Moment Invisible
As Moment Invisible opens, airy, light and frothy tones ascend. Liquid notes, masked as swimming thoughts, help you to ‘Remember Smiles’. This gentle, loving introduction sets the scene for the rest of Keenya’s Moment Invisible. It’s an introverted, shy sound, ambient music that flows with a special kind of purity; it doesn’t attempt any desperate tactics of an ambient attention seeker. Like the very best of ambient it just exists, and that’s all it needs to do. This is deeply introspected music.
Blurry, messy lines of thought, scribbled over the mind with a blunt crayon, dissolve and disintegrate, only for new, crystal moods to emerge, taking flight, leaving behind a hundred recently unearthed cocoons. They take the place of the old, the thoughts breaking free and scattering peace. You never knew they were there before, but you do now. It’s deep but clear, the music like rising vapour. Steam can cloud things, but it also clears your body and your mind. They don’t so much react to life as respond to it. They advance slowly, steadily, growing like a tree and lasting firmly through everything as a result.
In the lagoon, underwater tones move slowly and heavily, almost whale-like as they traverse the fathoms of the ocean. The notes move together with the rest of their pod, going nowhere in particular, their breathing, tonal bodies residing in the depths of the harmony. For much of the time, ambient music doesn’t really need to travel from point A to point B, and it’s not always concerned about its destination. Saying that, there’s always an element of progressive movement – even a loop moves forward.
Little electronic textures are picked up – the sonar from a nearby vessel creeps in and a sailing boat drifts further out to sea, but generally these little elements are few and far between. The mood is clear, but the overall tone is deep and bass-driven. Usually, music that sticks to the lower bass muddies things up, but the clear, lagging and frosty tones push upwards, giving the music a lighter quality. The music swims, and the listener swims in and around the infinite pools of the music. Beatless music it may be, but that doesn’t mean it’s devoid of a pulse. On the contrary, the sigh of musical life and the echoes it produces cast out incredibly natural rhythms. You have to work hard to find them, though, so headphones are definitely required.
The music’s cove is a sheltered, secret place, an ambient Atlantis that no one can find. Darker textures squirm inside the piece ‘Everywhere Bed’, but the aforementioned clarity remains, albeit in a weaker state. In ‘Walking Stars’ the infinite depths of space come closer. Ambient music can reflect many things – emotions, nature, places – but it can channel the sound of the universe, too; no other genre of music can come close to capturing it. You can observe the circular rifts as they appear in the water, a ripple, seemingly so small, unravelling in an incomprehensibly large, expanding universe. And, at the heart of Moment Invisible, a paradox: Keenya’s music represents both intimacy and infinity, the notes at once cuddled together and yet stretched apart by long distances that expand just as the universe itself does. But it’s such a peaceful album that you won’t and don’t need to worry about anything. No doubt it’s all unfolding as it should; it is what it is.
Moment Invisible is about being aware of your surroundings, not just living life but experiencing life. As a result, the invisible becomes apparent. A million moments can breeze by in just 24 hours; Keenya’s music helps you to reflect and cherish those moments. This music is pure, like rain trickling down the side of a night bus window as you make your way home.