There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy

Sun Will Set – Zoe Keating

I discovered Zoe Keating through Radio Lab, an often brilliant, always interesting, and occasionally hilarious podcast produced by WYNC. They talk about science, the world out there, bizarre phenomena that almost defy explanation – and they do it all in a way that keeps you on the edge of the seat. Seriously, if you’ve never heard it and are even remotely interesting in amateur science or life or things like that, head over there and give it a listen. They’ve got (I think) the whole archive of shows available to download.

Two I’d recommend are Emergence and Memory and Forgetting. But really, you can’t go wrong.

Anyways, one recent mini show they did was an interview with Zoe Keating, who used to play in Rasputina – a band I vaguely enjoyed but haven’t thought of in quite a while. Her solo work, it turns out, is truly stunning. She works with only a cello and a looping laptop, but what she can produce with those simple instruments is a layered landscape so finely grained that it recedes beyond all capacity to judge.

It’s that rarest of things: a song that you are positive sounds different to every person who hears it. What do you draw out of it? Do you glide along with the main theme? Do you hide yourself in the hidden valleys? Do you loop endlessly on top of the sound – always dancing just a step beyond the sound?

The interview really helps that come through, too. She talks about how she gets lost in the shape of the sound – slightly out of tune. And also emphasizes how much room there is to develop the loops, to turn mistakes into serendipitous new pathways.

Put another way: her music is the aural equivalent of watching Twin Peaks.