This is the track list for A Transient Place, a mixtape made for Jay Thompson on January 29, 2023. It is the sixth mixtape in the 42/40 Explorer Series Box Set.
Les Mystere Des Voix Bulgares, Kalimankou Denkou — from the album Les Mystere Des Voix Bulgares (Volume 1) (1975)
…And the Native Hipsters, There Goes Concorde Again — from the EP There Goes Concorde Again (1980)
Julia Holter, Marienbad — from the album Ekstasis (2012)
Nik Bartsch, Modul 58_12 — from the album Entendre (2021)
Jonathan Coe, 9th & 13th — from the album 9th and 13th (2001)
Rondalla de Templo de Mita, Mensaje de Alto — from the compilation Folk Songs of Puerto Rico (1971)
Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band, Harmony Two — from the album Just Like Moby Dick (2020)
The Hardy Tree, Shop Fronts & Parked Cars — from the album Common Grounds (2022)
Nils Frahm, Ode — from the album Solo (2015)
Tino Rossi, Credo — from the compilation Ses Plus Belles Chansons de Noel (Petit Papa Noel) (1990)
Alberto Braido & Giancarlo Nino Locatelli, Campanile — from the album From Here From There (2021)
Joachim Kuhn, Redemption Song — from the album Touch the Light (2021)
You arrive in a foreign city in the middle of the summer after an overnight flight on which you didn’t manage to get all the way to sleep. By the time you get to the center, the workday has settled into its rhythm and you are distinctly outside of that rhythm. It’s hot, you’re tired, and your planned itinerary begins this evening with a concert you can’t, right now, imagine how you’ll sit through awake. You set your own rhythm in motion: a little walking, a little standing, some entering open doorways and walking through gates, some gazing into shop fronts from beneath sidewalk awnings, some sitting for coffee on plazas, some stopping to watch street performers, some dozing on benches. The city you see on this unplanned day is a patchwork of surprise and exhaustion. An unrepeatable city. Though you return a dozen times throughout your life in pursuit of it, this is a city you will never see again.
This is one of the mixtapes in the boxed set that I consider to be a difficult listen. It has patterns and it has oddities and it might capture anyone’s attention with either of those — but it’s meant for folks who really like to sit through an experience they wouldn’t have plotted out themselves. It might reward such a listener and it might not. Over time, however, it’s become one of my personal favorites.
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