more about lutheran lofi beats to upend existing religious power structures​/​study to

album art for lutheran lofi beats to upend existing religious power structures​/​study to

i'm not particularly religious atm but i have some nostalgia for specific old hymns from childhood or whatever. i've always loved four-part harmonies, and i do love me a piccardy third. when the reformation happened, i love the idea that people were taking existing german/english drinking songs and folk melodies and slapping lyrics on them to reclaim and repurpose them. in this way, i've reclaimed these melodies/harmonies for myself, stripping them of anything religious and making them my own. it was always odd to me growing up that older churchgoers viewed many of these melodies as sacred, detesting the idea of modern instruments performing traditional hymns. the reality is that hymn-music used to be anything but sacred: common tunes meant for the poorfolk. here they are in my interpretation. the title is mostly for clicks.

i worked on and finished most of these tracks in 2023 (tracks 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7), but just sat on them for most of the year. the dives and lazarus track is a remaster of a similar arrangement i’d made years ago when i first started playing with reaper. 2023 wasn’t my most productive year music-wise, but that’s ok. life had me busy with other things and that’s normal. i’m traveling now so i knocked out these other 3 tracks (tracks 2, 3, and 8) in the past two days and called it a wrap. i’m hoping i have more free time for music in 2024 than i did in 2023.