Driven by visual sketches that come to life musically, Rusty Spaceship’s “Porcelain” delivers a gorgeous journey through the spacey realms of chillhop. The US music producer and trumpetist Elliot Lowe explores the balance between new and old, but most notably between certainty and uncertainty.

A bitter-sweet harmony fills the soundscape with its gentle melancholic feel, while varied percussion textures dance on top of the nature-infused ambiance. The suspension in the chord progression represents a tension in encountering new challenges, resolving itself to show how everything tends to work out in the end. The only place it doesn’t offer a clear resolution is at the very end, but an optimistic note is still implied.

"Porcelain" is a song that I made in the aftermath of a week-long recording session in a cabin in the woods, making an album with a close friend. The song is an unwinding of that week of familiarity, making music with a longtime collaborator — as well an expression of unfamiliarity, as I prepare to study abroad for the year in a new place with new people. In other words, musically it echoes how I don’t know what happens next, but I’m sure it’ll work itself out once again.

posted by Nasko
October 2021