I always try to avoid the term “experimental” music. So much music is written with a spirit of experimentation in mind. And a song isn’t necessarily any more experimental when it simply isn’t reliant on typical genre structures. The best music is usually made within an atmosphere of freedom from strict boundaries, letting the elements speak and letting the melody and rhythm do their own work.

Anjali Rose, an artist based in Brooklyn, sent me this lovely song. The artist explained that it was written in the early stages of the pandemic, with an ear toward describing the horror of disease, and its inherent “cosmic link to climate change and destruction”. Without its concept being blatant, it can sometimes be hard to pull out of a song clear meaning. This is the case here, so I encourage listeners to simply let the song describe itself. Personally, I do hear some of the somber reflection on the possibility of future devastation that the artist describes as the song’s inspiration. But equally so, I sense in the song hopefulness: the possibility that collectivism may one day improve the conditions of humankind, in harmony with the earth, not in dissonance.

Out now for streaming, or on bandcamp.

Anjali Rose – “Reach For It” (bc)