Today is a great day to share the new single from LARAAJI & KRAMER called “Submersion.” On this ambient single, this artist channels warm music arrangements paired with sweeping instrumentation in a crowd-pleasing song. When speaking on the new track, the artist shared:
Memory, is an art. Sound, and its visual point of origin, can open our minds to ourselves, and to others. The potential truthful of every sound is strengthened when attached to a formless visual image. ‘Submersion’ is an act of submission, to Memory. It is the most sublime form of surrender, and it holds within itself the power to set us Free.
If you’re enjoying the direction taken here, you can pre-order the full-length record, Baptismal, here. I was also able to catch up with this artist for a brief interview below.
What were some of the influences guiding the video for “Submersion”?
”Ambient Cinema” is a term I’ve been using to describe the results of my various adventures in so-called ‘experimental’ filmmaking. It generally eschews traditional narrative for dreamlike excursions into an imaginatively self-conscious subconsciousness. The methods therein endeavor to communicate in a manner in which it might be possible to circumvent the conscious mind, and find its intended target somewhere far deeper. Using my collaboration with Laraaji as the audio starting point for an Ambient Cinema piece is a no-brainer that (I hope) turns one side of the brain off, and electrifies the other half in a state of sublime ecstasy. I hope that inspires a state of mind that is unique within the field of experiences the listener might normally have…similar perhaps to that which I find myself immersed in when listening to Eno’s “Discreet Music”, even after all these years. It’s a feeling i’ve been unable to replicate or experience elsewhere. that’s part of the goal here. Like going to see a David Lynch film. You’re not going to have a similar experience anywhere else. It is “unique” beyond description.
How do the visuals represent the sonic world for you personally?
The visuals accurately represent the sonic world by remaining firmly in the visual realm, without human “commentary”. It is by maintaining that chasm between the visual and the verbal that it is possible to induce the state of mind I’m seeking to inspire with Ambient Cinema…a kind of “event horizon” in music, or a gate beyond which the listener can make.
How did you and LAARAJI come together for this record? What does it mean to be working with him?
Laraaji and I have been friends for nearly 40 years (he appeared as a solo artist on the very first Shimmy-Disc LP in 1987), though over that time we have taken some decidedly different paths. While Laraaji has maintained a lifelong commitment to inspiring peace and tranquility of mind with his music, I have changed gears over and over again before finally making a permanent home in the realm of the drones and slowness and all things “quiet.” I think that it’s precisely those divergent paths that have brought us to this collaboration and made it such a success. And if i have to confess to one single factor that has inspired and fueled my creative instincts for BAPTISMAL, that one thing would be LARAAJI himself. I couldn’t possibly articulate in mere words what working beside him has meant to me, so I articulate it in Sound; the Sound of Music. For me, that is far more meaningful than any other form of tribute.