Stephen Caulfield – Queen City Sounds and Art

Stephen Caulfield’s New Age Ambient Song “Meltwater” Articulates the Wonder and Magic of the Transformation of Ice Into Liquid in Human Time

“Meltwater” from Stephen Caulfield’s new ambient EP Blue Vessels (available October 18, 2024) layers a glimmering foreground and low end background in the beginning. But this all dissolves a bit with abstract piano, minimal guitar and bass joining the synth in a free flowing and evolving drift as the harmonic composition shifts and swirls slowly. It is a musical embodiment of a time lapse view of ice transforming from solid into liquid and how it is both gradual and sudden and when being able to perceive it in more geologic time through the alchemy of a song written imagining this process magical and truly transformative. The shining melody emerging from the slow churn of elements strikes a gorgeous note as the song resolves into tranquility and the sound of droplets. Listen to “Meltwater” on Spotify and follow Stephen Caulfield at the links below.

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The Sense of Mystery and Movement on Stephen Caulfield’s “Everything is Remembered” is Driven by the Lingering Effervescence of its Omnichord Melody

StephenCaulfield_ToTheLighthouseA1_crop — Stephen Caulfield *To The Lighthouse* cover (cropped)

The lingering effervescence of the Omnichord that carries the melody of Stephen Caulfield’s “Everything Is Remembered” gives the song a constant, nearly even flow. When the drum loops ease in, its soothing, almost hypnotic quality is reminiscent of early 2000s IDM. Like the song “Passing Through the Town” from Caulfield’s excellent 2019 album To The Lighthouse, a deep dive into various flavors and textures of ambient music, there is a sense of movement to a mysterious destination here, perhaps as suggested by the title of the release. But that mystery is something welcoming to which you are drawn by a promise of emotional fulfillment. Not the dramatic kind after a long period of struggle, but the kind where after long searching you find a space, a place, in your mind where you can experience a deep solace before wanting to or needing to be on to the next chapter of life. Listen to “Everything Is Remembered” on Spotify and connect with Stephen Caulfield at the links below.

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Stephen Caulfield Captures the Sense of Mystery and Wonder at Seeing the Lights of a Ship Passing in the Dark On “A Light In the Sea at Night”

StephenCaulfield_FieldOfView1_crop — Stephen Caulfield, photo courtesy the artist

There is something mysterious and tranquil about seeing the lights of a ship on a large body of water at night as it passes either in the distance or nearby. Whether a passenger ship or a ship of a different purpose whose navigation lights alert you to their presence in the darkness. Stephen Caulfield gives voice to that stirring of the imagination on his song “A Light In the Sea at Night.” Slow pulsing drones cross over each other and distort at that intersection of tone to embody the break in the darkness from the ship lights, the fluidity of the motion and in the background a hint of sound like the ship’s radio providing essential data or a program played to have something human with the crew at the helm through the night when they’ve all talked about each other’s lives into oblivion and it’s too late to have anything interesting to say. Caulfield captures both the way sight of the ships is striking and sets the mind to wonder where the ship might be going or coming from and who would be aboard at that hour as well as the comfort in the meditative isolation from the everyday world that must exist if you’re on the crew, the movement, the constant sound of machines operating, the lap of the water on the hull and the sounds one chooses to bring aboard to maintain that connection to a world outside such a hermetic setting. Listen to “A Light In the Sea at Night” on Spotify and follow Stephen Caulfield at the links provided.

Stephen Caulfield Evokes the Mystery and Allure of Coastal Iceland on “Field of View”

Inspired by the landscapes of Iceland, “Field of View” by Stephen Caulfield comes in with a spectral drone with slight distortions in the tone like sun winking off ice in the distance before the landmass looms into view. A copse of trees gives a hint that the promontory jutting out from the fog is not an iceberg but the sometimes otherworldly land of ice and fire that the Vikings colonized centuries ago. As an up close, rapid cycling, distorted stream of sound gives way to a more spacious and ambient softly drifting melodic noise it conjures visions of the low lying clouds and fog clearing to reveal the jagged inlets and high cliffs, the majestic and silent vistas of Iceland before you that must have captivated the first humans to set foot there as well as modern travelers to the island nation. Listen to “Field of View” on Spotify and follow Stephen Caulfield at the links provided.