Doused in glassy synths and mournful chord progressions, James Blake’s music is equally enchanting as it is haunting. Like standing on a frozen lake in late December, his cascading melodies never fail to raise goosebumps.
I would consider Blake to be a fixture in my listening library for a number of years now. The wintry soundscape of "Retrograde" (2013) was one I first entered as a 13-year-old while angstily staring out a rain-streaked window on the bus home from school, and it is one that I still find myself returning to. Although I’ve never thought of myself as an avid James Blake fan, his recent discography is speckled throughout my playlists and tossed into my Discover Weekly on Spotify. Somehow, his music continues to make regular appearances in my life.
And yet, Blake himself has always eluded me. I’ve never been able to picture him as the brooding, indie songwriter to the likes of Bon Iver. Nor can I imagine him as an artist with the vibrant, ethereal edge of Moses Sumney. Even after seeing him live at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago, he remained an enigma. Shrouded in a veil of pulsing shadows and ambient soundscapes, the stillness of his performance style and minimalism of the stage design seemed intentionally mysterious. For this exact reason, I sought out his livestream; I was fascinated by the prospect of finally putting a face to the gravelly voice with such a tremulous falsetto, to get to know the sculptor of such inventive songs.
He entered his April 6livestream with no fanfare, just a simple improvisation on the piano. There was no awkward fumbling with the camera or forced reactions to the comments flooding the video. The set flowed freely from one contemplative piece to another for over an hour. Beyond just the virtuosity of his singing and piano playing, the livestream showed me another aspect of his music that I hadn’t been able to appreciate in concert or in recording: the extraordinary poise with which he approached each and every piece, so sincere that the performance felt nearly religious.
For soft-spoken artists like Blake, I’ve come to discover the platform of the livestream as a unique avenue for audiences to understand their music. After watching his set, I not only developed a fondness for Blake himself, but I realized what it is that makes his music so magnetic.
Live-Streamed and Quarantined: James Blake
