Not to make assumptions, but there’s a strong chance that you have found yourself staying up way later than usual in 2020. Blame it on a pandemic or a social-media-powered news cycle that has turned the concept of “time” into jelly, but normal waking hours seem very last decade.
Anyone who found themselves still browsing the internet after midnight over the last few weeks could have stumbled across Japanese electronic artist Seiho’s “Destination” series. The idea was this could only be seen after midnight on YouTube, and for one hour listeners could tune in and listen to new-age-leaning tracks made for, as the description declared, “deep sleep as our final DESTINATION.” This happened four times, and you can watch the first installment below. Just set aside an hour or two of your evening to really get the effect.
Seiho perhaps knows the need for rest better than most. Last year’s “I Feel Tired Everyday” offered a bouncy soundtrack for millennial burnout, and the “Destination” series allows for a chance to fix that feeling of exhaustion via slow-burning ambient sounds. Seiho has compiled the four hour-long songs into a release called Destination, which you can listen to below. It’s a long one, but ideal for getting lost in, for the day or night.
This set of songs boasts a utilitarian edge — the idea here is, listen to this before sleeping, and hopefully you’ll enjoy better rest than before — but they also reveal a new angle to Seiho’s sound. He’s best known for higher-tempo tracks, often marked by attention-grabbing sounds breaking through the mix. While he’s dabbled in less busy sound before, Destination marks his biggest departure towards pure ambient to date, and reminds of how versatile he is. Here’s hoping it leads to good dreams…or at least a temporary escape from noise.