Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Tides: Music for Meditation and Yoga

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
Tides: Music for Meditation and Yoga
2019
Bandcamp

I know what you are thinking, an album for Yoga and Meditation sounds like the last thing you want to listen to. It is a genre that has been done to death with Indian sounding instrumentation, some ambient features and more often than not some heavy breathing being done next to you. It's a crowded genre despite how simple the songs can be, get some bells going, some fuzz and blame you have yourself some music to meditate too. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith however never makes normal music which is why this release is so exciting. Instead of doing the normal run of the mill shit, Smith is using her experimental synth driven electronica and folding it into the ambient space. The songs all titled "Tides" then numbered seem to eliminate the the space around you and bring you immediately in to a sense of grounding. For the most part Smith used her synth exclusively to create this record, only including a few other live recordings. The record was "commissioned" by her mother as a resource for her yoga and meditation practice. From there however the record grew much larger and complex, something that had to be shared rather than a piece just for one person's use. Tides is super successful is serving it's purpose in becoming background noise, but does so in a wonderfully stunning way. The songs move and change, each one, just like the flow of a yoga class, but with this distinct intention a movement to a place. This album sparks your mind to think, then gives you the space to do so.

It's really quite amazing how deep into a zone you can get while listening to this record, flow state suddenly is right at your fingertips. There is never a moment where you are really tapping your toes or anything like that, but there is a melody in this record all of it's own. The record is really aware of time as well despite the fact that you can get lost in the flowing nature of the album. Often it will feel like you are right in the middle of all of it, your mind really reaching a point of clarity, but then the mood shifts to bring you into the next movement. You are able to setup these little guideposts in your mind as the music flows onward, checking in but realizing that while you are exploring you mind Smith is exploring with her music just the same. "Tides: V" has the tone that goes on and on only slightly shifting ever so slowly but oh so beautifully. There is really no padding here, the songs lay exposed right in front of you so bare that they really force you to confront yourself far more than you are confronting the ideas the songs are extolling. The only thing against this record is just how crowded and watered down of a genre this has become, it is almost an impossible feat to rise above. Somehow though Tides manages to do just that. A truly stunning record with a sense of utility that so many other records wish they had. Stop what you are doing, sit awhile and enjoy Tides.

8.8 out of 10