"As I've been going through the always agonizing process of making my year end lists, a comment made by Nadav Lapid, one of the subjects of the documentary Room 999, kept coming to mind. That film features 30 directors discussing the state of cinema as it grapples with the onslaught of digital culture. Though he agrees that the film's classic period is over, Lapid finds possibility in the present "for the simple reason that the present is right, because it won."
"for me personally and for the world dizzying highs and lows that pinned me to my bed; phases that demanded intense extroversion and others where the only meaningful contact I had, for days on end, was with my dog. At the end of this year that felt like a whole complicated life, I found that much of what I gravitated toward was calming and centering: I needed ports in the storm."
The year brought rapid paradigm shifts and intense emotional highs and lows, producing alternating phases of extroversion and prolonged solitude. Many listeners gravitated toward calming, centering music as emotional anchors while simultaneously seeking works that confronted instability, asked questions, enacted experiments and welcomed vulnerability. A prevailing sense that the present has supplanted the past encouraged creators and audiences to accept fragility as part of artistic life. The tension between seeking solace and embracing disruption shaped musical tastes. A curated list of 15 albums captures both stabilizing sounds and daring experiments, serving as emissaries for a present that constantly changes yet remains grounded in experience.
Read at www.npr.org
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