This image via Bebop Genesis

Crystal Clear Resonance Airwaves is a blog feature devoted to audio clips, usually of beloved music playlists. This particular entry is going to feature music I was listening to from about September through December 2023, some of which I am already still listening to in the new year of 2024 CE (12,024 HE). I've been obsessed with these particular playlists & I'll share the links to them (or info about them) here whenever I can.

• About September-October I was listening to Nine Inch Nail's albums Broken and Downward Spiral on the daily for about a month, which lead me to discover another excellent band...
• I discovered Dance With The Dead via their album B-Sides: Volume One after The YouTube Music Algorithm put it on for me while I was listening to NIN on repeat. Then I started listening to their album Driven To Madness and fell in love with it too. I love how dark and upbeat it is & how it feels like something from an 80's movie soundtrack. For me it's great to listen to while driving, doing chores or working on a project.
• After being introduced to the anime film RedLine earlier this year I fell in love with not only the animation, voice acting and the film itself but also the movie's original soundtrack. I listened to this when driving to and from from Dillard's and I like to put it on while folding laundry on the graveyard shift (it helps me GET SHIT DONE!). I love the strong techno beats and the diversity of the entire soundtrack from electronica (obviously) to piano-organ music to funk and jazz to Caribbean influence.
• At some point around November I became intensely interested in black holes and time dilation, which lead me to watch the excellent movie called Interstellar, which has one of the most beautiful original soundtracks I have ever heard in my life. There is a brooding and memorable piano sequence from this movie which I understand is well-known in popular culture, and it may be simple enough for even me to learn one day (if I ever decide to touch a piano myself).
• Around this same time I began working on the Death of Galaxia pieta-style digital painting I talked about earlier, and I started looking for deeply moving classical music akin to Interstellar to inspire me as I painted; this search yielded the hauntingly gorgeous piano music of artist Moon Ate The Dark. They only have two albums, and the first is my favorite, but both albums are excellent and useful for atmospheric background music.
• Also just as randomly around November the song 99 Red Balloons by Nena (the club mix version) got stuck in my brain and simply refused to leave.
• I've been listening to VaporWave playlists on both YouTube Music and now Apple Music for awhile now. I love the genre, both musically and aesthetically, and I'm absolutely going to channel its influence into my artwork in the future. My favorite VaporWave finds also include Floral Shoppe by MacIntosh Plus, every album by artist 2814, and fashion website Vapor95.
• Another aesthetic and muisical genre I've fallen in love with is Lo-Fi, and there is an entire app called Lola that is devoted to both aspects. Lola makes excellent atmospheric background music for three different levels of mental activity (Focus/Study, Chill/Relax, and Sleep/Nap), and since it plays in the background I can just put it on and drift off to sleep flow, or creative flow. And since it's free, it's something I can (highly!) recommend to practically anyone with a smartphone.
• I don't think I've mentioned this before, but lately I've become obsessed with the adult animated series Helluva Boss, which I discovered via the music video Look My Way sung by my favorite character in the series, Goetic demon prince Stolas. The entire show is fantastically and artfully animated by the studio SpindleHorse Toons and can be found on creator Vivienne Medrano's VivziePop YouTube channel. I'm thinking I'd like to make some HB fanart this year as well... to be continued!

The above are things I've been listening to most often, yet sometimes I need to pepper in other stuff just to keep things interesting and keep the flow going. Some such things are:

• Ave Maria sung by Barbara Bonney. I will listen to this song on repeat anytime I need some nice background music, such as when I'm sleeping or when I'm working on a project. I have listened to this song countless times and I never get tired of hearing it.
• The God Of War 4 videogame original soundtrack. This game was so good, such a high-quality experience, and the musical score exceeded even my expectations. I knew I was in for an epic soundtrack, but I did not realize I was in for such a musical treat. It' makes for nice, moody background music when I'm working on a project.
• The Ghost In The Shell original music from both the movie and the Stand Alone Complex show. This music is also very evocative and atmospheric and thus makes excellent background music for work on one's projects.
• I've been a fan of 8Tracks for years now, and there are certain playlists there which are very dear to me and have graced my ears countless times. One of my top favorites is the piano music playlist "It's Love, Isn't It?" by Hyejins
• Recently I've become obsessed with the adorable dancing artist Barbin.ili from China, and I found a playlist that includes music used in her various videos. I have yet to listen to it all, but it's the number one new music on my docket.

...And that's it for now. Thanks for reading!