october marine eyes updates + some moments i like to remember
marine eyes ~ october newsletter
I’m Cynthia (marine eyes)—an ambient musician, curator, and artist living in the greater Los Angeles area. cloud collecting is a newsletter featuring 3 question interviews on creativity with women and gender-expansive artists, women of ambient mixes, and marine eyes updates.
My ‘women of ambient’ updates will come later this month! I made a mix for a series I love and will send out details when it launches. I had fun creating this one and can’t wait to share soon!
marine eyes updates:
I made a few alternate versions of songs from ‘to belong’ while I was on a plane ride to New York this past February. ‘to belong’ wasn’t released yet + some of these songs had been complete for a year and a half so at that moment it felt good for me to breathe new life into them—like little notes of encouragement to myself before the album’s release.
A few weeks ago I decided to share 3 I’ve kept coming back to. I hope you enjoy these very miniature + very warped versions. Thanks for your support!My dear friend IKSRE who I got to make the album ‘Nurture’ with back in early 2023 is about to share a remix album of songs from her first record via Hush Hush Records! I took the cover photograph and also contributed an awakened souls ‘Lost in Acid’ remix (on streaming now). My husband James just celebrated the 30 year anniversary of his ambient album, Atmospherics with a reissue on PITP (with full reinterpretations from bvdub too). This new remix was a nod to our mutual love of ambient acid and his roots.
cover for ‘Refurl’
some moments i like to remember:
This month brought a few commissioned opportunities for my art/photography and although I’m not sharing those specific pieces here (yet), it encouraged me to share some of my other favorite recent photos.
Photography is a deep love of mine and often inspires songs I write. Art feeds art! Also, being a mom of 5 with 4 teenagers currently still living at home makes me even more aware of the necessity to unplug and be in stillness. This month had many moving pieces with the family (and the world) and these photos are from moments that helped give me the extra grounding boost I needed to navigate my daily life. All of these photos were taken with my Sony A6000 paired with one of my many magical light-altering toys.
A little reminder: my husband James and I run a studio called Ambient Mountain House. He is a mixing & mastering engineer and I am available for art, design, additional production and remixes. Here is the link to our website. Feel free to email me at cynthia@ambientmountainhouse.com with any questions!
question i have been pondering:
In Pema Chödrön’s book, Taking The Leap (that basically fell off the shelf into my arms at the wondrous Bart’s Books in Ojai), she writes about a story she was told of two wolves that fight in our hearts. “One wolf is vengeful and angry, and the other wolf was understanding and kind…the one that wins will be the one I choose to feed.”
So I have been asking myself the question, ‘What wolf do I want to feed?’ when thinking of all aspects of my life. What wolf do I want to feed with the music + arts industry? With parenting and my family? My community? My own precious time?
That wolf question has been lingering in my head for a decade now, since I first discovered Pema Chödrön’s work. Thanks for the reminder. 🙏
Love the pics C! <3