We are so excited to welcome Endless Forms to select a Sunday morning playlist with us.

Endless Forms constructs ebbs and flows of intensity through his instrumentals, all as a backdrop to his intricate and powerful lyricism. His entire album, More Than Candy, plays as an epic of self examination and discovery, with each song effortlessly feeding into the next.

This week has brought heaviness onto all of our shoulders. We curated this selection with the goal of giving you head space to reflect and to heal.

Endless Forms selection

Moses Sumney – Doomed

Endless Forms: ” I’ve been listening to this song a lot this past week. It’s a very compelling, grounding song that lets me into what I’m feeling in a delicate, big-exhale kind of way. This past week has been really emotional with all of the protests and police brutality in the United States, and sometimes it’s challenging to process my feelings when the situation is so incredibly unresolved, and when I’m tangled up in critical analysis. This song gives me a sort of permission to feel, even when I don’t fully understand what I’m feeling, which can be incredibly healing, and useful for staying engaged. “

Arcade Fire – Haiti

Endless Forms: ” This song is kinda where it all began for me, musically speaking. I have a distinct memory of sitting alone in my older sister’s car after school in 8th grade, waiting for her to get done with softball practice and drive me home. The breakdown in the song came, where there is this repetitive, siren-like steel-drum sound, and it sent me into this trance-like state. The chord progression is constantly revolving back in on itself, and it’s actually a very meditative song. The lyrics are about Régine Chassagne’s relationship to Haiti, which her parents fled in the 1960s when it was ruled by the violent, totalitarian president Francois Duvalier. This song is simultaneously this tribute to Haiti as her home country, and it also carries all of this deep grief for the ways Duvalier killed Haiti’s citizens and forced Régine’s family into exile. That duality makes a lot of sense to me as an American — the feeling of being completely culturally and politically dissonant with your own homeland. “

Sigur Rós – Untitled # 2 - Fyrsta

Endless Forms: ” When I was a teenager I used to stay up all night painting while listening to Sigur Rós. I was such an emotional teen, with so much heavy passion, and Sigur Rós helped me find a way to channel it into art. That process is so important to me right now — learning how to shape that heavy passion into a meaningful, realized form. I’ve always found this song so compellingly and uncompromisingly pure, and it’s still a sort of true north for me. “

MailTape’s selection

Endless Forms – Something Will Seduce Me

Sarah: ” The range of expression through voice is one of my favorite things about Endless Forms music. Throughout this song, there is a honey-like smoothness that shifts between softer verses and more powerful sections, all moving with the song’s development. The intensity of the song sneaks up on you, but resolves in another moment. The lyrics are powerful here and throughout the album, and are gracefully contrasted with ethereal instrumentals, giving an at-the-divine-gates experience of music. “

Christelle Bofale – U Ouchea

Sarah: ” With Congolaise influences, Christelle Bofale creates a transportive encounter with her music. She is not shy of dissonance within her melodies, making for a striking and distinct energy in many of her songs. I love the jazz break in this song, her guitar flourishes are effortless. Also, Christelle Bofale’s shards of electric accents captivated me, they sound almost extra-terrestrial. “

serpentwithfeet – A Comma

Sarah: ” The softness of serpentwithfeet’s voice paired with the elegance of the piano riffs brought attention to the depth of his lyrics, which is exactly where the focus needed to be. He sings, “I’m dressing wounds I cannot see, someone else’s beasts are riding me.” Especially in light of the past week, this song speaks powerfully to the insidious heaviness of our history, a past that we have only begun to confront. In addition to the verse of not being able to see the wounds he dresses, serpentwithfeet also sings that, “I know this pain isn’t mine, yet I feel it all the time.” The gentleness of serpentwithfeet’s voice creates a heavenly sound, especially with his harmonies, but these verses bear an urgency with them. No longer can we let these wounds remain unseen. No longer can we let “someone else’s beast” disproportionately hang onto the African-American community; it is up to everyone to confront history with the attitude of healing these chronic wounds. “

Nina Simone – Feelings, Montreux Jazz Festival Live (1976)

Sarah: ” This is my favorite performance by Nina Simone, the full version of which is critical for understanding her as an iconic presence on stage and in her music. Her comments to the audience break down the traditional walls between musician and listener. Essentially, she demands the audience to bleed with her, guiding them through the evolution of her performance, but still with a tenderness that can be felt. Nina Simone’s emotional range throughout this concert adds levels upon levels of depth to the song itself. Her accents of classical piano fit seamlessly into her portrayal of Feelings, the song as well as her own pathos. Nina Simone’s interaction with the audience make this into more than just a performance. ”

That’s all for this morning, thank you for taking the time to join us! Thank you to Endless Forms for his thoughtful selections, and to Anthony Dujardin for this episode’s fantastic illustration.