The air was still, it was alight
      (The Little Things, Mysterious Light)

Sometimes there is a moment in the evening when it is still and the air seems to hang, every particle alight and golden. And you can’t help but feel as though the moment is special, it resonates with whatever you are feeling, as though the world echoes those feelings somehow. Sometimes music or poetry captures these sort of moments, captures something of what it is like to experience them, times when our lives seem to be on fire, moments that come back to us, that play over and over in the mind.

Robert Frost’s poem acquainted with the night captures another moment of this sort, with the narrator’s experience of walking outdoors at night capturing a feeling of separateness or detachment, as in the following lines:

I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
      (Acquainted with the Night, Robert Frost)

Whereas some forms of music are associated with community and sociality, the songs of Mysterious Light are concerned with separateness and isolation, like Frost’s poem. They seek to reflect the world of inner experience, including the experiences of separateness and isolation that can happen while we are amongst others – in a city, at work, amongst family. Such separateness and isolation is not necessarily a bad thing – many of us celebrate and enjoy it, seeking out solitude in its various forms.

Many of these songs have been written urgently, staying up all night, using whatever instruments are on hand to give voice to a feeling or idea. Sometimes they incorporate vocals and lyrics, other times the pieces are instrumental.

The vocals of Natalia Mansfield feature on a number of the tracks. And while all tracks are written and produced by Ben Mansfield, the additional musicians involved vary depending on the needs of the piece. So Mysterious Light is unified more by what energizes the music – by this idea of expressing an inner world in music – than by a core group of performers.