STELLAR TEACHINGS OF THE SKY IN BLOOM — HOW TO WATCH THE STARS WITH FINK (2019)
In the iconic conversation about the stars and the night sky form The Lion King Pumbaa asks his friends what they think the sparkly dots really are. Timon is convinced they’re “fireflies that got stuck up on that big bluish-black thing”, Pumbaa reckons “they are balls of gas burning billions of miles away”, and Simba tells a story of “the great kings of the past” watching over us from above. Who’s to say what’s really going on up there, right (wink)?
The beauty of the firmament lies in the fact that we all perceive it in our own unique way. That’s how to some people stars just shine and in Fink’s new single they blossom. “We Watch The Stars” comes from his forthcoming seventh album due to be released later this year. Both versions of the track, the original 8-minute piece and the 4-minute single, are, according to the artist himself, “a sonic journey”. The singing is very much like a chant and puts you in a meditative state of mind at once. The simplicity of only four lines in this song (excluding repetitions), together with the deliberately unhurried expansion of the instrumental, prove that less is more. As the no-rhythm introduction develops into a hypnotically pulsating blend of piano, violin and cymbals, it feels like, as if by magic, all of a sudden the universe had an actual sound. It’s all very gentle before it gets absolutely mind blowing.
This short poem actually leaves me speechless. It’s such a beautiful lesson on how to live in the moment, an art so difficult to master in today’s world. Mindfulness has become a trend because we do not know how to navigate our lives in a healthy manner anymore. The ancient wisdom in the laws of nature seems to be the answer to this headache. It teaches us that patience is a virtue and while good things come to those who wait but also work their asses off, from time to time we just need to chill. Wait for the sun to fall into the water, watch the stars come out, one by one, and accept that some things are beyond your control. Let’s just make the most of this life in whatever shape and form it happens to be right now.
Per aspera ad astra.
The night sky is a never-ending movie. I cannot think of a better way to ease into the early autumn than to stargaze the heck out of these last days of summer. As Fink’s inspiration for “Watch The Stars” came from the warm nights he spent in the back yard of his parent’s house in West Cornwall, I suggest we all do the same while listening to this song. I think it might just change our perspective on life astronomically.
