Kepler – Light House

“Every night the fog rolls in off the bay / And I run the light house that warns everyone away.”

If Siren song had an opposite it would be Kepler’s “Light House,” though not in beauty. Be patient with this song; it’s patient with you. It lies awake throughout the long day awaiting your nighttime arrival, it yearns for that jingle-jangle kiss of keys that signals you’re home, because this song has no one else in the world but you, dear listener, and it’s a damn good feeling.

Historically, the real Kepler would have been nothing without Tycho Brahe, the man who (insert Travis joke here) gathered the multitude of data Kepler would then use to ensure his status as one of mankind’s most significant scientists. And while I’m certain Googling “Tycho Brahe Band” would yield something, Kepler the band required no such aide in crafting their special blend of minimalist melancholia.

Until recently I’d never heard of this group. I stumbled upon them when I’d thought my stumbling days were behind me. Somehow I’d lost my sense of adventure. I stopped hunting for music, browsing peoples’ shared folders, etc. I visited my bookmarked sites, made a list, queued up albums, and fell asleep. For a time I’d stopped interacting with my music. I downloaded Kepler on a whim, and somehow my relationship with this song seems more genuine and fated, like meeting someone at a coffee shop with the same shirt as you instead of getting set up by a friend. Serendipity has its appeal now and then.

But people have been busy. People have fallen by the wayside. Everyone’s got something to lose except me and my light house, which is why, at this time, the thought of running said light house and curling into my solitude seems astoundingly appealing. That is to say, so long as I have this song and it has me. It’s the kind of song that does that, “has” a person.

A friend once said that people like us need people like us to remind us we don’t need people, and that’s how I feel about this particular track; I can count on it to keep me from crashing on the jagged rocks.

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