About the Music

A little bit of story about Kim Merlino and his music, and the method to his madness.

I stopped playing live public music about 25 years ago. Though playing with other people, traveling, gigging, and co-creating in bands was a lot of fun and extremely educational, creating my own studio music has opened up a new world for me. I'm still co-creating with other people but discovering my own personal pace has allowed my inner creativity to expand in new ways.

The following ideas say a little more about me and the music that expresses itself through me.

I've really enjoyed working with a diversity of instruments. I've gone from sophisticated to simplicity. Creativity is now largely expressed by the type of equipment used to draw itself through the artist; whether it be acoustic or electronic. I love electronic and acoustic samples blended together because traditional instrumentation (such as strings, winds, and percussion) combined with the electronic (digital,analog) affects our vibrational field both at a visceral level and at a frequency that can propel the artist and listener towards the other/inner worldly. After experiencing meditation and Asian medicine I've moved more and more from yang expression into the yin realms of "depth music" which is where the "ambient hues" are found.

I feel that today's music can be so technically "good" because of the relative ease of writing and producing it. The leap that technology has taken demands and allows for greater playing, leading to unbelievably awesome pieces. Many people may not agree with the previous statement and perhaps feel that "music ain't what it used to be"..but of course, it is, it will always have history as a part of it because the present always contains the past. And what a present we have NOW....especially if we can drop the depleting stories of what isn't going well and allow the spaciousness of this moment--the songs, the compositions are endless.

My favorite type of musical energy involves a zen like investigative, improvisational inquiry...when these qualities are active and bonded with music and recording it can bring the artist and the listener to new levels of perception.

This is what is happening for me at this time. Each track I record is improvised, which stimulates the right hemisphere of the brain at the time of writing and (through high quality recording) is thus transferred to the listener. This right brain emphasis is balanced wth the '"finish" of the editing and the further improvisations of track upon track each being edited with logic (left brain) which cleans up the improv and ties them both together for listening.

In the last 20 years I've listened to about 10 hours per day of healing music in my Asian Medical clinic.

Asian medical theory bases it's energy work on the concepts of Yin/Yang in which it views both the microcosm and macrocosm as the root and the branch of our worldly experience. I have had the good fortune of witnessing sound/music among other tools of the trade (ie.oils, herbs,needles,temperature,environment, intention etc. ) and how these tools affect the human...mind body spirit. It's been a pleasure to compose and record music which helps lift, relax, and expand the client and practitioner during the healing experience. Ambient style music takes music out of the entertainment field only and into the realm of energetic transformation. To me the blend of melody and recognizable instrumentation/parameters of what we are accustomed to can fuse to the expansive "nothingness" of ambient tonal work and enhance every aspect of our lives, whether it be work, play, or healing (which of course doesn't discount the perfection of silence).

ALL LIFE IS MUSIC.