Release of the Day: Jim Ghedi - Home Is Where I Exist, Now To Live and Die

Home Is Where I Exist,Now to Live and Die, the debut LP from Jim Ghedi, English finger-picking extraordinaire, begins with the sounds of interaction: interaction in commerce, interaction between people, and interaction between musician and instrument. That may seem confusing, but to the discerning listener, immediately taken in by field recording and sonic tinkles of percussive guitar, it makes sense. In the scope of Ghedi’s work, it also makes sense, as his music tackles both external and internal interaction.

Let’s talk about repetition, specifically in terms of its erosive and nullifying ability. This is both a pro and a con. In language, it can be a disarming autodidactic parlor trick to repeat one word until its meaning is lost in place of total phonetic stimulus – while we may be alarmed by this, the corrosion of meaning, it is also liberating. In Zen Buddhism, this effacing effect is used to reach heightened states of profundity, a spiritual ground zero where the mind goes blank, and things are, perhaps for the first time, utterly quiet. All forms of repetition, when done correctly, can achieve this effect.

On Home Is Where I Exist, Now to Live and Die, Jim Ghedi’s fingers pluck strings thousands of times – and each time, at a microscopic level, skin particles flake off, which is to say that each pluck is a sacrifice, a literal exaltation and imparting of self.