On the heels of the solstice, we’re pleased to share the newest installment of Attuned, our playlist series created in collaboration with an evolving roster of artists & musicians we admire.
This season, we consider the abundance of summer and its expansive outstretched arms—a time of wild growth, an untamed beauty, a loosened grip, an intuitive surrender to possibility….
Stream the Summer Expanse Playlist here
We’re also excited to welcome multi-instrumentalist & vocalist Heather Woods Broderick to curate this season’s playlist. We’ve long been admirers of Heather’s uncanny ability to make music that feels both incredibly intimate and otherworldly—dreamlike and ethereal, yet grounded in an unplaceable familiarity.
Music has been a throughline across Heather’s life, raised by two musicians who met for the first time at one of her mother’s gigs, which her father was attending. When she was 8-years-old the family moved across the country from Maine to Oregon, where Heather started taking piano lessons, which would turn into picking up and soon after moving, she asked if she could take piano lessons, which would turn into learning flute, guitar, and cello.
More of Heather’s personal work can be experienced through her two most recent albums, Labyrinth (2023) and Domes (2022), a collection of soothing, cyclical cello pieces.
Alongside her solo music, she has recorded and toured with artists like Horse Feathers, Efterklang, Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, Alela Diane, and Beth Orton, which has kept her moving house and traveling around the world.
In Conversation With Heather Woods Broderick
What does the word “expanse” mean to you?
Expanse shows up for me in music as sort of an umbrella for growth. That could be in duration of a piece, tempo, sonic textures, layering and building, exploring new lyrical themes, venturing to a new physical territory, experiencing the vibrancy of a unique concert space, or even the deeper understanding of any of the aforementioned after many repetitions.
When I think of the word, I think of a space that might not have a visible end. It’s exciting to think of making music from this place.
Does the summer season embody a particular sound or instrument to you, musical or otherwise?
Reeds and woodwinds, a slow and steady floor tom rhythm, a sizzling cymbal, harmony, less tethered and more playful and free.
You’ve spent a good portion of your life in Oregon — both in Portland and in the central coastal region. In what ways does that landscape play into the music you create, perhaps even subconsciously?
Oregon landscapes have played a huge part in my process of writing songs. The lyrics for my 2019 release, Invitation, were hugely inspired and filtered through my experience living on the Oregon coast. There is so much wonder in these wide open spaces, and a unique richness that quietly grows from simplicity and space. I feel that my experiences of both living on the Oregon coast as an adult, and spending a large part of my childhood in the Willamette Valley have played a huge part in shaping who I am today, and subsequently the art and music that I create.
What are the front-of-mind inspirations or ideas guiding you right now?
Slower pace, intention, gratitude, curiosity, and the search for a fresh method or approach.
What were some of the ideas or themes you were considering in the tracks you selected for this playlist?
When I think of the words summer and expanse, I see heat waves quivering, distorting, and multiplying out of them. I think of I think of slowness and ripe things. I think of reflections - literally and psychologically. Tremelo, songs of summer birds and insects, a free flowing mood tampered by warm weather. Music in living rooms, legs sticking to chairs, romance, tangled vines, a sustain. All of the songs in my playlist represent the sonic embodiment of these themes for me.
Stream the Summer Expanse Playlist
Stream the Spring Attuned Playlist
Heather’s Website | Spotify