Arswain is a psudenym of Freddy Avis, a musician and producer from Los Angeles. He’s recently released a fascinating track called Flat Time.
Literature, and reading, is important in stimulating the creative process for Arswain, with recent inspiations including “Partitioning” from Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement, “The Garden” from Carolyn Merchant’s The Death of Nature.
This time he’s created an 11-minute track exploring Mark Fisher’s Ghosts Of My Life. In Ghosts Of My Life, Fisher investigates why 21st century pop culture is stuck in – and lazily deferential to – 20th century nostalgia.
“Flat Time” is my tribute to Fisher, who took his own life in 2018. In a digital age of social media, I often find myself associating with “nostalgic” modes of music, fashion, and film, simply because it feels like an harmless way to signal “coolness.” Millennials aren’t accountable for culture that preceded our existence, so we don’t need to justify our spurious association with it. We can simply hide behind its “vintage-ness” when we lack taste of our own.
Arswain
