Dazedly, I stare into blankets of snow outside my dirty window listening to the melancholic ambience of “Gaia”, a new creative venture from Amy Joe. Colored with dizzy guitar strums nearly punching the sound waves as they emerge, the dissonant qualities of the intro distort the air around me. Like waves emanating from hot pavement in the distance, the song dances through space like a vapor.
I find myself on the other side of this dreamscape now attentive to Amy Joe’s simple yet definitive message of care for the earth. Sonically, the texture is rich with sounds of nature, creating tethers between my auditory experience and what I am able to envision in my mind’s eye. It is through these quiet, momentary sensations that the song takes on a formless ease - I find myself lingering here with the song on repeat attempting to maintain an atmosphere of free thought. The observable universe now lensed through a sepia filter, I consider what a great loss we have already collectively experienced.
In Amy Joe’s voice, this same desperation and numbed acceptance of a generation merge, expertly encapsulating the various narratives at work in our present climate. It is equal parts protest and funeral pyre. Accepting what has been lost and advocating for what remains. A steady catalogue of our natural world.
To simply listen to “Gaia” is a disservice. Prepare to enter this soundscape with questions, to linger here in ponderance of them, to exit only after giving them substantial consideration. Amy Joe leads us here in a mindful, meditative dirge, an elegy filled with eclectic energies.
- Jay Mercado
Follow Amy Joe:
https://www.instagram.com/e.mi.e/
https://soundcloud.com/amy_joe
Song Produced & Engineered by: @lav_kai
Artwork by: @loraines_art