Adam Bokesch
Light, Remembered
Tone Tree Music
Nashville-based composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Adam Bokesch releases his latest long player, Light, Remembered, exploring the intimate connection between sleep, self-renewal, and creativity.
Bokesch explains, “This project reflects my own cycles of sleeplessness and inspiration. It’s about slowing down in a world that rarely allows it, and finding art, reflection, and healing in the liminal space between waking and dreaming.”
An in-demand drummer, Bokesch toured with Milktooth and The Daybreaks, and engineered for A-list artists, followed by moving into production and composition for films. When the pandemic struck, he focused on ambient music and well-being.
The title track begins the album, rolling out on soft, diffusing surfaces of gentle colors and undulating tonal filaments, like mist pushed by a light breeze. The melody drifts over you, touching you yet not touching you, providing a wonderfully immersive sensation.
Other highlights include the gliding, ringing textures of “Fracture Bloom,” as mild swells of layered strings encircle listeners in mellow hues. A personal favorite because of its brass accents, “Nonplace” seems to float on slowly swaying strings and sparkling umlauts.
Another favorite because of its warm, comfortable feeling, “Shapeshfit” glows and trickles on indulgent coloration, offering the sonic equivalent of love. “Dreamtone,” whose name is self-descriptive, oozes supple tones that pulse and flow on a matrix of shimmering undertone.
“Submer” emerges on low waves of sound and slowly rises to radiance, like a mermaid ascending from the depths of the ocean to the surface, where light and wash blend. This track is oh-so relaxing.
With Light, Remembered, Adam Bokesch delivers one of the best, if not the best, ambient albums of the year.
Light, Remembered was written and produced by Bokesch, who also handled the mixing and mastering. Engineering was performed by Bokesch and Bobby Holland, with string arrangements by Dustin Ransom. Strings on the album were performed by Eleonore Denig, Emily Rogers, Cara Fox, and Kristin Weber. Rog Agee and Tara Johnson played horns.
