Imagine a book that celebrates daydreaming, that sees it not as a moral failing, but as an activity to be valued as an end in itself. To be clear, this is not a self-help book; nor is Hampl talking about meditation, yogic breathing or mindfulness – those worthy New Age practices that, well, have to be practiced.
Instead, Hampl is intrigued by the kind of instinctual, floaty, aimless daydreaming that many of us – if we were lucky – indulged in for hours and hours as children. As adults, of course, we feel like we need to have something to show for our time: achievements, chores, to-do list items crossed off.
Hampl wonders about what we miss when we no longer allow ourselves to simply get lost in thought. Her sharp and unconventional book – a swirl of memoir, travelogue and biography of some of history’s champion day-dreamers – is its very own Exhibit A, making the case for the profound value of letting the mind wander.
The same may happen with music, from sending you places to letting your mind wander to stopping you in your tracks. There‘s an hour on the music of Boards of Canada in the center of the five hours, and, as Michael wrote me about the specialists of memory and loss, you just seem to write a few essential lines that make a point, in the next moment you see any deeper meaning dissolve in the pure air of day dreaming. So, what is this kind of show really, called „Klanghorizonte“? It‘s a choice for your to get-lost list.
Michael: „Probably with music from Immersion, Hilde Marie Holsen, Near East Quartet, Barre Phillips, Arve Henriksen (thanks, Rune, for sending a copy!), the one and only Aby Vulliamy, Dollar Brand, a fantastic trumpet solo by the late Thomas Stanko, the ur-music of Jamaica. Everything can change when a forthcoming opus of enigmatic startroopers may arrive in time. (They didn’t arrive, but you can listen to the excellence of „Body“ by The Necks on Bandcamp, and order high quality downloads. They really go wild on the new one.) I still look for a place for the Beatles‘ „I‘m Only Sleeping“ – maybe inside an hour on our beloved daydreamers of BoC.