Last night a rather intriguing question was brought up to me, a question that I had often pondered but have never quite been able to give any sort of conclusive answer to.
“What is the goal of music?”
The question interests me so much because the answer can be both simple and complicated. I suppose the most common answers would be; to entertain us and/or to make us think. There are camps on both sides. But it isn’t that simple. Sometimes music simultaneously entertains and works the brain. Sometimes the catchiest tunes provoke powerful nostalgia, matching pop hooks with insightful lyrics designed to force your memory into action. Yet sometimes, music does neither.
Motion Sickness of Time Travel is a solo project for the drone/synth artist and Georgia native, Rachel Evans. Through the Motion Sickness moniker Rachel has released quite a collection of full lengths, EPs and even cassettes over the last few years. Earlier this year she dropped her latest LP, ‘Motion Sickness of Time Travel’ on Spectrum Spools. The piece is a clear watermark for Evans as it represents her most cohesive, blended work to date. The album also serves as a perfect personification of her project’s sound. A sound that isn’t designed to entertain or to incite thought, but rather to transport. Using both drone and ambient techniques, Evans takes the listener with her into strange uncharted universes, reaching into the listeners mind and pushing it into territories not often traveled. What ‘Motion Sickness..’ excels at is its ability to provide a pallet to the listener on which they can create their own images, feelings and ideas. The music itself offers little emotion but instead coaxes you to supply your own thoughts and fill in the blanks of the tremendous space created. What I’m saying is, ‘Motion Sickness..’ is an atmosphere, within this atmosphere are infinite possibilities left up to the listener’s imagination, and because our minds work in such mysterious ways, you are never quite sure where a space filled with our imagination might take us.
Below is the first track from the album. I plead with you to give this piece the attention it deserves. Put it on in the background, don’t make it your focal point, but instead spin it while reading or cleaning or meditating. Let the void fill the room and make your mind a part of what ‘Motion Sickness of Time Travel’ represents, art created to stretch musical boundaries and to push our comfort zones beyond the current levels.
