Rhythm / Devotion of Glyn Maier

Rhythm / Devotion is a series of interviews intended to illuminate the connection to ritual & rhythm in our daily lives. This series explores the intimacy of routine, the magic of the ordinary, & how these small acts of devotion set the stage for larger workings in the world ~

What is your name & where are you in the world?

Glyn Maier, Pisgah Forest. 

How do you define yourself & your work?

Sound artist, field recordist, audio finalizer (mastering engineer), and dabbling in visual/textual/tactile realms via physical manifestations of sound via enmossed label. 

Will you walk us through what a day in your life looks like? Begin with how you greet the morning & how you close off the day in the eve ~

Weekdays: Tea or coffee. Morning walk. Breakfast. Work. Lunch. Mid-day walk. Work. Evening walk. Dinner. Cleaning/bathing. Music-related activities (recording, mixing, mastering, label things). Viewing or reading. Sleep.

Weekends: A bit more freeform without work - generally try to get a decent hike in. 

You are a sound artist and also run an independent, experimental record label ~ how do you prepare yourself &/or your space to enter into these practices? What is the rhythm of your composing/creative process? 

For sound: Current process is to amass a large number of field recordings and synthesizer snippets (usually causing the device to behave in a way that it wasn’t designed to do), and then slowly arranging and reprocessing them until it’s something that I can listen to over and over - producing ‘living music’ through a combination of composition, feedback, and repetition. 

For label: Ensure everything is properly sorted on hard drives and spreadsheets. Primarily sending emails and coordinating between everyone involved. 

For both: Writing down goals each day on a nice tear-off calendar (Noton Himekuri).

What do you do/not do if you are feeling stuck around your work?

Go for a walk, listen to records, read, watch a movie, let a ‘stuck’ work marinate for some time before coming back to it. I generally describe my recording and release schedule as being on a ‘glacial’ timeframe.

Do you have a movement practice?

Walking. Big fan of walking for centering, grounding, and discovery.

What does structure mean to you, or what is your philosophy around ritual/routine?

Honeycow, a sweet hound, ensures that walking is done thrice daily and at regular times. Definitely a good reminder to get out into the world! 

What are you listening to, reading, or watching these days?

Records that arrive… Difficult to categorize but generally can be heard distilled into mixes posted on Soundcloud or enmossed bandcamp. Greg Girard photo books. As Long as Grass Grows by Dina Gilio-Whitaker. The early 90s TV series “Northern Exposure”. Cruddy old horror flicks. 

Any last words of wisdom?

Growing up in the 90s, I recall there were so many fireflies in spring we could catch them by just waving a jar. Now, there are very few around… But there are still some. Inspirational to hang in there regardless. 

How can we find your work?

• bandcamp

• soundcloud

• website

• instagram

Thank you so much, Glyn, for your inspiring work in this world and for sharing your rhythm devotion with us (and for these lovely photos of Honeycow aka Mr. Cow, Mr. Old Boy, Old Boy, Cowboy, Hunz, Holycow).

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I connect the essence of Pink Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) as a companion to Glyn Maier, his rhythm/devotion, and the spirit he brings to the world.

I made my Pink Lady's Slipper essence in 2013 while I walking on the trails of Pondicherry Park in Bridgton, Maine.

Pink Lady's Slipper is an orchid native to the the Eastern third of the North American continent. Because of its loss of habitat (the forest) and the length of time it takes to grow (years for seeds to germinate into mature plants), it is now considered to be an endangered species. This flower is the first essence I ever made without harvesting any part of the plant. Instead, I made it by dipping the heads of a small patch of Pink Lady’s Slippers into a bowl of water and then laying this bowl of water at the feet of the plants for a small moment.

Pink Lady's Slipper thrives on the forest floor--you can't really take Pink Lady's Slipper out of the woods. And: against all odds this is growing and thriving--softly, quietly, deeply interconnected. Stumbling upon something with that type of resilience is truly a humbling experience. Thus, the essence of this plant helps up to build our own reverential connection to the forest, to the natural world at large, and to our own relationships with preservation, resilience, and survival. This essence teaches us not just how to survive, but how to live. Additionally, it helps us to acknowledge our unique and individual roles in protecting the landscapes, ecosystems, and communities we are part of.

This essence helps us to feel grounded and connected to the body, it helps us to feel easy within ourselves. It brings us into touch with our own inner wild landscape, our own inner nature, the earth of ourselves.

Soothing, it helps us to relax into our own body and with the bodies of others. It guides us into nourishing the soft, vulnerable parts of ourselves--the parts we often throw up boundaries around (even to ourselves) for protection.

With Pink Lady's Slipper there is no rushing. Instead, there is patience, slowness, the pace of a long and leisurely walk. This essence helps us to create and find inner sanctity--a cushion of safety within ourselves to return to over and over again when we need to.

Find a bottle here ~

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