TOUR RECAP, REPRESS, MERCH, S-R AMBIENT SET

A recurring phrase I hear from friends and family is “I could never do what you do, with all that traveling". It’s funny to look back on the past fourteen months of shows, both the Atlas live shows and the dj gigs peppered in between, and reflect on how all the traveling has, most likely, irreparably caused brain damage. My thoughts are practically hardwired exclusively to listening and logistics of movement…and just how beautifully cliché is it for someone exploring the idea of “ambient music” to be on the road, in public spaces and transit fairly frequently. I’m saving thoughts for a longer piece on the whole process, of becoming an invisible scrap of paper that you find in a little corner of a remote terminal, with their friends the dust motes and discarded paper coffee cup. Someone’s phone number was written on that scrap, determined to be given out by a brave fellow passenger to a passing love interest en route, but their connection was missed. How to clean the buildup of creative debris is the task for 2025.

It was an immense pleasure to perform the Atlas shows with Leila, who has an uncommonly sharp sense of texture and atmosphere. Playing with her made me a better and more accountable musician, thinking about sound source and process more than ever before. It’s lucky to have run into her having a smoke outside the Radio France building when we were both doing Ina GRM residencies at the same time.

This final run was a set of four dates in the US. Chicago, Seattle and Portland were organized by Reflections, all in beautiful former or current church spaces, the level of production was remarkable between the sound crew and A/V crew – generally not a fan of unbespoke A/V but it fit so well with the feeling of the music. LA was at 2220, one of my favorite venues in town, and it was memorable not only for being a cozy “hometown” (still new to LA) show with friends and a few CalArts students, but also because the sound engineer had the room dialed to such an extent there was not a single moment of feedback during soundcheck (generally, we were checking for tones that would go crazy because of the fx return setup on stage).

(photo credit Camille Bruya)

↳ Atlas (AWE001LP) Repress

Again tour brain has slashed my ability to time announcements correctly, but after being sold out for many months the vinyl has been repressed in an edition of 500 - available on Bandcamp and at your local record shop. Get your copy here …

↳ Merch

In addition to the repress, Awe has a mini-drop of fall/winter merch, available now — (1) Awe concept () shirt in white ink on black tee (2) Awe logo in reflective 3M foil on india ink grey tee and (3) cap in new olive colorway with marigold embroidery.

↳ S-R Ambient Set

At long last, we received the recordings from this year’s Sustain-Release, and I’ve uploaded the full 3 hour ambient set played at the Bossa Lounge this past September. It was a highlight of the year for me to play the festival and to go deep with this particular set - tons of unreleased material combined with sounds that stretch the definition of ambient (engrossing, boring music as opposed to ignorable, interesting music?). I really appreciate those who stretched out and stayed the full three hours. Hope you enjoy!

(photo credit Luis Nieto Dickens)

↳ Awe on NTS

Awe is something you feel when confronted with forces beyond your control: nature, the cosmos, chaos, human error, hallucinations.

Finally, the last Awe on NTS of the year is now archived. The show returns January 14, 2025 with a new timeslot of 8AM PST / 11AM EST / 5PM CET.

↳ Thoughts

Lots of beautiful music came out this year but probably my favorite was probably Leila’s 1991, Summer, Huntington Garage Fire — dialed, multivalent and fearless. Favorite books were a tossup between Savage Detectives and Dead Souls. Favorite online radio show hands down Bill Spencer’s A Month of Sundays on NTS. Favorite film a tie between Opening Night (RIP Gena Rowlands) and Opus (RIP Ryuichi Sakamoto). Favorite terrestrial radio stations 88.1 KJazz & 93.9 KLLI-FM. Favorite play Casey Jane Ellison’s It’s My Sister at New Theater Hollywood. Favorite moment a tie between seeing one of my best friends get married at the NYC Marriage Bureau, and walking in front of the Font house in CDMX.

Thank you to all who came to a gig, listened at home or engaged otherwise with this project, it means the world that some of my fried attempts at beauty are landing. See you in 2025.

x LH