One listen.

Threw myself in and I think I did alright. I was thinking about land a lot, and the idea of a sense of timelessness, and how that fits in with the general size of a lot of spaces. It’s easy to think of a place as existing “now”, but so many are ancient and overwhelming. But I digress.

I think I covered the song pretty well. This gives a good enough idea of how it can feel.

In writing about all of the songs on Sands, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s an enjoyable album to listen to, but it doesn’t do well as something to critique or think a lot about. There’s something both organic and plastic about it, and at times it feels strongly like someone who hasn’t spent much time either experiencing or learning about deserts beyond a surface idea. Essentially, in places the album feels incredibly surface and touristy. But it is trying to do something, and perhaps that’s to try and understand through narrative.

Willebrant’s “Sands X (Distance)” is from Desert Songs.

I hope you enjoy.

—

It takes a while over a few seconds. Slowly, yet surely a vast and seemingly-eternal space reveals its lines. It’s as though a journey above it all is occurring.

There’s a peace, and once more there is a reflection, and all moves slow. All drifts, and much has been traversed.

The space lays itself out in plain view, and somewhere within it is a rest for refreshment. The sounds intermingle and seem to return to themselves, and much flows forward.

The space has remained the same, but it is less overbearing now. Much has changed, though perhaps it was all about perspective, but it doesn’t matter so much. The journey moves forward and with it comes that change; that adaptation and understanding.

The space is still and ancient, and yet it somehow seems a young land. Everything within it is only still in a few moments of being seen, but through lifetimes it shifts and flows with motion, and the journey continues onward.

The journey moves on the last moments of sound, and it all fades out. The journey above and the journey below disappears, and the song ends.