Helios - Domicile (2020)

Pacific Northwest composer Keith Kenniff (known affectionately as Goldmund, or in this case, Helios) keeps a quiet life that revolves around his family and his music. His latest release, Domicile — a word meaning a person's residence — dwells in that day-to-day sanctuary, the space between concrete instances and events. He rendered the collection of calm synth-tones and textures with the vision of them serving the inside a home (before the pandemic but even more apt in the present), reframing "background music" as something more intentional. In the absence of structured builds with beginnings, arcs, and ends, each piece progresses with minimal orientation or presence, designed to gently "color the day or accompany an activity," says Kenniff, akin to Brian Eno’s original declaration for the form. Like the way a window’s light or a tree’s shadow moves across the wall, these sounds linger with understated and fleeting beauty.