Archive

good morning ~

(click the link / distorted piggly wiggly logo to listen)

Ben SeretanLive Waves

good morning ~

today's edition of the newsletter is for paying subscribers only - it includes a big cloud of piano chords, lap steel whale calls, and writing about maritime law, being underwater, and running into the Pacific Ocean.

you, too, can sign up for a paid subscription via the "sign up for a premium subscription" link at the bottom of this email - you'll get every edition of this project, one tone zone a year, plus some other goodies. you'll also keep the work going - - every bit helps.

thanks for being here, regardless - - I truly appreciate it

good morning ~

(click the link / family of bears to listen)

My Big Breakjust a helpless little invertebrate awash on the tides

good morning ~

(click the link / bricks to listen)

My Big Breakone cracked can at a time

good morning ~

(click the link / statue in the fog to listen)

My Big Breakbig breaths are coming in and in and in

good morning ~

(click the link / dating show set to listen)

My Big BreakI put on little sunglasses to further signal that the vibe had shifted

good morning ~

(click the link / column of jerash to listen)

My Big Breaksun bleached sites of my western youth

What's up, MBB Premium Subscribers ~

Today marks two years since YOUTH PASTORAL came out, which is a very difficult fact for me to accept! It still feels like only yesterday I was shipping off the first copies and playing the songs for friends in a crowded room.

As the anniversary date approached, I found myself getting sad about it - where had the time gone? But instead of getting down about it and thinking about what could have been, I decided to do something fun instead. So I whipped up the below obnoxiously bright commemorative t-shirts - - they're up on Bandcamp now and you all get 30% off with the code "ypshirtdiscount" at checkout.

good morning ~

(click the link / swarming crows to listen)

My Big Breakwe grind the bones of our leisure

good morning ~

(click the link / ice palace to listen)

My Big Breaksnag a flash of it

good morning ~

(click the link / snowy crow hideout to listen)

My Big Breakthe faces in the throw

good morning ~

(click the link / frozen antenna topper to listen)

My Big Breaka holler from behind a door

good morning ~

(click the link / swarming sunset crows to listen)

My Big Breaksecret dark art happening

good morning ~

(click the curtain on the window / link to listen)

My Big Breaklike riotous chrysanthemum bulbs

good morning ~

every few weeks this newsletter will be for premium subscribers only and today’s installment is one of those ~

paying mbb readers got a self-destructive slapper of a track and thoughts on why I love watching human faces speaking into cameras (but I won’t withhold my recommendations: “Where Are We? Our Trip Through America,” the films of Les Blank, “How to with John Wilson”).

i’m also going to try something ambitious - all paying readers will also be entitled to one personal tone zone per year

good morning ~

(click the guinea feather / link to listen)

My Big Breaksquinting right into the lens

good morning ~

(click the link / fabulous sunset to listen)

My Big Breaka little spear of night in their beak

good morning ~

(click the link / power lines at dusk to listen)

My Big Breakheaven is a void between load screens

good morning ~

(click the link / the elegant japanese maple in the rain to listen)

https://mybigbreak.bandcamp.com/track/against-a-miraculous-backdrop

good morning ~

click the link / cemetery at dusk to listen - - -

My Big Breaktandem bicycle, civil twilight

good morning ~

click the link / magnificent west philly tree to listen - - -

My Big Breakfeels like my house suddenly has walls

good morning ~

(click the marvelous parking lot sky to listen)

My Big BreakI want to hold it all up to the light

good morning ~

(click the picture/link to listen)

My Big Breakcoaxed from the walls by wild coincidence

My Big Breakbig and brave enough

good morning ~

(click the beautiful afternoon light to listen)

My Big Breakmirror in the shape of my face

good morning ~

(click the ginkgo leaves to listen)

today's track is partially me remembering how to play acoustic guitar

good morning ~

every few weeks this newsletter will be for premium subscribers only and today’s installment is one of those!

premium mbb readers got a surprisingly crunchy weekly track, thoughts on how to shape your kitchen with your laughter, and a very special live recording from when I played a baby grand piano in a stately manor in Amsterdam last month ~

these subscriptions help me a lot and keep this project going - i would greatly appreciate your support if you like our thursdays together ~

good morning ~

today’s newsletter is for paying subscribers - it includes big washes of synth swells, a rundown of just how great it felt to sing and sweat for a gathered crowd last weekend, and a picture of my big, beautiful birthday cake

When the drums came in it sounded so tremendous, bigger than I’ve ever heard it. I was beaming and singing, and then right on cue, at a painfully perfect moment in the song’s crescendo, Liam turned on the fog and the lasers, which joined the already spinning disco ball. Like heaven opening, truly.

Good morning ~

To be honest my friends I am feeling quite wrung out. Not bad, necessarily - just a bit less to say than usual and just a little depleted after launching the ship that is my latest record. I don’t have a full newsletter in me this week. In fact, I think I’d like to take a couple weeks off! I’m going to do that. But I’ll be back soon, possibly on a different platform with a possibly altered format.

I did make a new track this week, though, and I hope you will accept this 19-minute zoner as a consolation. A few weeks ago I sat in a rocking chair listening to lazily bonking wind chimes clanging against each other and I couldn’t recall ever hearing something so great - - tried to capture if not the sound than the vibe of that porch in this recording: