Memory: A Prelude to Forgetting

Over the past several months, I’ve been immersed in a deeply personal and emotionally complex project—one that seeks to explore the nature of memory, and more specifically, what happens when memory begins to unravel.

Memory shapes our sense of identity. It connects us to others, grounds us in time, and gives meaning to our experiences. But what happens when those threads begin to fray? When the faces of loved ones fade, or when moments once vivid slip into shadow?

These questions have been at the heart of a larger musical work I’m currently developing—an extended piece that delves into the experience of Alzheimer’s and the slow disintegration of self that accompanies it. It’s a subject I’ve approached with care, empathy, and no small amount of emotional weight, having seen firsthand the toll that memory loss takes not only on those who suffer from it, but also on the families and caregivers who walk beside them.

As part of the compositional process, I found myself writing a series of smaller pieces—ambient “sketches,” if you will—that helped me explore the atmosphere, emotional palette, and tonal language I wanted to bring to the larger work. These became meditative studies in sound: fragments, loops, gentle dissonances and blurred edges that mirror the way memory itself fades, distorts, and reforms in unexpected ways.

Rather than keep these as internal exercises, I felt compelled to share them as a stand-alone release. The result is Memory, a collection of ambient pieces that form the emotional bedrock of the larger project still to come. Each sketch offers a slightly different perspective: a soft pulse of recollection here, a drifting sense of absence there, a quiet reaching for something just beyond grasp.

This release is not meant to provide answers, but rather to create space for contemplation—for remembering, for meditation, for witnessing.

Memory is now available on all major streaming platforms. I hope these pieces offer you a moment of stillness, and perhaps even a moment of connection—whether to your own memories, or to someone whose memory is slipping away.

You can listen to the full collection here: https://brianfield.hearnow.com/memory 

Thank you for listening.