Community Picks is a weekly series where artists submit a release to be voted on by members of the Nina community. Once a week, the release with the most votes will receive editorial coverage. This week’s winner is “high & above” by lightlyheld, a a delicate, sanctified ambient composition, perfect for contemplation. We sent over some questions to the artist, read the interview and listen to “high & above” below.

Where are you from?

lightlyheld: Almada, Portugal.

How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it?

It’s not exactly a story; it’s more of a presence that may be comparable to the experience of watching slow cinema. I don’t think it would empower the listener with a sense of belonging in a narrative, or the feeling that the narrative is a projection of a personal and specific experience, it’s probably closer to taking a walk while daydreaming and letting life itself throw at you. A couple of years ago I saw a man in a suit doing tai chi on what I presume was his lunch break … Just breathtaking, these kinds of sightings make me wonder about so much.

Tell us about your release on Nina

I’m a light sleeper, always have been. At the beginning of last year, I started falling asleep with Brownian noise and other similar sounds, which led to my YouTube page being flooded with spiritual ASMR clips. I eventually started watching them out of curiosity, and some of them had really interesting sounds. I started sampling and even recording ASMR clips of my own and later collaging everything together, it’s curious to me because I’m generally more into composing electronic music, but the mixture of these organic sounds with digital synthesis really resonated with me. That turned out to be “high & above” and subsequently malnourished desire, a project that I plan to publish in its entirety soon, further developing these ideas. 

What kind of tools do you use to make music?

In its essence, it’s just me, my laptop and Ableton, super geeky and cliché. I try to clutter the least I can since it works best for me, once I find a plugin/tool I like, I just use it religiously.  In this song and others, I use, for example, imagiro's piano and some m4l devices by kentaro tools, this project in specific revolves around almost exclusively digital processing. I also ended up playing a children's-sized acoustic guitar and a small wood flute I found in a secondhand store, this was somewhat inspired by a teacher I had in a drawing class who composed pieces for toddler’s instruments. 

Who are five independent artists you think people should check out? 

I want to take the opportunity to highlight some amazing Portuguese independent artists, in hopes of shedding some light on our current scene. Lvis is a musician and visual artist who explores his perspective on folk music through dark ambient sounds, the Cavaterra EP is a great start. Joana de Sá is also a visual and sound artist, who recently released the Absedo album, casually exploring the northern Portuguese soundscape over spoken word. TOMÉ has some great solo work focused on percussion, like drum core. Also, a big shoutout to milgueg and Villa, Redhead, they introduced me to Nina Protocol in the first place and have been releasing great tracks in the genres of electronic and indie/ambient music respectively.