Seoul duo Salamanda meditate on basil consciousness for Music To Watch Seeds Grow By

5 Minute Read

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Seoul’s Salamanda meditate on basil consciousness for Music To Watch Seeds Grow By

5 Minute Read

Salamanda – Basil – Music to Watch Seeds Grow By 008

Art & Culture

Seoul-based ambient duo Salamanda – Uman Therma (Sala) and Yetsuby (Manda) – are the latest artists to contribute to Music To Watch Seeds Grow By, the ambient and minimalist label run by Ransom Note’s own Tia and Wil. Their entry, Seeds 008, arrives April 16th and takes a single basil plant on a windowsill as its entire world.

The album moves through a full day in the plant’s life — from the quiet self-declaration of opener ‘introduce my atom which is my favourite one’ through the rhythmic drip-and-tick of ‘to to ki toki tok’, the reaching optimism of ‘allez, pousse!’, and a slow-glass encounter with a hungry snail, before settling into the ceremony of ‘Basil’s Ritual’ and the dormancy of ‘Basil’s Dream’. It closes on ‘the blue wine’, a final reverie hovering somewhere between acceptance and wonder.

Does the basil know it will eventually become food? Would it resist, accept, or feel something closer to joy?

The conceptual stakes, understated as they are, run surprisingly deep. Manda frames the record around a question that’s hard to shake: Does the basil know it will eventually become food? Would it resist, accept, or feel something closer to joy? “This music emerged from such small, trivial, and possibly useless imaginings,” she notes – which is, of course, precisely what makes it worth your time.

Seeds 008 by Salamanda is out April 16th via Music To Watch Seeds Grow By.
Written and produced by Jimin Sung and Yejin Jang, with artwork by Daniel Hermann.

Salamanda – Music To Watch Seeds By – Basil – Cassette

“Dedicated to intertwining the serene beauty of music with the nurturing process of planting seeds when the first new signs of life emerge in the growing season. A carefully crafted collection of ambient & minimalist soundscapes, occasionally branching into new-age. A soundtrack for quiet moments of sowing, nurturing, & witnessing the slow, rewarding process of growth. “

Tia & Wil 🌱