In the trailer for Paulo Sorrentino's new film, Youth, Michael Caine's character, a retired orchestra conductor, says the perfect line as Kozelek's "Ceiling Gazing" plays: "You're right, music is all I understand. Because you don't need words and experience to understand it. It just is." Indeed.
For both creator and listener, music appreciation is personal and deeply intrinsic. It just is. While music can be appreciated on many levels, it is our inherent joy in sounds that moves us - emotionally, mentally, physically - closer to understanding. We hear what connects us, humans, spirits, whatever, but something that we have surely heard before, even when the sounds are sparkling and new.
One of my favorite things is how music thrives in different contexts. It is transportable and always finds a way to flourish, augmenting your experience wherever you might find yourself. Context is crucial, of course, as soundtrack can frame much of what we perceive in a given moment, but it is never defeating when it comes to music. Music persists. And because it enriches seemingly endless environments, it is almost impossible to pin down its native habitat in our digital age.
Modest Mouse while working out at the gym. Tallest Man on Earth while taking my dog for a walk. Tame Impala while climbing up canyons on my bike. Majical Cloudz while driving alone late at night. Chvrches live in a youth-filled venue. A symphony in a packed hall, a singer-songwriter in a small club, an iTunes stream on tinny speakers in the office. When solitude spends its quiet, music delivers in its place, no matter when and where we might be.
Unless we are in hell. That I agree with. But make no mistake: in the populous heavens we will someday inhabit, music will also ring out, diverse and grand.
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