rain

welcome to synthquest: relaxing, ambient soundscapes, 100% improvised, unedited, live and of the moment. meditation music for music lovers and an ambient music anti-show! put on your sleep mask, sit in meditation, settle into shavasana, embark on your evening walk,  draw yourself a bath, and get ready for synthquest! i’ve always been incredibly bad at keeping track of time. whereas other people seem to have a sense of gravity binding them to the time of day, I am out here just floating haphazardly around it —  15 minutes late to everything, completely unaware of how long it’s been since I’ve seen a certain friend or eaten my most recent meal.perhaps, dear synthquest listeners, you’ve also noticed that quite some time has passed between episodes. frequently, my sense of time seems totally out of sync with the world around me, which often moves at a pace that just feels inconceivable to me. to me, time is like an ocean — a swirling, reverberous pool of everything I ever have and ever will experience.i wonder though what it would be like to go instead by feeling, to embrace following my own erroneous-to-current-standards internal compass of time passing. where I would sometimes I let the world go on in its buzzing without me while I while away in slow, hazy days of staring out the window, meandering in the garden, growing lighter, younger. collecting myself,  rewinding back into myself, like a cassette tape  in reverse.dear synthquest listeners, i hope you give yourself permission to get a bit lost in the passing of time.and thank you for your patience for this episode after a long hiatus. while i can't promise to not get lost in the ocean of time again, i am working hard to bank some episodes so that the show can continue to come out while I make my way out of it—i highly recommend listening to synthquest through headphones. i'll also suggest settling into someplace comfortable to listen, or listening during a bath, massage, on a walk, while you make dinner — basically wherever you go or whatever you do to relax and decompress.episode timeline0:22 — 20 second music preview0:42 — episode introduction6:08 — music beginsabout jen starsinicsynthquest is created by Jen Starsinic, a music artist, multi-instrumentalist, and community organizer from Harrisburg, PA currently living in Nashville, TN. In addition to her creative work, she is the co-founder and artistic director of Girls Write Nashville, a nonprofit organization providing music mentorship and creative community to youth artists, whose works as been featured on NPR's Here & Now and is a winner of the Lewis Prize for Music. Said of her last studio release, EP Bad Actor —"there is a blissful aura that surrounds Starsinic’s sound, making for one of 2020’s must-hear albums."about synthquestsynthquest is recorded live and livestreamed on Twitch currently on Monday and Wednesdays at 9pm CT/10pm ET/2am GMT. It is 100% improvised and unedited.stay connected!synthquest live stream: twitch.tv/jenstarsinicwebsite & email list: jenstarsinic.comwant to say hello? email [email protected]: @jenstarsinic twitter: @jenstarsiniclisten to jen's other music on bandcampperformed using...Korg Minilogue XDNord Electro 5DElectro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory

welcome to synthquest: relaxing, ambient soundscapes, 100% improvised, unedited, live and of the moment. meditation music for music lovers and an ambient music anti-show! put on your sleep mask, sit in meditation, settle into shavasana, embark on your evening walk,  draw yourself a bath, and get ready for synthquest! you know those really great weekend dreams that are so good that when you wake up , you do everything you can to fall back into them? dreams with substance and plot and people you’re enjoying. you end up sleeping 2 hours longer just seeing how many times you can doze back into the dream story. I used to summon immersive dreams like that daydreaming as a child. bored suburban blank spaces I was eager to fill with the contents of my imagination. whole worlds to contentedly get lost in for hours. I think that’s why so many people think of music and other creativity as a kind of magic — it comes from nothing. a necessary ingredient for its creation is substantive, paradoxically purposeful blank, open, spacey  nothingness. our dreams and visions and creations and art are a mysterious alchemy in defiance of the first law of thermodynamics: something really can be created from nothing.today i invite you into our dreamy dive into nothingness. may i give you nothing.—i highly recommend listening to synthquest through headphones. i'll also suggest settling into someplace comfortable to listen, or listening during a bath, massage, on a walk, while you make dinner — basically wherever you go or whatever you do to relax and decompress.episode timeline0:25 — 20 second music preview0:52 — episode introduction4:38 — music beginsabout jen starsinicsynthquest is created by Jen Starsinic, a music artist, multi-instrumentalist, and community organizer from Harrisburg, PA currently living in Nashville, TN. In addition to her creative work, she is the co-founder and artistic director of Girls Write Nashville, a nonprofit organization providing music mentorship and creative community to youth artists, whose works as been featured on NPR's Here & Now and is a winner of the Lewis Prize for Music. Said of her last studio release, EP Bad Actor —"there is a blissful aura that surrounds Starsinic’s sound, making for one of 2020’s must-hear albums."about synthquestsynthquest is recorded live and livestreamed on Twitch currently on Monday and Wednesdays at 9pm CT/10pm ET/2am GMT. It is 100% improvised and unedited.stay connected!synthquest live stream: twitch.tv/jenstarsinicwebsite & email list: jenstarsinic.comwant to say hello? email [email protected]: @jenstarsinic twitter: @jenstarsiniclisten to jen's other music on bandcampperformed using...Korg Minilogue XDNord Electro 5DElectro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory

welcome to synthquest: relaxing, ambient soundscapes, 100% improvised, unedited, live and of the moment. meditation music for music lovers and an ambient music anti-show! put on your sleep mask, sit in meditation, settle into shavasana, embark on your evening walk,  draw yourself a bath, and get ready for synthquest! when I was a kid, I would spend most summer days at the local public pool with my friends. there was a huge room with like 4 or 5 ping pong tables in it. when it happened to be empty, we would play a game of Super Ping Pong in which we used the entire room and all surfaces to hit as many balls as we could chaotically back and forth.lately I’ve been trying to revive my daily meditation practice and I’ve been finding my brain and thoughts remind me of a game of Super Ping Pong — many thought trajectories flying illicitly around in a thousand directions with the aim, seemingly, of sowing chaos.perhaps it’s no surprise then that many arpeggios and bouncing delays are two of my all time favorite sound palettes to play with, like the ones you hear in this improv.I’ve been meditating again because when I don’t, I sometimes lose touch with the voice that is there in the middle of the room, trying to speak loud enough to be heard whilst being assaulted by many flying little balls.it’s made me learn that knowing yourself is not an objective accomplished once but a process cultivated continually...—i highly recommend listening to synthquest through headphones. i'll also suggest settling into someplace comfortable to listen, or listening during a bath, massage, on a walk, while you make dinner — basically wherever you go or whatever you do to relax and decompress.episode timeline0:26 — 20 second music preview0:49 — episode introduction4:13 — music beginsabout jen starsinicsynthquest is created by Jen Starsinic, a music artist, multi-instrumentalist, and community organizer from Harrisburg, PA currently living in Nashville, TN. In addition to her creative work, she is the co-founder and artistic director of Girls Write Nashville, a nonprofit organization providing music mentorship and creative community to youth artists, whose works as been featured on NPR's Here & Now and is a winner of the Lewis Prize for Music. Said of her last studio release, EP Bad Actor —"there is a blissful aura that surrounds Starsinic’s sound, making for one of 2020’s must-hear albums."about synthquestsynthquest is recorded live and livestreamed on Twitch currently on Monday and Wednesdays at 9pm CT/10pm ET/2am GMT. It is 100% improvised and unedited.stay connected!synthquest live stream: twitch.tv/jenstarsinicwebsite & email list: jenstarsinic.comwant to say hello? email [email protected]: @jenstarsinic twitter: @jenstarsiniclisten to jen's other music on bandcampperformed using...Korg Minilogue XDNord Electro 5DElectro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory

welcome to synthquest: relaxing, ambient soundscapes, 100% improvised, unedited, live and of the moment. meditation music for music lovers and an ambient music anti-show! put on your sleep mask, sit in meditation, settle into shavasana, embark on your evening walk,  draw yourself a bath, and get ready for synthquest! this year, more than previous years, I have felt the season in terms of the winter solstice. a slow, at times unwilling, hibernation creeping over my energy to do most things.and why shouldn’t it? though it doesn’t conform to the go-go-go of modern life, it doesn’t seem outlandish to me that the truth of our planet in orbit would affect us, governing us more fully than weary human constructs.these are the forces we don’t see directly, but experience in the shortening of days, the turning of the weather.deep in our bodies, we know we are more fully immersed in the shadow side of the cycling that makes up our days, months and years.when I was improvising this live, I had a sense of wandering — in the moment, I felt like I couldn't quite figure out where I was supposed to go with it. maybe this is a time meant for feeling a little bit lost. i highly recommend listening to synthquest through headphones. i'll also suggest settling into someplace comfortable to listen, or listening during a bath, massage, on a walk, while you make dinner — basically wherever you go or whatever you do to relax and decompress.episode timeline0:23 — 20 second music preview0:43 — episode introduction3:35 — music beginsabout jen starsinicsynthquest is created by Jen Starsinic, a music artist, multi-instrumentalist, and community organizer living in Nashville, TN. She is the co-founder and artistic director of Girls Write Nashville, a nonprofit organization providing music mentorship and creative community to youth artists, as featured on NBC's Today Show and NPR's Here & Now. Said of her last studio release, EP Bad Actor —"there is a blissful aura that surrounds Starsinic’s sound, making for one of 2020’s must-hear albums."about synthquestsynthquest is recorded live and livestreamed on Twitch currently on Monday and Wednesdays at 9pm CT/10pm ET/2am GMT. It is 100% improvised and unedited.stay connected!synthquest live stream: twitch.tv/jenstarsinicwebsite & email list: jenstarsinic.cominstagram: @jenstarsinic twitter: @jenstarsiniclisten to jen's other music on bandcampperformed using...Korg Minilogue XDNord Electro 5DElectro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory

this thanksgiving, I hope you enjoy "music for turkeys"! I actually have a small band of turkeys that frequents my neighborhoods and their blissful strolls (here in the city, definitely no one is eating these turkeys) and soft little "gobble gobbles" are a frequent soundtrack to my daily life. i'm happy to share them with you to say THANK YOU for being part of the synthquest journey with me. I hope this soundscape/down tempo dream-pop track can be a pleasant soundtrack for an evening walking-off-the-pie walk. for those not in the US - I hope you're having an incredible regular old thursday, and know that during our holiday of gratitude, I'm grateful for you! i highly recommend listening to synthquest through headphones. i'll also suggest settling into someplace comfortable to listen, or listening during a bath, massage, on a walk, while you make dinner — basically wherever you go or whatever you do to relax and decompress.episode timelineintroduction - 0:00"music for turkeys" music begins - 2:23about jen starsinicsynthquest is created by Jen Starsinic, a music maker and multi-instrumentalist living in Nashville, TN. Jen is also the co-founder and artistic director of Girls Write Nashville, a nonprofit organization providing music mentorship and creative community to youth artists, as featured on NBC's Today Show and NPR's Here & Now. About her last studio release, EP Bad Actor —"there is a blissful aura that surrounds Starsinic’s sound, making for one of 2020’s must-hear albums."about synthquestsynthquest is recorded live and livestreamed on Twitch currently on Monday and Wednesdays at 9pm CT/10pm ET/2am GMT. It is 100% improvised and unedited.stay connected!synthquest live stream: twitch.tv/jenstarsinicwebsite & email list: jenstarsinic.cominstagram: @jenstarsinic twitter: @jenstarsiniclisten to jen's other music on spotifyperformed using...Korg Minilogue XDNord Electro 5DElectro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory

one of the coolest things to me about improvisation to me is getting to hear exactly what a musician wants to play in that moment.not a song that came together years before, about an ex they've now gotten over.not one that they're mostly tired of at this point and has been rehearsed and is played with a band of hired guns who on that particular night would honestly just rather be at home instead of sleeping on a bus.not an interaction that was manufactured, but one that can only be had with genuine presence.being live, truly live, inside that kind of conversation, 100% in the moment, is totally thrilling to me. as a musician, it's honestly just truly, genuinely f**ing fun — which i can totally hear and is a big theme today's episode of synthquest.i've been really overworked here approaching the end of the year, so when i sat down to play wednesday night it was all about me not having to think, being present, letting it flow, and just having fun.unabashedly selfish joy-jams like this for me often end up more dream-pop than ambient. perhaps this improv is pulling double duty workshopping production ideas for the next album of songs I make... which is pretty cool to share with you.i highly recommend listening to synthquest through headphones. i'll also suggest settling into someplace comfortable to listen, or listening during a bath, massage, on a walk, while you make dinner — basically wherever you go or whatever you do to relax and decompress.episode timelineIntroduction - 0:00"unwind, smile, be present" music begins - 4:16 about synthquestsynthquest is a twice weekly ambient improvisation that is recorded live on Twitch on Mondays and Wednesdays. synthquest was born out of my desire to have a way to have a music practice in real time with listeners. there's a long history and tradition of music as improvisatory, spontaneous communication that really is quite different from the way we consume music now as album that get produced and perfect, sometimes over years. it also is a practice in sharing the creative journey of becoming — i've met so many people who feel like they can't make art because it's not perfect, so I wanted to pull back the curtain on my own creative and learning process. because synthquest is improvised, you will hear me trying out sounds and probably making mistakes — it's all part of the fun and the journey. in real time and in real life, no one is perfect — neither are you and neither am i.  about jen starsinicsynthquest is created by Jen Starsinic, a music maker and multi-instrumentalist living in Nashville, TN. Jen is also the co-founder and artistic director of Girls Write Nashville, a nonprofit organization providing music mentorship and creative community to youth artists, as featured on NBC's Today Show and NPR's Here & Now. About her last studio release, EP Bad Actor —"there is a blissful aura that surrounds Starsinic’s sound, making for one of 2020’s must-hear albums." linkssynthquest live stream: twitch.tv/jenstarsinicwebsite & email list: jenstarsinic.cominstagram: @jenstarsinic twitter: @jenstarsiniclisten to jen's other music on spotifyperformed using...Korg Minilogue XDNord Electro 5DElectro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory

since the pandemic started, I’ve been paying a lot more attention to rhythm. and specifically seeking out music to listen to and make that makes me want to move. divorced from the movement and pace of everyday life, my typical sad songs left me waterlogged and even more depressed, so instead I looked to music to help me reanimate. this improvisation starts out atmospheric and the rhythm comes in a slow development, each component part coming together slowly over time to form something, that when complete, feels… right and vibrant and living. like it was always meant to be there, like a picture that has come into focus.i highly recommend listening to synthquest through headphones. i'll also suggest settling into someplace comfortable to listen, or listening during a bath, massage, on a walk, while you make dinner — basically wherever you go or whatever you do to relax and decompress.episode timelineIntroduction - 0:00"slow dance" music begins - 5:28 about synthquestsynthquest is a twice weekly ambient improvisation that is recorded live on Twitch on Mondays and Wednesdays. synthquest was born out of my desire to have a way to have a music practice in real time with listeners. there's a long history and tradition of music as improvisatory, spontaneous communication that really is quite different from the way we consume music now as album that get produced and perfect, sometimes over years. it also is a practice in sharing the creative journey of becoming — i've met so many people who feel like they can't make art because it's not perfect, so I wanted to pull back the curtain on my own creative and learning process. because synthquest is improvised, you will hear me trying out sounds and probably making mistakes — it's all part of the fun and the journey. in real time and in real life, no one is perfect — neither are you and neither am i.  about jen starsinicsynthquest is created by Jen Starsinic, a music maker and multi-instrumentalist living in Nashville, TN. Jen is also the co-founder and artistic director of Girls Write Nashville, a nonprofit organization providing music mentorship and creative community to youth artists, as featured on NBC's Today Show and NPR's Here & Now. About her last studio release, EP Bad Actor —"there is a blissful aura that surrounds Starsinic’s sound, making for one of 2020’s must-hear albums." linkssynthquest live stream: twitch.tv/jenstarsinicwebsite & email list: jenstarsinic.cominstagram: @jenstarsinic twitter: @jenstarsiniclisten to jen's other music on spotifyperformed using...Korg Minilogue XDNord Electro 5DElectro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory

welcome to synthquest: improvised, ambient soundscapes! this week during the livestream, listeners played video games, did yoga sessions (or maybe just extended shavasana) and we celebrated more autumnal sounds: fall sounds so percussive and crunchy with a peaceful ominousness from the sounds of crows and a chill in the air. listening to the sounds of fall so intensively, I 100% get Halloween and spooky fall harvest festivals. it's one of my favorite times of year. i also encourage you to celebrate the season by sharing this episode with a friend! this week's improvised soundscape revolves around a field recording from my front porch — and I'm so excited to celebrate my current studio and home this way as I'm moving and this is our last synthquest episode coming to you from our current spot! stay tuned for more synthquest from my new, bigger studio that will even accomodate some musical guests being added to the mix. to check out the new spot, don't forget to tune into the livestream — mondays and wednesdays at 9pm CT at twitch.tv/jenstarsinic  (go hit 'follow' on Twitch to get notifications when we go live!)i highly recommend listening to synthquest through headphones. i'll also suggest settling into someplace comfortable to listen, or listening during a bath, massage, on a walk, while you make dinner — basically wherever you go or whatever you do to relax and decompress.episode timelineintroduction - 0:00"early autumn breeze" music begins - 4:57about jen starsinicsynthquest is created by Jen Starsinic, a music maker and multi-instrumentalist living in Nashville, TN. Jen is also the co-founder and artistic director of Girls Write Nashville, a nonprofit organization providing music mentorship and creative community to youth artists, as featured on NBC's Today Show and NPR's Here & Now. About her last studio release, EP Bad Actor —"there is a blissful aura that surrounds Starsinic’s sound, making for one of 2020’s must-hear albums."about synthquestsynthquest is recorded live and livestreamed on Twitch currently on Monday and Wednesdays at 9pm CT/10pm ET/2am GMT. It is 100% improvised and unedited.stay connected!synthquest live stream: twitch.tv/jenstarsinicwebsite & email list: jenstarsinic.cominstagram: @jenstarsinic twitter: @jenstarsiniclisten to jen's other music on spotifyperformed using...Korg Minilogue XDNord Electro 5DElectro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory

welcome to synthquest: improvised, ambient soundscapes! i've loved hearing about what you do when you listen to synthquest and how it has served as a soundtrack to your meditations, creative work, study sessions, and video gaming. this week's episode was recorded during this week's monday livestream and features field recordings of ocean sounds from my vacation last week to the gulf of mexico. one night, we went to the beach to stargaze (venus and saturn were both viewable!) — a storm was rolling in, the waves were getting to be a little choppy, and i was struck that night and the whole trip by the mysterious, unknowable, uncontrollable depths of ocean and its inhabitants. i highly recommend listening to synthquest through headphones. i'll also suggest settling into someplace comfortable to listen, or listening during a bath, massage, on a walk, while you make dinner — basically wherever you go or whatever you do to relax and decompress.episode timelineIntroduction - 0:00"ocean" music begins - 5:45about jen starsinicsynthquest is created by Jen Starsinic, a music maker and multi-instrumentalist living in Nashville, TN. Jen is also the co-founder and artistic director of Girls Write Nashville, a nonprofit organization providing music mentorship and creative community to youth artists, as featured on NBC's Today Show and NPR's Here & Now. About her last studio release, EP Bad Actor —"there is a blissful aura that surrounds Starsinic’s sound, making for one of 2020’s must-hear albums."about synthquestsynthquest is recorded live and livestreamed on Twitch currently on Monday and Wednesdays at 9pm CT/10pm ET/2am GMT. It is 100% improvised and unedited.linkssynthquest live stream: twitch.tv/jenstarsinicwebsite & email list: jenstarsinic.cominstagram: @jenstarsinic twitter: @jenstarsiniclisten to jen's other music on spotifyperformed using...Korg Minilogue XDNord Electro 5DElectro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratoryocean sounds recorded using an iPhone 6

welcome to synthquest: improvised, ambient soundscapes! what do you call a bear that got stuck in  rainstorm? thank you to a livestream listener for the rain themed dad-jokes to accompany our soundscape inspired by all the very best sounds of a rainy day. it had been raining for 4-5 days in Nashville when I recorded this — deep in the peaceful lull of a grey storm: rain, thunder, wind and all. i have to say, this soundscape was one of my favorites, just like lazy, rainy days are my favorites. i highly recommend listening to synthquest through headphones. i'll also suggest settling into someplace comfortable to listen, or listening during a bath, massage, on a walk, while you make dinner — basically wherever you go or whatever you do to relax and decompress.episode timelineIntroduction - 0:00"rain" music begins - 3:23about jen starsinicsynthquest is created by Jen Starsinic, a music maker and multi-instrumentalist living in Nashville, TN. Jen is also the co-founder and artistic director of Girls Write Nashville, a nonprofit organization providing music mentorship and creative community to youth artists, as featured on NBC's Today Show and NPR's Here & Now. About her last studio release, EP Bad Actor —"there is a blissful aura that surrounds Starsinic’s sound, making for one of 2020’s must-hear albums."about synthquestsynthquest is recorded live and livestreamed on Twitch currently on Monday and Wednesdays at 9pm CT/10pm ET/2am GMT. It is 100% improvised and unedited.linkssynthquest live stream: twitch.tv/jenstarsinicwebsite & email list: jenstarsinic.cominstagram: @jenstarsinic twitter: @jenstarsiniclisten to jen's other music on spotifyperformed using...Korg Minilogue XDNord Electro 5DElectro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory