Melanie Radford - For the Sake of Stillness (2026) [Hi-Res]

'For the Sake of Stillness' is a slow swoon, all those small moments that are the real, ongoing process of falling in love: with your life, with sound, with the people that surround you. From bassist and vocalist Melanie Radford (Built to Spill, Blood Lemon) 'Stillness' is a bass-centered offering of music that asks you to pay attention. Most of the songs are at a walking pace, mimicking the long walks through foreign cities and the observant headspace that they come from. 'Stillness' was recorded during and in-between touring, coming together over time as a grounding practice and statement of self. The ambient score of natural sounds flows under the music as records of time and place: a rhythm of footsteps on crisp ground; birdsong; rain falling outside; an impatient car shouldering into distant traffic; the pulse of the ocean; the warm texture of unintelligible and overlapping conversations. These pocket recordings interweaving with the music give an added impression of closeness. Like an invitation into a daydream, a view into someone's private world.

'Stillness' is part meditation, part love poem, part hymn. A deeply personal project made with close collaborators. The final record is a pilgrimage, an expression of liminal and scattered moments that are grounded in their passage through one luminous soul.