I’d heard this song once before today, when I first spun the album it’s from. Decided to give the album a listen again. Something in the song appealed to me. Decided to write about it.

Not sure if I captured it well, but I captured something about it.

Elephant Gym’s “Ocean in the Night” is from World. It features Hom Shenhao, and is the orchestra version of the song.

I hope you enjoy.

—

A pulse fades in with a percussive knock, and soon gentle guitar joins in. Vocals float and drift on over, peacefully. More percussion and other sounds come in. Percussion steady, and other sounds also drifting. Floating. Brass becomes apparent, coming through the light mixture of it all.

There’s seemingly a pause for thought, or reflection before everything starts rising. The vocals retain their calm, and perhaps so do the sounds. All is rising, but all is peaceful and expanding upon the moment.

It hits the peak, and guitar seems to strike out for a moment before coming back to a calmness and joining the returning sounds. A new percussive pattern of sorts and it’s all gentle and quiet, and peaceful. It carries peace and a drama, moving onward, possibly able to explode at any time, but refusing to do so. Refusing to chase that energy.

A section with a bit more of a playfulness as the sounds interact with each other in a different way than before. It seems almost as though they’re dancing around with each other, being a little silly, being light in a different way, and then they find a rest once more.

There’s that build that could’ve come before, and the song becomes big, and the vocals return, though they were here and there before, and the sounds are rising with energy, but remaining calm. Remaining low, watching the distance, watching the space, preferring to feel relaxed, in a sense, and perhaps a little wistful among the joy of experience.

Almost celebratory now. Almost finding that moment that perhaps was searched for, whether knowingly or not. Building, building but remaining calm. Sounds becoming textural, before reaching the moment they are fine to stop, stopping in a big rock way done small, and followed by the song ending.