Monte Duma's indie pop cosmic folk "Castaways" feels like a sonic mantra from the "Grounding Songs" EP

"my Lord, don't make me wait... send me down on my way"

"Castaways" with it's chain gang cadence and beautiful expansive narration is from Monte Duma's upcoming EP "Grounding Songs" scheduled to drop in the fall (2020). Monte Duma is the solo project of Nils Calvi and within "Castaways" you can feel an exquisitely deep pool of searching in a cosmic way (at least for me). I have lived with the track for quite a while before posting about it and it has become a sort of sonic mantra, a blessing that I listen to that calms me and acts as a magnifying glass for whatever emotion is floating in my soul but afraid to surface and feel the light. Sometimes the song makes me feel hopeful and sometimes it crushes me. 

Of the track and EP and it's inspirations Calvi shares:

“Grounding Songs is born of a fundamental feeling of imbalance. After burning the candle at both ends working tirelessly for 4 years in Paris and across Europe, I realized that time scarcity had led me to lose sense of what was really important to me, that I couldn’t remember the last time I had touched a music instrument and that the the most outdoor I was experiencing was a running along a small overcrowded canal near my apartment.

At that point, I decided to make a radical switch. I moved to LA, re-learned classical singing with a film music composer and started teaching myself music production. In Grounding Songs, I mixed a 6-year emotional journey along with the new serenity found exploring California’s coastline and mountain ranges”

Art that comes from deep places usually will stir others in some way. It is the shifting of emotional tides that ripple out to the collective soul that if we listen hard enough (in many ways) we can tap into. 

-Robb Donker Curtius

Monte Duma · Castaways

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Hailing from a remote ski resort the Alpes, Nils grew up playing the classical guitar, skiing and exploring the outdoors. In his solo project Monte Duma, he composes and sings colorful indie tunes to share experiences of living around the world, taking you on a cinematic road trip full of wild and vivid landscapes.

It’s been quite a journey and the path to his current home, near the Los Angeles coastline, has taken him to Paris, Singapore, Berlin and Perth. Striving to find a lost sense of balance, music has become a part of a meditative and healing practice to transcribe and share experiences and raw feelings through a subtle blend of silvery vocals, acoustic guitars, organic sounds and electronic textures.

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