the new objective presents ‘ALONE WITH OTHERS’ [mix]

March. April. May. The days have long since lost all meaning, blurring into one another as we improvise with adapted rhythms of life. Winter in Montreal is finally over, with June just around the corner. Things have gradually begun to reopen here, though the virus is not contained. Border still closed, travel discouraged, working remotely if able. Whatever happens, there’s no going back to “normal.” Being able to sit in the sun on my balcony certainly makes the restrictions easier to bear, but priorities have changed. I’ve tried to use the time, the seeming sameness of repetition, to focus on the differences. Becoming aware of the return of the birds, what time the cat walks up the alley, the ongoing squirrel drama.

2020 will certainly be a point of demarcation. It very much feels like there will be a “before” and “after.” Before, under the pretense of secularism the caquistes government in Quebec had passed a controversial law banning religious symbols (including hijabs and turbans). After, without saying so, the government finds itself reluctant to make the wearing of masks mandatory during the ongoing Covid crisis, of which Montreal is the center in Canada. Nonetheless, I’m cautiously optimistic. Before, the students in my Science Fiction class couldn’t imagine that the world could change very much. The future will be more of the same, just worse probably. After, how quickly the world can do otherwise. Whatever the cause, we’ve seen that there are other ways of living than the status quo.

Cato the Elder says, “Never am I less alone than when I am by myself, never am I more active than when I do nothing.” Seems like a welcome perspective, perhaps even a corrective, to the loneliness and alienation so many of us have been feeling. But in fact those of us who live with others haven’t had much time to ourselves at all. We keep hearing so much of #AloneTogether, but instead my mind keeps going back to Alone With Others. That’s the title of Stephen Batchelor’s 1983 work of secular Buddhist existentialism. But it also captures the feeling of learning to live differently as we reorient our lives and social relations.

After EVERYONE IS BORED and KINDA BLUE , I knew that I wanted to follow with a mix themed around feeling alone. The first mix toys with monotony, while the second plays with our sense of time on a different scale. ALONE WITH OTHERS explores juxtaposition and dialogue, thinking about collaboration and solitary activity. I began by selecting a few jazz duo records: guitarist Jim Hall and bassist Ron Carter’s Alone Together,  saxophonists Joseph Jarman and Anthony Braxton’s Together Alone,  bassist Ray Brown and pianist Jimmy Rowles’ “Alone Together.” I had some other tunes in mind leftover from previous mixes, and filled out the connective tissue with songs that have “alone” in the title. In retrospect, I can hear that I gravitated to tracks that make prominent use of guitar. I can’t be the only one who has been listening to heavier music lately, but this mix balances the heavier moments with some extended meditations.(Joseph Sannicandro)

TRACKLIST