not really as an adult moved around when I was a kid, but I was, I remember I was on the metro late one night and I put this album on and this song in particular came on. And I remember watching there was like a bottle

of water that evolved into the floor and it sprung a leak and the water was just kind of like moving back and forth on the floor of this metro. Sort of the end time with these little glitches.

“And I remember hearing seeing that and hearing the glitches”

and then hearing Saka Motos. It's like he's playing one note at a time and he's resolving and unresolving a chord at the same time and everything seems to be backwards and forwards and in that moment I sort of felt like

I was allowing myself to experience something new. - It was calming. - Wow. - Because I was so full of anxiety about this place I'd never been.

- Yeah. - And I was like, son of a, I thought, oh, this is okay. - That's a real American beauty plastic bag floating in the air moment, Lars. - Yes, I know.

- Watching the water bottle slosh back and forth in time to this song. (gentle music)

a little bit more because I found,

if I had any complaint about it, I would say that the little digital glitch sounds that pulls throughout this are actually a little unnerving to me. - They're a little jarring, yeah, but they're so soft. They are, but it sounds like something's wrong.

Like, it sounds like something's broken or it's like an alarm or something telling me. - But like that little water bottle is like that was also out of time and I felt out of time. I felt out of sync.

And here is this thing that suddenly became in sync

in a strange way.

“- Lars, I actually have an artist that I think I may be”

discovered on one of your mini playlists that you've shared over the years. Leah, Bertucci, oh yeah, you're fan of hers. I guess if you had to call Leah Bertucci any one thing as an artist, she's a saxophonist,

but I mean, that's really a playlist of what she does. - It really is the least of what she does and she's a New York bass composer, improviser, makes beautiful avant-garde music. She does play the saxophone, but really,

she writes "Revoys and strings and electronics and all kinds of other sounds." She's put out a number of albums

“and he piece over the past decade or so,”

but I wanna play a single that she released in 2023 called "Vapers." (upbeat music) (upbeat music) , (upbeat music)

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) So, no saxophone. No, I'm not dissuaded at all. All strings, violin, viola, cello,

it's all performed by the quartetto Maurice. - This is what goes back to what I was saying earlier

“about how I was surprised how some of your picks felt”

noiseier than what I was expecting, because I love Leah Bertucci's music, and this is the kind of music as totally in my jam. I'd love, I like to call it pastoral ambient music, or stuff that you can see sound tracking at Terrence Malak movie

and maybe my old time favorite director. - Right, yeah.

- But there's always such attention

with this kind of composition, who doing a lot of clasando on those strings and you're screeching them. - Yeah, you're getting the texture of the strings for sure, it's a very tangible ambient music.

(vacuum music) - Maybe because also, as you say, it is pastoral. There's something about it that I really love the texture of the strings. It's like you can hear the bow dragging across them

on the outside of the tone that it produces and you can hear the fingers moving on the strings. And I don't know, there's a lot of humanity in that in a way for me. And yeah, I really love this.

(vacuum music)

- Can I change the mood like a little bit?

- Yeah.

“- I can't help but notice that we're picking a lot of song”

or music. I mean, I don't came here on very much on team sad songs making me happy. - Right, I bet I know where you're going from here. I've seen your playlist here.

- There's a guitarist named Hayden Pettico,

who I've loved for a long time

that been following his career since he was a teenager. I've talked about him on this show many times already. But he has a new record coming out

“just announced today, it's called "I'll Be Waving as You Drive Away."”

It's out in June. And he has a new song called "Long Pond" to the lily that I actually saw him perform last fall here in Washington, D.C.He previewed

a handful of new tracks when he was playing

at the songbird music venue. And this song really stuck out to me. (vacuum music) (upbeat music) . (upbeat music)

. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) . (upbeat music) Full disclosure, this is not where I thought you were going. We'll get to where I thought you were going.

I know a little bit later on the show, but this is so wonderful, it's just so reassuring in a way. I don't know what else, it's like optimism, but it's not blind optimism or blind idealism. It's not music just to make you forget everything for a while,

which is, that's important in good kind of music too, but there's something that's just a steady calming hand in this music.

“- I think that's right, and something I say about hate”

and often is that he's a story of teller without wounds. And there are so many characters in this song. You have that acoustic guitar, you have that rippling, electric guitar figure. A little drums come in, I think there's some pedal steel.

I think there's some upright bass that pops through. Everything's got a little bit of a bounce to it. And you feel like you're in a movie where the whole town comes together and solves a problem. Everything's going to be just fine.

Yeah, it conjures a lot of really wonderful images, and it's partly because of the name, long pond, lily. Again, pastoral, it feels like you're stepping into a Monet painting or something, it has all those weird, wild, wonderful colors. But then also the album title, I'll be waving as you drive away.

I thought, well, maybe they're waving to try to get their attention 'cause they're about to drive off a cliff.

Bye! No way!

But it's clearly someone's leaving,

“and it's again that idea that it's okay.”

You're waving fondly, it's okay to be sad and to say goodbye and still feel good. Yeah, it can be bittersweet. Well, I know you love yourself, some finger-picked guitars, and Hayden pedagos is one of the best doing it right now.

I think so, absolutely. You know, on the last installment of "Songs to Call of the Nurse," we played a little bit of Max Richter's sleep. You know, that obus designed to put you to sleep and then guide you to sleep, and I wanted to feature all new stuff

on this episode, but I, you know, from different artists than we featured before, but I just had to reach for Max Richter again because I have been thinking a lot about and listening a lot to this album that he put out in 2020 called "Voices."

“And it's just this really, I think, profoundly stirring album”

that is inspired and sort of about the universal declaration of human rights, which was this document that the United Nations put out not long after World War II. And the album voices from Max Richter has a lot of really gorgeous music in it,

but also a reading of the declaration by a number of different people. And it opens with a track called "All Human Beans"

and the first voice you're going to hear on this cut

is actually Eleanor Roosevelt who shared the UN Committee that drafted this. "I'm going to read you the universal declaration of human rights." The preamble, whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and the colonan alien number rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom justice and peace in the world.

Now, therefore, the general assembly proclaims, this universal declaration of human rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society keeping this declaration constantly in mind,

shall strive by teaching an education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures national and international to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance. Article 1, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity

and rights." They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of community. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,

property, birth, or other status. I just find this so inspiring, so uplifting. If you need a reminder that the world is a good place, full of good people, trying to do good things, listen to this, really this whole album. And it's not just a reading like this, it is just full of really gorgeous music, too.

When I saw that you were going to feature this song, I was like, "Man, Robinsfield, and Hopeful!" I know, I put on a good game face with the whole grumpy old man thing. Yeah, I deep in my heart, I am an optimistic hopeful person, yes. That's so crucial.

It is so easy to give in to despair and I am definitely one of those people who struggles with that and giving it to despair. And like I said, I have my routines to kind of keep me steady.

“I am a prayerful person, so that is an important part of my, you know, keeping myself level”

headed, reminding ourselves that we are a humanity that deserves to be loved and connected

and supported is crucial.

It is going to be a lot of different ways that you're going to do that. Some people are going to fight, some people are going to love, some people are going to make art. The point is that you do it. Yeah, if you could indulge me just being very earnest for a moment, I will say, and this is something that I've said to my kids whenever they're worried about

what they hear in the news or what's going on in the world, I say that the thing that gives me the most hope is that I and I truly believe this is that love always wins.

Hate can cause lots of problems and make life very difficult for people and hurt people,

but it never wins the long fight.

And, you know, because hate is ultimately very brittle and hard and it's hollow and it's very unstable. It teeters and falls over eventually. Love is always on strong, solid ground solid footing and it's very resilient. And it may not feel like it, but love always wins.

Amen, brother Robin. Robin, let's play something a little bit different than everything else we've been playing.

“Okay, now I know where I think you're going.”

Okay, I think I've mentioned on the show before that I have a extremely fond love and appreciation for music from Brazil on the show and in 1975 Wayne Shorter, the great American saxophonist, did this record called "Native Dancer" and he is the name on the record, but the star of the show is the Brazilian singer, Milton Nossie Mento. It's a great record, it's incredibly influential.

It's Esperanza Spalding has cited it as a major influence and it's a record I come back to often. It's a great party record if you need like a chill party record,

“but there's one song on it that just, as our colleagues Steven Thompson says,”

slows the blood, but also feels like it could sound track at a late night party wind down. This is the track "Tarja" from "Native Dancer." "The sun is shining, I want to see you." "Somere" "The wind is shining, I want to see you." "The stars are shining, I want to see you."

"The wind is shining, I want to see you." And Wayne Shorter, in his saxophone, actually doesn't come in until like maybe halfway through. We can, we can scoot you ahead here so people can hear it.

“Okay, great, yeah, it's so crucial this part.”

[Music] Just so people know, that's Wayne Shorter on sax, "Hurby Hancock", a electric piano. Okay, and then "Native Dancer" meant to again singing and, you know, you don't need to know Portuguese to know what he's singing about to know that it's beautiful. It is a song about longing as most songs from the country of Brazil are about.

This is a very interesting mix of sounds, so it's not necessarily what I first think of when I

think of Brazilian music. There is sort of a New York City vibe in it. This is kind of a pop-ther thing that was happening during this time in music, where a lot of New York jazz musicians wanted to make Brazilian records. And so that was happening a lot. And so he wanted to do it too, and he does, and he doesn't. Like, he got the right guy to sing, and he brought an heir to the brilliant percussionist

to play on a lot of this album. He doesn't play in this song. But it kind of finds this third way

it's called fusion, I guess. But fusion is just a good word for like, when you fuse two different

kinds of things together, you don't know what else to call it, you know. Yeah, so like I said, this song in particular is such a great, what's why I'm the party down, but it's like recognized that we had a great night. Well, nothing calms my nerves more than everyone leaving. So I like the image of this being

“the final song, like everyone's kind of trickling out the door. Except for that one person, right?”

Who just won't leave? Won't leave. Just punish her. Let's go to music from Guatemala and

and Bobby Frate, a chalice, I absolutely love. Kind of like the Leah Brutucci, you know, Bobby Frate contains multitudes. She is collaborated with so many different artists doing so many different styles of music. And again, you know, sort of like you wouldn't just call Leah Brutucci a saxophonist. I don't think you could just call Bobby Frate a chalice. I want to play something from her solo album that she put out in 2019 called Pia Sobre, La Tierra, or feet on the ground.

And this is the opening song, El Sol Sigue. Ayy, the sun is still here. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

[Music] [Music] Yeah, she just does so much with her voice, with her chalice. The way it's orchestrated, the way the song sort of

“opens up, I think it's just beautiful. The composer and her Ranger Simon Parkin once said that the”

cello is the only instrument that encompasses the entire range of the human voice. Which, you know, is it thing that I've heard many times over the years, but I think is just true. It starts down at the low sea and goes all the way up to the high sea and that is what the human voice can do. Yeah. And, you know, it's an instrument that you literally hug with your body. So you're feeling the vibrations of these strings and you are just enveloped. And especially if you're singing

“with the cello, what kind of resonance are you capturing? So I think about somebody like Arthur Russell.”

Mm-hmm. It was the first time when I really realized that the cello was like made for the human

voice. And, I think Bobby Fate really inhabits in and inherits that kind of like Arthur Russell and William world. Yeah. You would like Oliver Coats. Do you ever listen to him? He did

can really coax all these incredible sounds out of it. But, yeah, Bobby Fate, she does really,

really gorgeous work and I'm just so inspired by everything she does. She is such a creative spirit of incredible artist.

“Lars, I think you've got one more that you want to play for us. You've asked me, you know,”

what am I doing to help settle my nerves? Yeah. And, you know, I mentioned routine, but live music is a big part of that for me. It's very important for me to go see a show. Even if I'm just going by myself to being surrounded by like-minded lovers of music engaging in this music

communion together is very important to me. And so recently, I got to see a band that I've never

been able to see, but I've been listening to since college the band, Ida. Ida has been sort of

“reactivated a little bit. They've been doing some reunions. Yeah, I was going to ask did they break”

up or they just stopped? Yeah. Life was life fun, you know. And so I was so thrilled that they announced this tour and I saw them here at the Black Hat in DC and definitely cried. Well, that's interesting

because I know that the song that you want to play is called "Don't Get Sad." Yes. It is a song

from, well, you find me which originally came out in 2000. It's getting a nice box-set ratio in April on numeric group. They're recognizing that you need some comfort in this world, but they're not showing away from the things that are hurting. And that's exactly what this song is about. "Don't Get Sad on me. Don't Get Sad on me. Don't Get Sad on me. Don't Get Sad on me. Don't Get Sad on me. I'm an I have a lot of comfort to spend. But I am. I am.

But I already could and you had an Eucloss and call me. Take one hand out of Eucloss, it's straight when you walk in. It looks straight and don't do it around when you walk in. Yeah, those harmonies are just gorgeous and I love just all the simple little images in this too. Yeah, the lyrics are fairly unadorned. They're just saying, "Let's go for a walk." Yeah, put on your gloves. Yeah, let's go. Yeah. But I want them to say that to me.

You know, you could be very close if they would just give you a chance. Right, yes. Can I come to on this walk? I love you, I love you, I love so much. I'm so glad that you're back. I have thought of making a mix-taper playlist of songs all about hanging in there, you know, like you maybe you got this playlist, you know, this would fit on that. You know,

“like R-E-M's, everybody hurts. Right, Peter Gabriel's, don't give up. I think Bill Faze”

be not so fearful. Sure. Yeah. Maybe we should do that show. That's too bad show. Maybe we need to do that show. I mean, we can do that a little bit later on. And the image for the show could be the hang in their cat. Yeah, God. Well, if people want to listen to full versions of these songs,

that we've been adding to as we've been doing these episodes. So we'll put all of this music on

“it. We must be up to, I don't know, three and a half hours of music on there by now, just because”

the full versions of some of these songs are 15 minutes long, you know. But if people look for that an Apple music or Spotify, they'll find it there. We're about to add a 25 minute song right now. Yeah. And this is one that, you know, I almost included on both of our previous episodes,

because it really is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music, of any music, of any genre,

but especially music that takes me away. It's from the Polish composer, Henrik Goretsky.

“This is easily his most famous piece. It's his symphony number three,”

Opus 36. It's known as the symphony of sorrowful songs. It is. Yes, as you said, like maybe 20 minutes or so, just this one section. And then, of course, the whole symphony is much longer. This is the opening piece. It's called lento, and we'll just do a little bit of it here. And we can come back and talk more about it. [Music]

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] This is just a breathtaking work. You know, when it starts off, at the very beginning, it's so

quiet. You can barely even hear it, the cellos that are playing at the beginning. And it just keeps building and building and building. And it's the sort of same line that feels like it has no beginning or end that they just keep repeating. There's something in this piece that it just feels like the very soul of the universe is opening up and revealing itself to me in the most wondrous way. And I have cried to the song so many times just from the beauty of it all. This is probably

the most famous version of this piece of music. But there are two versions that came out in somewhat recent years featuring Beth Gibbons as the singer, performing with the Polish symphony. And then Lisa Gerard from Dead Kent Dance also did a version. Oh, I didn't know that. And they bring their own textures and colors. Yeah. So start with this one, uh, sung by Don Upshah. It's it's the goat. It's the right idea. Yeah. But the Beth Gibbons and the Lisa Gerard versions are also

really incredible. I thought you were going to say Colin Stetsen because he did a version too.

“Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You should check that out. Really incredible.”

All right, Lars. Thanks as always for this journey. Yeah. Are we going to hug it out after this?

Absolutely not. Going to do that. But a firm handshake and thanks for everything we'll do. Okay. I'll take it. And for NPR music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's all songs considered.

[Music] [Music]