Four Tet
Sixteen Oceans

It's okay to regret or dwell on the past, but having a perspective is much better. Yes, I think having a perspective is important, and I'm not just thinking about life's perspective, but even the one you see from the patio door of your living room. I thought a lot about this during the months of the first lockdown, unable to leave the house. Damn, being able to see something beautiful through the slats of the shutters gained meaning. And after Lapland, confinement is a double taunt of fate. The world had kind of frozen; Milan's central station was a set that just needed a splash of color for a new apocalypse blockbuster.

The view from the third floor isn't bad, you're not overshadowed by skyscrapers, although the field of view isn't that wide, nor do you glimpse the mountains due to the south exposure of the balcony. You're still alive, but you have to find something to do inside that isn't working or waiting in endless lines outside the superstore.
The opportunity to dust off the PlayStation and put on pajamas at half past eight for game-horror nights is a good excuse. But you need to find a second mission. Discover new music that replaces the jump scare from the couch with a pure and simple mental leap.

The best albums are those that work even when you're washing dishes in your one-bedroom apartment and not much light comes in from outside because up there, the sky is partly cloudy. Except for melancholic albums, they only work when you're depressed, and you play them at full volume just to remind yourself of how beautiful they are.

Kieran Hebden at the beach in April among dwarf palms and olive trees on a sunny day with a light sea breeze and the free beach would fit well. Remove that scenario from your mind. The real test begins now.
Four Tet comes out in full lockdown. There's no other choice but to let it resonate within that square of home.

The perspective is always the same reheated soup from the previous day. The rays of the sun reflecting on the buildings in front of you, unlike the fjords of Tromsø and the northern lights, the Mediterranean scrub and the stables. The roar of airplanes passing overhead has disappeared. There is plenty of time to pass and moderate silences.

“New Energy” made it pleasant to rest your fingertips on the vacuum cleaner. And 16 Oceans must succeed in replicating that same pleasant sensation of placidity and induced psychological well-being.

The model is much more yoga-soft with oils and massages than loud-club. The almost entirely instrumental dynamics, experiments with field recordings, and an elusive liquidity make it eclectic. A deserted Lindos with white houses scattered everywhere and appetizers with feta, olives, and hummus on the plate. No sweaty summer dance halls with watered-down cocktails for 10 €.

There's a vibrant warmth in the air, it isn't electronic coldness, but rather sentimentality with infinitesimal specific weight (“Romantics”). It's time for the spring migration of birds from the Sicilian coasts to North Africa (“Teenage Birdsong”) and for the reruns of some animal documentaries in Africa (“Harpsichord”). The straight kick even sweeps us away and we are already immersed in a huge blue expanse, searching for a landing point that is not visible on the horizon (“Insect Near Piha Beach”). The light becomes dimmer and dimmer, the sunset descends on the fishermen's houses earlier and earlier, but we will celebrate the Summer solstice again. It is the solemn promise nature makes to us (“Something in the Sadness”).
The brain's neurotransmitters communicate a sense of melancholy, but Four Tet inhibits such feelings and makes us (re)live the long days and vivid colors of Summer, making it a mental season.

The time of confinement will end, we will go out again. We'll put away the cardboard cutouts full of love we proudly displayed from the balconies and we'll go back to hugging each other, but hating each other as always. The perspective has changed, or maybe the previous one was better.

The symbiosis with the natural order, embracing its soft embrace, a fleeting bow, the silence, a new smile, and a new dawn. Laborious redemption and relief from stress. The final solution.