awakened souls – Night Songs

Although I look to ambient music to soothe and quiet the mind, very few do it quite as well as Cynthia and James Bernard. I first discovered Cynthia’s music as marine eyes, her 2021 album idyll a soothing shower of sonic wonder, and Unfailing Love , her collaboration with zakè, a deeply profound, romantic exploration of liminal space and sound. Both are go-to soundtrack for evening dips in the pool, sunset drives through the canyon, airplane rides, dreaming, etc. With her husband James as awakened souls, they recently released the lovely Keep The Orange Sun with From Overseas. And tomorrow they release Night , a blanket of serenity and lunar-guided melodies out on Past Inside the Present tomorrow. I appreciate this prolific duo’s quest to create calming, inner-peace-inspiring music and hope they continue doing so well into the future.

Night Songs is the latest record from awakened souls, the Los Angeles based husband and wife duo- James and Cynthia Bernard.

In the Spring of 2021, they found that a good night’s rest was more important than ever to help them through pandemic days of schooling kids from home and balancing work and life. Even prior to being together, both James and Cynthia individually sought out records that would become remedies to calm their minds at the end of the day. Night Songs is their own version of a sleepy evening record, exploring slowly evolving loop-based ambient primarily using bass guitar and vocal textures.

After going on an evening walk in their neighborhood, James and Cynthia would write in their bedroom studio and test the songs out for sleep that evening. The tracks that ultimately made it on Night Songs are the ones that made them relax enough to go to a place where thoughts fade.

Pre-order Night Songs on Bandcamp.