[MUSIC] Cercle: epic music, venues and musicians
Plein air music of outstanding beauty.
Please enjoy a beautiful plein air musical side-quest within Season 1: Open Source
What’s cool about Cercle?
Cercle is an incredibly prolific organization pushing the boundaries – and excellence! and possibilities!– of music performance and experience.
In their own words, Cercle operates “at the intersection of music, aesthetics, heritage, and video”, and they aim to “create and produce innovative experiences on a global scale, highlighting unique artists on unique stages, offering a new perspective on the cultural and natural legacy of our world.”
I came to know about them while exploring new music on YouTube; a reminder that intentional interactions with algorithms can yield in something other, something quite magical.
Cercle is that: pure magic.
Particularly in post-COVID pandemic years, and compounded by the convenience of streaming services, live music has taking a hit. Some genres more than others, of course, especially those that rely more on live performances (hint: jam bands). Anecdotally, I can tell you that a few decades-old, established venues – home bases to bands like the inimitable Phish – are now closed.
What Cercle is doing is reinvigorating live music experiences by exploding the possibilities of what that might even mean. That’s the beauty, coolness and power behind this org.
I’m sure there’s plenty more that I can dig out for you that makes Cercle cool. Instead, I’ll share some of my favorite performances below, along with a little suggestion. And I encourage you to explore the Cercle Universe, which is vast and full of light and sound!
The first video on the list below, by the Icelandic mult-instrumentalist Ólafur Arnalds, is a music performance of indescribably beauty. Its beauty is simply ineffable, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve enjoyed it since I first experienced it.
Which leads me to that suggestion: clear some time to listen to one of these Cercle performances (again, highly recommend the Ólafur Arnalds one). If you can, try to avoid sandwiching it in between busy online multitasking. Then, don’t stop there: watch them, too, attend to them as if you were there. Enjoy that delicious intimacy that only online and digital media is capable of sometimes.
Oh, the irony!
Some favorites
Thanks for reading. Catch you next time!