MySpace a place for friends

I moved to New York from Europe at the start of 2005. Coming to the US and starting over, I had more time to think, I suppose as now I had a lot less in the way of obligations and commitments. Walking around New York I became aware of all the things I think and feel every day. especially in a large modern city with so many different people and particularly in a city like New York with people from surely every part of the world. As I walked and looked at all around me I became aware of some of my feelings, and I tried to be as honest as possible about them to myself, which I don’t always find easy. Some of these surprised me, some shocked me, some I knew well and some I couldn’t even really put a name to. Anger, doubt, joy, longing, prejudice, fear, insecurity, sadness, awe, empathy, feeling overwhelmed, desire, superiority, inferiority. I felt rich, I felt poor; I felt tall, I felt short; I felt unwanted, I felt at home.

As I experienced these feelings and others that are harder to identify, I felt that there’s no way that I can express them all verbally. Even if I had a friend or partner that would listen to me for hours every evening, there probably just wouldn’t be the time to express to them all that I’d felt in that one day or even to be able to express most of it in a way that someone else can understand. And this is what most gets to me. This area of emotion and feeling that doesn’t seems to have a way of being expressed. I turned to what I know, music, and I decided to assemble an album which in some way helps me articulate and explore some of these feelings.

For me its a ‘lights off’ album. It’s really a soundtrack album, but the film is the listeners film, and the music will mean many different things to different people. I love that side of music (especially music without lyrics), that it can be ambiguous. I don’t always need music to tell me how to feel. Sometimes I just like to make my own mind up and figure it out for myself. And sometimes the same piece of music can mean different things at different times. The thing I do know though, is that it’s difficult for me not to have some sort of emotional response when I listen to music, whatever that music is. That’s the nature of it, and perhaps why we love music much. Some of the tracks on the album have strong identities for me which I could put into words and with others I feel strong emotions but I’m really not quite sure what those emotions are. The music of 'Sinking Upwards’ is mostly ‘open’. If you have any thoughts whilst listening and you’d like to share them, it would be great if you’d post them on the site.

On the CD the tracks crossfade into each other so it's one listening experience without breaks. If you want to 'add' a track to your profile that's not on the MySpace player let me know and I'll send you the link.

Simon

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'Nice Electronica from Sonanaut' - read the review by Dave Marks at Free Mp3 Report

Gripping, deep, orchestral and expressive - just a few adjectives which spring to mind in describing this album. All the tracks are approached from a colouristic point of view by not mearly using the same sound generations throughout; colours shift as the orchestrational approach to the music develops. Material unfolds slowly and steadily, much of it with an harmonically modal feel, creating great beauty and expressive power. These harmonies, carried by strong and clear melodic writing imparts the music's emotional heart deep into the listener creating an intense yet laid back musical experince. All tracks are motivated by inventive and appropriate rhythmic backing, never obtrusive, these percussive pads serve to bring a very contemporary feel to the melodic content delivering a listening experience firmly rooted in the twenty-first century but which has, on occassion, a surprisingly 'classical' feel about it, this due to the rich, lush, orchestral nature of the tracks and the attention to great melodic writing supported by inventive and sensetive harmoies - all fabulous qualities to draw from classical music - qualities that are all too often lacking in so many contemporary albums. Sinking Upwards is a must listen - if you don't find t least one track there to touch you, I'd be surprised. Highly recommended!
Marc Yeats : Avant Garde Classical Composer

This Album has a really succeeded Effect: it's slowly, downtempo and at the same time fully present, opening the view to the forthcoming. Just like the title of this Album, the Sound often seems to go deeper and down until there are some Lights on the Way getting brighter and coming closer to lift the ambience again. It becomes easy to imagine the Feeling you have walkin' through a City, maybe on a Boulevard, when it's Night, it rained and the Streets are wet so that the Lights reflect. Just like in Slow mode some Cabs drive on and away, and you're even goin' your way - these Pictures go through my mind hearing the Sounds that are slowly coming and going theire way, too, just to come to another meeting Point and melt in Tristesse so beautifully... On the second Part of the Album there are really calming, dream-away-lovin-Tracks and my favourite ones are "Within this City" and "from now on", but "Judith's Way", "don't you know" and "David" are also tasting very good! "i can feel you" inevitably reminds me of Arts of Noise and "Induction" has a very specially dubbed Athmosphere - just check them out for yourself! i think, it would be a pleasure, to hear the Tracks in full length and maybe i'll get this CD when i need a still and calmy Feeling again. the Feeling for me is like a mixture of Boards of Canada or FSOL, combined with a dubby and rythmical feeling like you can find in Thievery Corporations' Style, unless it's a throughout instrumental Album, that has a really smooth and moody Sound.dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd.Point. i would like to praise Sonanaut and also everyone else who shares it's feelings and thougts with us in this Peaceful and Harmonic Way and last but not least i want to thank all the people who are joining the Harmony hearing these Ways! Peace
Tigafish_db

As with all Sonanaut music, it's well thought out, there's no "I'll slap that bit in there because it's what other people do!", every peice is passionately blended with the correct noises for the mood. When I listened to this album, I decided to do it without the track titles visible, so that I could experience the music with absolutely no preconceptions. 'Sinking Upwards' takes me through a whole range of emotions, Fear,paranoia,excitement, loneliness and more that isn't always possible to put into words. The track 'Carbon' gives me a feeling of intense sunlight, and the nylon guitar evokes the heat of a desertscape, where as 'Within This City' gives me a sense of suspended isolation, and I feel a stranger in this city. 'David' gives me the feeling of flying over devastation,searching for life with the occasional movement of something to give hope, only to be dashed by the knowledge that it was only wishfull thinking.' I Can Feel you' gives me the sensation of being in a waiting room, uncertainty and expectation of what you fear most. All in all, this album is a treat for the senses, any ambient lover not moved by this wasn't listening and ought to give it another go. I have every respect for Sonanaut, so much so that I have him as one of my top friends on my Carphead myspace page. Simon you are a genius!
John Saunders

This is one sexy album! I love the beautiful dream scape of 'Reasons' and the moody fender rhodes and the subtle flute on 'Judith's way'. There is a great mix and use of electronic instrumentation like in the juxtaposition of the treated electric guitar behind the melody of the classical guitar refrain of 'Carbon'. I loved the hypnotic rhythm and choral chants in 'The Twins' and then the beautiful minor chord changes in 'David' a piece of music that had me lost in contemplation and total relaxation. The album ends with the equivalent of an electronic requiem in 'From Now On' and sent goose bumps all the way down my back. A superb work indeed and one I'd highly recommend, even if electronic sound scapes are not your bag, I'm sure you'd love this after a hard day at the office!
Ian C Uren

A truly inspiring release. Sonanaut's newest album, "Sinking Upwards" is without question one of the best albums I have heard all year. I have said many times before that not too many artists can really tap into that euphoric nerve center where you say.."Yeah thats it!" But "Sinking Upwards" does just that. The mix of lush ambient echoing rhythms added with edginess is supreme. This Cd is full of deep sensual grooves that probe and activate all the emotional centers of the listener's brain from start to finish. Each track seems to lure you on deeper into the musical journey which is often hypnotic yet the fact that Sonanaut mixes it up with funky grooves- bringing the tempo up just a little - never gives the listener a chance to get bored. Simply put.. this is a bad-azz release
Dub Ninja

The things in life that affect us so much, we run away from and gravite towards. All of our fears that we don't face, and even the ones we do-we are always running . . . Driving away, singing away, crying away, laughing away, writing away, drawing away, typing away, working away, sleeping away, the most passionate expereriences in life are always too far and sometimes yet too close. We are all interconnected to one another but sometimes keep running because of fear. And in that that fear, there is so much compassion that when once found, we will all be naturally. Feel as if we are "Sinking Upwards" to a better understanding of one another. For a better life, a better place to run to.
ChineseRaven13

Sonanaut and myself made contact through myspace.com, and I was blown away by the quality of the tracks that he had posted on his page. Suffice to say that the full-lenght album does not disappoint me. This is basically everything that is good about ambient/electronic/techno music, gorgeous, beautiful melodies, nice beats, well constructed and well produced tracks. Highly recommended!!
Brian - Ripple Effect