Diary of a Candle

Diary of a Candle is a consoling, melodic suite from acclaimed experimental composer, musician, and producer Faten Kanaan.

On this album Faten uses counterpoint as a narrative tool to create music that is mysterious, smudgy, and deeply melodic. From the repetitive structures of modern minimalism and early music/baroque influences - to more languid textural ebbs and tides, there's a warmth in her use of synthesizers that gives her work a curiously timeless feel.

Composing intuitively, her music creates its own world - one that isn't easily categorized. Diary of a Candle is punctuated with tender woodwinds and richly-layered strings, touched by the hazy atmospheres of 1970s/1980s films. Its understated heart-on-sleeve romanticism follows the rhythm of nature: it bends in the breeze, drifts through the air, and settles on the ground.

The ambiance is not an escapism, but the re-focusing of a lens through which humans are no longer the protagonists. Instead, a landscape's intimate details become the central figures. With the sparseness of Hiroshi Yoshimura's 1982 album Music for Nine Post Cards as a starting-point influence, Faten's music exudes a wistful yet hopeful sentiment, honoring moments of beauty in the world around us.

Some of the album titles are inspired by East-Asian rites and folkloric superstitions, often related to nature. For fans of Kali Malone, Steve Reich, William Basinski, Sarah Davachi, Stars Of The Lid, Mary Lattimore, and Oneohtrix Point Never.