Conscious Creators 013: Living Light digs in the past when looking to the future on ‘Multidimensional Sandcastles’ [Premiere]

August 9, 2022

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Photo credit: Flashflood Studios.

The world of EDM is vast and diverse. From the commercial realm to the underground, electronic music is always moving at hyperspeed. But how can fans sift through all the noise to seek out the more substantive, meaningful, consciously-attuned musicians? Introducing: Conscious Creators, a focused writing series dedicated to highlighting artists who continually devote themselves to creating music that upholds CE’s mission.

These are the industry tastemakers committed to bypassing the surface-level gimmicks in favor of something more substantial. Their art encourages alignment with the self, affirmational living, shadow and light work, self-healing and self-love, living authentically, practicing intention. These are the creatives dedicated to leading their audience into a conscious awakening.

Most everyone can pinpoint the emotional nostalgia of sandcastles. For any typical vacationing child, traveling meant their parents taking them to a beachy getaway on the coast somewhere where they have cemented memories of searching for seashells on the shoreline and crabs along the dunes, and building fortresses that were always wiped away by rising evening tides. The next day, without fail, those children will build their make-believe castles once again; almost as if the ocean gave them a blank canvas.

That is almost exactly in line with the type of vibe that Living Light went for on her next project, Multidimensional Sandcastles, and CE has the pleasure of premiering the title track from the EP. Speaking exclusively to CE about her latest EP, out today on Sphere Pop Records, the veteran producer said the following: “‘Multidimensional Sandcastles’ is a reference to how the brain physically builds sandcastle-looking structures as it learns and grows. But I also like to think of it as a reference to the cerebral nature of the pandemic quarantine.“

Rather than looking to the nostalgia of the past, however, Harris chooses to look toward the future in her latest six-track EP project. She actually uses the metaphor of the sandcastle to represent “the cerebral nature of the pandemic quarantine.” Harris reflects further on a lockdown reality that we can all identify with:

“Due to being trapped at home and lack of sensory input, many people started having vivid dreams and overly active imaginations. Even speaking for myself, I was constantly imagining different scenarios and timelines for the future as I tried to wrap my head around what I saw happening in the world.“

The past and present’s connection to the future is a common theme that many musicians pull upon. It’s also one that makes this eclectic artist so naturally aligned with our mission, the “conscious consumption of dance music.” Multidimensional Sandcastles makes a return to Living Light’s dub roots, featuring 44 minutes of melodic, bass-driven, and elegantly psychedelic music offered in classic extended-mix styling with a progressive edge that reflects Eartha Harris’s evolution as a musician through more than two decades of music production.

“[T]o me, the ‘sandcastle’ is symbolic of imagining the future, which was constantly changing as the pandemic progressed.”
-Living Light

Featuring guest musical collaborations with Simon Posford (Shpongle), Gabriel Le Mar (Saafi Brothers), and Chris Barker (Ott & The All-Seeing I), the release is a re-exploration of the Living Light sound in all of its facets, offering a journey-like experience equally fit for digital enjoyment as for the warm, full-bodied sound of 180-gram vinyl.

Breaking the mold and challenging the status quo have become some of the defining traits of Eartha Harris’s extensive electronic music career. Known for her production work as Living Light, as well as for her self-titled DJ project Eartha Harris, she has been a multi-faceted presence in the American electronic music scene for over two decades, spanning genres and subcultures and touring extensively as both a solo artist and a live band keyboardist. With her work under the Living Light moniker incorporating elements of psychedelic dub, global bass, downtempo, and mid-tempo electronica, Harris’s styling has connected with audiences in clubs and at festivals around the world while showcasing her tenacity for experimentation amidst the endlessly changing seasons of global electronic music.

Stream “Multidimensional Sandcastles” now. Also listen to the full EP below, out in full on Sphere Pop today, August 9.