I would like to tell you about my favorite music listening experience. One evening, the power went out in the entire neighborhood - I want to say around 9 PM or so. Instead of sitting in the house waiting for power to return, I decided I would rather go for a walk. I always listen to something when I walk, and that night I selected Black Earth by Bohren & der Club of Gore, which I had recently bought but had not yet made the time to put on.

When I walked out into the neighborhood, it was utterly quiet. The usual drone of air conditioning, occasional protest of pets or children, and even the wind through the trees were absent. All artificial lights were dead, leaving only the even blue glow of moonlight filtered through the atmosphere. No breathing thing met my path. Bohren's languid "doom jazz" sound - pensive keyboards, lurking bass, melancholy saxophone, and careful percussion - imparted the sense of wandering across a dead planet, surveying what was left after everything went cold. The music leaves space for every note to fade softly into the dark. My usually noisy mind seemed to follow suit, content to luxuriate in the eerie stillness.

The last few ghostly Mellotron notes sighed out as my loop through the lifeless neighborhood closed on itself, and as I neared the house, the lights returned to life. I still feel incredibly fortunate to have been given this perfect setting for a beautiful album. You can listen to Black Earth via Bohren & der Club of Gore's YouTube page here.