If/Then

Mastered by Reuben Cohen at Lurssen Mastering, CA

Simplest Things

fishbowl 2

To Have and To Hold is not a biography, a lecture, or a historical reconstruction. It is an imagined world — one you step into to feel your way around an idea rather than to learn it.

The album takes place loosely in early-20th-century Cambridge, at the moment when Western thought was beginning to strain under its own certainty. Science had proved astonishingly powerful at breaking reality into parts, explaining mechanisms, and producing results — yet at the same time it was encountering problems it could no longer fully contain. Probability was replacing certainty. Events mattered as much as objects. Meaning no longer sat still.

Out of this tension emerged process philosophy: the idea that reality is not made of finished things, but of ongoing happenings — that love, time, marriage, and even truth itself are not states you reach, but activities you keep participating in.

The album imagines this moment through a human lens. A mathematician trying to complete a system of logic. A thinker insisting that nothing important is ever truly finished. Proofs accumulating. Years passing. A marriage understood first as a statement, then slowly revealed as a practice. Love appearing not as romance in the foreground, but as something quietly unfolding elsewhere — happening whether it is attended to or not.

Rather than explaining these ideas directly, the songs allow you to inhabit them. You hear bells ring. You feel evenings close in. You sense the weight of unfinished work and the relief of letting something continue without control. The philosophy is not taught; it is lived.

This is a soft documentary in sound — an audio quantum leap into a world. Its purpose is not accuracy, quotation, or instruction, but immersion. By the time the album ends, you may not be able to define process philosophy in a sentence — but you may feel why it arose, what problem it was answering, and why it still matters.

To Have and To Hold is an exploration of commitment not as possession, but as attention.
Of marriage not as a conclusion, but as renewal.
Of understanding not as something you arrive at — but something that keeps happening.

If you listen closely, nothing here ever quite resolves.
But something continues.

The Marriage Problem

A song about helping out your fellow human.

Strathcona

Hey Now

Bethany

Carry On

Carolina

Afraid of Love - EP

Don't Leave Me Behind

Postal Address

Ceremony

The simplest pleasures matter the most. Whether it be the dawn breaking, pouring the first cup of coffee, or enjoying a tree as it sways in the wind, the little things distinguish one day from the next. The day derives color, personality, and even magic from these nuances. Davis John Patton most certainly treasures such details. In similar fashion, his songwriting bears the eloquence of a novelist, allowing the smallest moments to leave big impressions. On his 2020 Poetry EP [Nettwerk], the troubadour uses acoustic instrumentation and atmospheric production to translate life’s idiosyncrasies into five introspective and engaging folk anthems.

“I like to find people where they are and help them see the beauty in those moments,” he says. “I’m trying to highlight the profound things happening day-to-day. We can always use more inspiration and peace.”

Born and raised in the Midwest, Davis found himself drawn to music at a young age. Mom enrolled him in piano lessons during first grade. Three years later, he picked up guitar. In between choir at church and school, he discovered Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago and embraced acoustic folk. While in college, he independently wrote and recorded the 2018 Forest Park EP, followed by 2019’s From the Garden EP [Nettwerk], which received praise from the likes of American Songwriter, Atwood Magazine and more. Even in the midst of a prolific few years, he still found the time to recognize peace around him.

If/Then

Davis John Patton

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