Liam Whatley

Breathe and let me play for you

Something Sounds Happy

Putting on a VR headset for the first time is a wild experience, particularly when you are transported into an environment that is unfamiliar. I wrote this piece of music while remembering a scuba-diving VR exploration!

There is a place where a great trench separates two roads. This trench, a mere patch of grass would seem so much smaller, a mere ditch, were it not for the importance of the clear separation between the two roads. It's funny how the grass bends in the wind the same way, the trees look just as solid and the uniformed men through tinted windows nod the same way in response to a wave on both sides of the trench. And yet a small piece of grass that with a running start one could ...easily jump over, placed in this space seems impassable. I have never felt so uneasy and so intrigued about a physical space before. I'm talking about the US/Canada border where in some places the roads on either side of this imaginary barrier are so close that if two people stood on each edge and stretched out their arms, their hands would almost touch. In this time of sickness the border crossings are mostly closed and are incredibly eery to pass by. Quiet foundations loud in their reminder that this trench cannot be, should not be, must not be passed over. I cannot imagine (and for this I am grateful) what it feels like to be driven to risk breaking that invisible barrier, to defy the constructed confinements of physical space. And I hope I never have to. This song is titled "They Have Shut the Gate" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49XX_O4srJQ