I do not need to tell you if you are reading this right now that the COVID Pandemic was one of the more unsettling times to live in. As I write these lines it is not entirely over either. Well during the heart of the lockdown composer Danny Clay and several cohorts began working on a substantial multi-part work meant to calm the jangled nerves of folks undergoing the Pandemic. It is a sort of acoustic, ambiently mesmerizing meditation he calls
Music for Hard Times (Earthy Records CD). This CD as far as I know comprises volume 1. There is a shorter Volume 2 that at this point seems to be a brief cut available at Bandcamp as a download. I concentrate on the CD (Volume 1) here. The entirety was recorded at Danny's home and also the home of TLES on instruments and vocals in the thick of isolation.
The music means to heal in its own way, and indeed it does feel like that as I listen. It is in a kind of primal diatonic realm, with a kind of floating and slowly rolling series of musically spellbinding aural moments one after the other. There is nothing banal about it all, though such things can rapidly become so in New Age-dom realms. The simple beauty is unforced, the diatonicism never condescending but rather genuinely lyrical.
I find the album indeed quite peaceful and pleasurable as well as aurally satisfying. Give it a listen!
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