Listened twice last week to Philip Glass + Uakti album, Aguas da Amazonia. This was my favorite album for a time in high school and holds up. Love the textures that Uakti brings to Glass. Also, one of those rare albums I can listen to doing anything: dishes, driving, working, conversing.
@JudsonGreene Yes I’ve wondered sometimes at our scorn of “background music”. If it’s good music, what’s wrong? I remember that much of the baroque & classical repertoire was mostly heard at dances & dinner parties, probably with only a few paying full attention to the music. One of Morton Feldman’s string quartets is I think 6 hours long, and the audience was encouraged to wander in and out at will.
@JohnBrady I like the idea of encouraging audiences to wander—busying the body with what the brain was prolly already up to.
I suppose background music asks little of listeners, so can potentially can ask little of composers/musicians. I often put Lofi on in the background—I prefer the good stuff, but I’ve almost surely listened to some made by bots. This doesn’t have to be the case though.
There’s also attention-demanding music that’s “art music” and other music that’s demanding but not melodically complex (some punk, metal, etc?).
I think the Glass + Uakti album interests me in that I can give it all of my attention or next to none of it and it’s rewarding.