Music: Chill

I must be getting older.

My tastes in music are increasingly becoming more and more "mellow". Increasingly attracted to a muic genre known as 'Chill' - Cafe Del Mar, and various compilations such as 'Coastal Chill' - which features artists such as Cold Play, David Bridie and George.

Chill may also may include some of Chris Rea's latest Jazzee Blue tunes. Or even some of the old instrumentals like Marisa played recently on her Blog like Henry Mancini's "Sally's Tomato" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

But "What exactly is Chill?"...I've tried to answer myself... It is something that few people can actually articulate. A google search has revealed a number of great descriptions:

"Uncomfortably cool".

"An absecnse of soul".

"Ambience".

"Chill Out Music is not a style of music, it is a fusion between several kinds of music. So you can find Chill Out in a lot of places".

From a composer - "We thought we were making psychedelic hippie music. No, it turns out it's for whisking eggs.''

"Down-tempo"

"Any genre-not-a-genre"

"Chill out isn't the same as ambient! Ambient can be moody, scary, paranoid etc, while chill out definitely can't".

"Chill out is somewhat reminiscent of pink floyd"
And my favourite:

"It's the sound of sunsets, of a spliff burning in your ashtray as you sit in your living, room, shades drawn, lights low, watching the red wine swirl in your glass. It's the sound, or soundtrack, to your life, or the life you want to have."

For me - 'Chill' can be anything that is dreamy and lazy.

Winter dinner party - red wine, lambshanks baked in curry and rosemary with sticky date pudding for dessert...then leaving the dishes for the morning. It's a Australian BBQ with friends - on warm summer night - comforted by knowing that Monday is a public holiday. Its no pressure. It's watching the lights from the night-time traffic through a window on a rainy night. Its a rainy Sunday morning reading the paper. Its a free hour in a good cafe. Its called Chill but it is warm as you're with your wife or with your friends. It's knowing you're alive and that life is good.

It's consiously being caught in a moment - appreciating God's gift of time alive.






Coastal Chill