While the pandemic of 2020 affected just about every aspect of our lives, it was professional musicians who may have been hit the hardest. Without the possibility of tours or even an audience, artists who previously relied on performing their work for a living were forced to re-evaluate how they would get by. For many, this meant a shift to DIY streaming performances, which, while they have the potential to offer uniquely intimate connections to artists, have not proven to be a suitable replacement or method of output. Enter bassist Dezron Douglass and harpist Brandee Younger and their series of shows on Instagram.

What began as a simple way to connect to friends and fans over “brunch” became a bright spot to look forward to in the early days of the pandemic. Locked down in their apartment in New York City, the two interpreted an entire history of song revealing almost by accident that no matter what the circumstance, no matter how bleak it got, music and art would find a way.

Force Majeure, the resulting album of highlights from those performances, is many things, but above all, it is a gift. For all the darkness we ALL experienced this year, despite all the confusion and pain, Douglass and Younger’s spirit manages to illuminate the world and let the listener know how not alone they really are. A musical journey through our seemingly endless days so filled with beauty, humor, and, most of all, life, Force Majeure stuns, not by being flashy, but by being human.

Violinist Johanna Burnheart shines on her lush and challenging debut record Burnheart, and harpist Mary Lattimore returns with Silver Ladders, one of the strongest releases of her career. Join us as we dig into these stellar releases, talk ambient, and the future of music on an all new episode of Discologist.

On her new album Lake Accontink, Marian McLaughlin invites the listener along on her quest to try and make sense of the many ways in which we impact and are impacted by the environment, and what it all may mean in the long run. We’re sitting down with the Baltimore-based musician to talk about what inspired her self-described “music for the Anthropocene Epoch,” the perils of capitalism in the modern age, the joy of playing in a room with one-hundred other guitarists and much more!