Los Angeles musician Sean Smith’s ambient project, LFZ has opened his world to us with his new single and accompanying video for “View From Here.”
Of the composition, Smith [LFZ] states: “’View From Here’ represents themes of being trapped inside the boundless prison of one’s solitary perspective and the peace and madness that can coexist. I began with a preset on my Prophet 6, rolled tape on my portastudio 4-track and entered a state of channelling. It is as close to true and pure expression I could ever hope to approach while also feeling so separate from me that I can hear it as if someone else created it.”
On the making of the video, director Lindsay Ljungkull states, “Sean described this song as relating to the feeling of being ‘trapped in your own perspective.’ I interpreted this further, into being trapped also in one’s own mind, routines, domestic places, and solitude. The older man trapped in his own cycle of pacing and smoking, the watcher trapped behind the window filming him, these images give way to physical sense of being lost and confined inside a hedge maze. The confinement of domesticity of the woman in the kitchen, being watched surveillance-style, like the pacing man being watched from the window.”
“Watching others reinforces our divide, a lack of interaction. The message in the bottle sent out to sea, a futile reach towards connection. The vast expanse of the sea provides a sense of openness and possibility, but still it remains a solitary space for the lone figure on the beach. I can’t help but think that the song and my interpretation of it has been informed by the isolation of the pandemic, which has undoubtedly shaped us more than we realize.”
Traveling deep into a guitar and synth led exploration of inner spaces that provide both an oasis and point of departure, these komische compositions are some of Smith’s most earnest and expertly crafted to date.
LFZ’s new LP Raveled Veiled Known is out on March 22. Was “View From Here” a trip?
