SHADES OF LIVING LIGHT
released october 29th 2023
"The brightness that I see is not spatial…
yet is far, far more lucent than a cloud that envelops the sun. I cannot contemplate height or length or breadth in it; and I call it “the shadow of the Living Light." And as sun, moon and stars appear mirrored in water, so Scriptures, discourses, virtues, and some works of men take form for me and are reflected, radiant in this brightness."
— Hildegard von Bingen in a letter to Guibert, translation adapted from Peter Dronke.
komorebi (noun, Japanese): sunlight streaming through tree leaves
Official music video for “Komorebi” by Ataraxia off of Shades of Living Light. Filmed all across Washington State in the summer of 2021.
Shades of Living Light is an orchestrated, conceptual, gapless piano album borne out of the desire to both celebrate and explore the process of becoming.
In creating these compositions, I drew from the emotional experience of realizing a sudden shift in consciousness: viewing some immutable reality with a new lens. Standing in the same spot with someone you love year after year. Interpreting the lyrics to a song you love differently after an immensely kairotic moment. Hearing a younger version of yourself play the notes of a song your mother wrote years before you were born on a set of long-forgotten cassette tapes.
All of these experiences share similar colors of nostalgia, melancholy, the comfort and discomfort of unanswered questions, and the quiet, unmistakable, beautiful fear of all that is yet to come.
