We live life at seemingly breakneck speeds. We wake, work, worry, and then do it again the following day, with the pressure compounding in ways the interest rates banks claim they provide rarely do. We stress about this, fret about that, and try our best to avoid the subjects we know will upset us—and inevitably fail at the quest. Instead, we’re simultaneously dismayed by and inured to the craziness and cruelty that’s come to accent modern life.
Somewhere Soul Rituals Volume 01, a 20-track compilation curated by Somewhere Soul’s Josh Mason-Quinn, is a welcome respite from the madness. (Somewhere Soul, for those unaware of it, is an online platform that champions soulful sounds.) Quinn is a fan not just of music, but—like many of us—the experience that surrounds it. In the press release, he explains, “I chose the name Rituals for the compilation because the ritual of listening to music is an incredibly sacred thing to me and I fear that it’s becoming lost. Slowing down, putting on a record, listening to it with intent front to back, taking in the cover art, maybe the liner notes. That’s a ritual.”
He’s shaped the 2LP set so that it essentially replicates a day in one’s listening life. “The penny sort of dropped for the concept when I played my (at the time) 3-month-old baby an Ezra Collective song and it instantly soothed her. And I sort of smiled to myself and thought about how music is just always there for you, no matter the situation, from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed, music has got your back. So I wanted to celebrate that through sharing the sort of music I ritualistically listen to across 24 hours.” It veers from soulful awakenings to jazzy astral projections to dancehall delights, with cool contributions from scene doyens and relative newcomers alike. Among the participants: Allysha Joy and Finn Rees, Chip Wickham, Emantative, Amanda Whiting, Blue Lab Beats, and Matt Wilde.
Despite the many participants, the album plays out as if one long composition or dream, synchronizing the moods and melodies, while the (circadian) rhythms ebb and flow, and ever-so-gradually increase tempo. It shifts from neo-soul to smooth jazz to jazz fusion to soul house to Brazilian, with each track as infectious as the last. The opening “Murmuring” by Joy and Rees is a soulful treatise; Whiting’s harp-led epiphany, “The Other Side,” is a mesmerizing listen; and Matt Wilde and Miranda Joan’s “Like You” is akin to a gentle mist—just beautiful.
In short, Somewhere Soul Rituals Volume 01 is a perfect companion for these unsettled times—a calm-inducing playlist with no skips, if you will.
The Old Grey Cat 
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