On that day I woke up to 2020, I knew this year would be monumental for me. I was sober, secure, stable, in love with my partner and myself, best friends with my kids. I was leaving behind grief, self-harm, illness, pain, addiction, anger, emptiness, and raising my vibration to a level I didn’t know was possible. So when 2020 rapidly began to unravel before my eyes, at first I was scared. The life I’d planned to live was gone overnight. My attachment to the places I was going to was suddenly released, and I was left with myself, my family, my home. And the pain that I’d been too distracted to look at was staring me in the face. It felt tragic, unfair, chaotic, punishing. But I’ve realized since that I needed this year to make real progress on myself – to truly know myself and my purpose. Works like STAHV‘s new EP אֵשׁ (Hebrew for “fire”) speak to the expansion I’ve felt in my soul during these months of isolation, uprising, and natural disaster. His EP was self-released on September 25th, with the proceeds going back into the underground music community to keep the creative fire burning at a time when it could easily be snuffed out – order it here. STAHV’s psychedelic doomgaze invites you to enter the labyrinth of your own mind and learn why we can’t truly reach the pinnacle of our creation without the utter destruction of the things that hold us back. As we move into an energy of nurturing ourselves and each other, it’s only natural for a system based on greed and inequality to burn to the ground so that we can grow in it once again. Today I’m excited to share their video for “Synthetic Lamentation,” which uses excerpts from Aelita: Queen of Mars, directed by Soviet filmmaker Yakov Protazanov made at the Mezhrabpom-Rus film studio and released in 1924.
So many members of our community are hurting: the venues, bands, singer-songwriters, independent agents. I won’t charge money for the music on this EP. Anything I make from it will go back to other artists. In truth, I love supporting music as much as—likely more—than I do making it.
