Things Are Getting Better

During the summer right out of high school, a couple of friends and I were riding on a bus that ended up breaking down just outside of a town half-buried in sand. The assortment of low, stucco buildings was situated at the edge of a desert. The friendly but strange old bus driver said that he'd been through there hundreds of times, and he told us some of the things  he had picked up from riders over the years. 

He said that the little, one stop light town had been the last place to get snacks and fill up back when the interstate first came along.  Once you pulled out of there, it was a long drive to the other side of that barren, scorched place. The desert had wandered closer and closer to the town, for indeed, as he said, the desert is a wanderer. It had made its way eastward from the big water and westward from the big mountains. Once the desert began to eat up the town, there was little that the residents could do. 

He told us that each day they would sweep; first in the morning, and eventually also the evening, and finally all through the day. But the sand blew in too quickly, and inevitably, the dunes rose to engulf all the homes, all the businesses and holy places, and everything that wasn’t built high enough to be seen above the crystalline sea. Only a few apartment buildings had stood once the dust had taken over, and they decayed and collapsed over time.

When we got there, years ago now, but long after the time of what he called the great sand flood, the stuff had been receding for many years, floating and flying on southward, slowly emptying the streets and buildings of the infinity of glassy, tiny worlds. A few of us wandered off to look around. The old buildings had been preserved under the dunes, and as the sand blew out and away, people had started cleaning up the homes during the day and sleeping in them  at night, using the sand as a bed, and working at laying claim to the places. They hoped they would soon be open enough to bring their families, and believed they’d all have new lives in those old homes.

It looked difficult as hell to me, especially at that time, but all the people we talked to there just told us that things were getting better.

5 Things Are Getting Better

TRINITY

prelude in C major (mellotron variation)

Awash

It's Complicated

A specially crafted selection of late 80s (1985-1990) Ambient / New Age works in the digital realm...

Bill Nelson
David Newman
Erik Wøllo
Picture Music
Kuniyuki Takahashi
Ditto
SPK
Gigi Masin
Akira Inoue
Motohiko Hamase
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Colin Newman
Steve Roach
Haruomi Hosono
Karl Biscuit
Dip In The Pool
Toshifumi Hinata
Hector Zazou

Paradise View - Digital 80s Ambient Mix

My debut album, Days Gone By (2024) is a collection of solo piano pieces intermixed with the sound of the waves of Lake Michigan, as heard from my home, Racine, WI.

Winter River

The debut of Flame & Glory. There's only one time that's your first time. Hope ya enjoy it as much as I did playing it. <3

track list:
1. I forget where we were (boehm remix x george ogilvie cover) / ben howard
2. good morning children (original mix) / alec troniq
3. please me / tep no
4. electric feel (kygo remix) / henry green
5. duke elise & i / kazy lambist
6. gon stay / sbtrkt feat. sample
7. so good to me (re-work) / whilk & misky
8. time for us (’17 remastered) / nicolas jaar
9. un poquito mas / captain planet (feat. chico mann)
10. deep in the bottom (of africa) / monique bingham & black coffee
11. the pap / ralf gum (feat. monique bingham)
12. heartbeats (filious & mount remix) / jose gonzalez
13. kiss you on the cheek (king of town remix) / desmond & the tutus
14. jungle shrimp / cut snake
15. imager / barbarossa
16. walk myself (original mix) / alec troniq, gabriel vitel
17. moonwalk away / goldfish
18. paper trails (original mix) / dark side
19. via orland remake / dj vetkuk vs mahoota
20. man’s world (re-work) / whilk & misky

Dungeons & Drag Queens

Third

OCHTEL

Flutter

Composer, performer, and producer of neoclassical, film music, downtempo electronic  music.

Winter River

Jamie Michel