Music has long been a part of my identity, though I hesitate to call myself a musician. Having had the privilege to study music formally in college and work alongside extremely talented individuals who have gone on to contribute meaningfully to the field, knowing how much I don’t know, and the skills that I don’t have – these are all definitely reasons that give me pause. That said, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t continue to push the boundaries of my learning. Most recently, this has brought me into a space of exploring the creation of ambient soundscapes. This is the work that I am now sharing via Nicole Herself.

Instead of practicing a single instrument, I use a digital audio workstation to piece together sounds and phrases. I alter and layer until I have something that resembles a feeling or idea inside me.

The first piece, “Lift”, is available to stream now. Utilizing singing bowls in a non-traditional form, “Lift” represents the element of metal. Typically, singing bowls would be resonated over quite long phrases, moving from one tone to the next with only slight layering. Instead, I’ve chosen to have several tones layer over each other, focusing more on the bell-like qualities of the bowls.

I’ll be exploring the other elements in upcoming pieces, and who knows where this journey will take us.

Please follow along by supporting the project on BandCamp, SoundCloud, or on the InsightTimer app.