welcome to synthquest: relaxing, ambient soundscapes, 100% improvised, unedited, live and of the moment. meditation music for music lovers and an ambient music anti-show! put on your sleep mask, sit in meditation, settle into shavasana, embark on your evening walk,  draw yourself a bath, and get ready for synthquest! 

you know those really great weekend dreams that are so good that when you wake up , you do everything you can to fall back into them? dreams with substance and plot and people you’re enjoying. you end up sleeping 2 hours longer just seeing how many times you can doze back into the dream story. 

I used to summon immersive dreams like that daydreaming as a child. bored suburban blank spaces I was eager to fill with the contents of my imagination. whole worlds to contentedly get lost in for hours. 

I think that’s why so many people think of music and other creativity as a kind of magic — it comes from nothing. a necessary ingredient for its creation is substantive, paradoxically purposeful blank, open, spacey  nothingness. our dreams and visions and creations and art are a mysterious alchemy in defiance of the first law of thermodynamics: something really can be created from nothing.

today i invite you into our dreamy dive into nothingness. may i give you nothing.

—

i highly recommend listening to synthquest through headphones. i'll also suggest settling into someplace comfortable to listen, or listening during a bath, massage, on a walk, while you make dinner — basically wherever you go or whatever you do to relax and decompress.

episode timeline

1. 0:25 — 20 second music preview
2. 0:52 — episode introduction
3. 4:38 — music begins

about jen starsinic

synthquest is created by Jen Starsinic, a music artist, multi-instrumentalist, and community organizer from Harrisburg, PA currently living in Nashville, TN. In addition to her creative work, she is the co-founder and artistic director of Girls Write Nashville, a nonprofit organization providing music mentorship and creative community to youth artists, whose works as been featured on NPR's Here & Now and is a winner of the Lewis Prize for Music. Said of her last studio release, EP Bad Actor —"there is a blissful aura that surrounds Starsinic’s sound, making for one of 2020’s must-hear albums."

about synthquest

synthquest is recorded live and livestreamed on Twitch currently on Monday and Wednesdays at 9pm CT/10pm ET/2am GMT. It is 100% improvised and unedited.

stay connected!

• synthquest live stream: twitch.tv/jenstarsinic
• website & email list: jenstarsinic.com
• want to say hello? email jen@jenstarsinic.com
• instagram: @jenstarsinic 
• twitter: @jenstarsinic
• listen to jen's other music on bandcamp

performed using...

• Korg Minilogue XD
• Nord Electro 5D
• Electro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory

welcome to synthquest: relaxing, ambient soundscapes, 100% improvised, unedited, live and of the moment. meditation music for music lovers and an ambient music anti-show! put on your sleep mask, sit in meditation, settle into shavasana, embark on your evening walk,  draw yourself a bath, and get ready for synthquest! 

when I was a kid, I would spend most summer days at the local public pool with my friends. there was a huge room with like 4 or 5 ping pong tables in it. when it happened to be empty, we would play a game of Super Ping Pong in which we used the entire room and all surfaces to hit as many balls as we could chaotically back and forth.

lately I’ve been trying to revive my daily meditation practice and I’ve been finding my brain and thoughts remind me of a game of Super Ping Pong — many thought trajectories flying illicitly around in a thousand directions with the aim, seemingly, of sowing chaos.

perhaps it’s no surprise then that many arpeggios and bouncing delays are two of my all time favorite sound palettes to play with, like the ones you hear in this improv.

I’ve been meditating again because when I don’t, I sometimes lose touch with the voice that is there in the middle of the room, trying to speak loud enough to be heard whilst being assaulted by many flying little balls.

it’s made me learn that knowing yourself is not an objective accomplished once but a process cultivated continually...

—

i highly recommend listening to synthquest through headphones. i'll also suggest settling into someplace comfortable to listen, or listening during a bath, massage, on a walk, while you make dinner — basically wherever you go or whatever you do to relax and decompress.

episode timeline

1. 0:26 — 20 second music preview
2. 0:49 — episode introduction
3. 4:13 — music begins

about jen starsinic

synthquest is created by Jen Starsinic, a music artist, multi-instrumentalist, and community organizer from Harrisburg, PA currently living in Nashville, TN. In addition to her creative work, she is the co-founder and artistic director of Girls Write Nashville, a nonprofit organization providing music mentorship and creative community to youth artists, whose works as been featured on NPR's Here & Now and is a winner of the Lewis Prize for Music. Said of her last studio release, EP Bad Actor —"there is a blissful aura that surrounds Starsinic’s sound, making for one of 2020’s must-hear albums."

about synthquest

synthquest is recorded live and livestreamed on Twitch currently on Monday and Wednesdays at 9pm CT/10pm ET/2am GMT. It is 100% improvised and unedited.

stay connected!

• synthquest live stream: twitch.tv/jenstarsinic
• website & email list: jenstarsinic.com
• want to say hello? email jen@jenstarsinic.com
• instagram: @jenstarsinic 
• twitter: @jenstarsinic
• listen to jen's other music on bandcamp

performed using...

• Korg Minilogue XD
• Nord Electro 5D
• Electro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory