Music

This Week's Public Picks: Bean Friend

by / Mar. 20, 2018 4pm EST

Album: Ataraxy by Bean Friend

Recommended if you like: Philip Glass, Erik Satie, Brian Eno

A new album from Buffalo-based musician Bean Friend titled Ataraxy was released earlier this month. The five track album contains extremely minimal piano productions and ambient music. The first track dives deeply into minimalism, containing only a handful of notes throughout its five minute and 20 seconds. In an artist statement, Friend indicates that the songs were inspired by the feeling of being a new father and the new sensations it brings.

“Since becoming a dad, I’ve really come to appreciate the tranquility that night brings, as well as the magical transition that happens at dawn. 

Tracks like “Airship” and “Starfish” are slightly more filled out and approach a whimsical, Philip Glass-esque quality, but the obvious goal here was to create music with that’s geared toward relaxation, as evidenced by the term “ataraxy,” which is defined as “a state of serene calmness.” 

The album follows his 2016 release The Moving Decade, a series of haunting and beautiful minimal piano pieces recorded inside of a Silo City grain silo.

Stream Ataraxy for free on Bandcamp, or buy the album for $7.

 

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