Dear Gravity
Saint Paul, USA
The Banzare Bank
Behind the Music
Dear GravityIt’s important for us to maintain a larger perspective of the world. The more we know the better equipped we are to make the right choices. The Outlaw Ocean accomplishes this beautifully. When you look at a globe or map and see these giant bodies of water, it can feel so vast and awe-inspiring. But those renderings fail to capture the acts of defiance happening at sea.
This book and the stories it explores are incredibly worthwhile and show how important it is for this journalism to be consumed in some capacity. I think music and art can play a role in alerting people to this kind of reporting not only through its capacity to tell a story really well but in its universal nature. Music and art can communicate abstract ideas to people who might not otherwise understand. That becomes especially important when trying to illustrate the dualities of the sea. There is something alluring about an infinite body of water, but chaos and discord also lurks in the midst of that. These realities constantly fight each other, so I wanted the tone of my music to fight with itself a little bit — putting the listener in a mental state that leaves them inspired and simultaneously nervous, as one might feel if they were in the middle of any of the stories in The Outlaw Ocean.
About Dear Gravity
Dear Gravity is the emotive ambient-cinematic work of composer, producer and sound designer Mike Graff.
Drawing from long-time genre-touchpoints (such as perennial mainstays Hammock and Helios) while exploring new sonic territory, Graff’s music evokes beauty, nuance, stillness and rest. Through “a unique style and tone both ambient and neo-classical fans will deeply appreciate” (Rural Sounds), Dear Gravity is bringing a new landscape of color and mystery into focus.
“Our world isn’t slowing down, which might not be a bad thing,” Graff says. “But when I try to keep up with it all, I begin to disconnect from my soul—from the ability to feel, notice and live. Creating as Dear Gravity helps me rediscover that color and mystery in life, and my goal is allow listeners to experience the same.”
With growing acclaim from critics and listeners alike, Dear Gravity has topped five million streams in the last two years and earned spots on Spotify editorial playlists such as Lava Lamp, Rise and Mind & Body. With the landmark 25-song “The Pilgrimage Series,” prominent compilation releases with Memoir Music and Echoes in the Valley, and collaborations with eminent ambient artists (Salt of the Sound, Simon Wester, We Dream of Eden), Dear Gravity shows no signs of slowing down in creating “ambient music at its very best” (Louder Than The Music).