writings

Arima Ederra— artist bio. 2021.
words by Mallory Leisten

Waking up again feels good. It's good to stretch when you wake— your voice, your hands, your knees. You wake up, you give thanks, you go for a walk around the block, then you give thanks again. If it's early, the songs will come easily. The melody might come dressed like lightning bugs, it might swing down from the hills and wash over you like winds. When it does come, you have to be ready. It’ll start to make its sound, and you’ll have to grab it fast. Sometimes the music comes dressed like water— collect it in cups that you’ve set out for rain. It doesn’t belong to you, so make sure you give it away. When you do, it’ll come back soon.

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A Los Angeles based singer, songwriter and musician, Arima has been catching songs like wind since she was five years old. A rebel heart hailing from Atlanta, she considers her earthly contributions daily, giving us her first musical offering with a ten track EP titled Temporary Fixes (2016). "I want the music to be like medicine," she says, and for many who have listened, it has been. Ederra’s voice and musical inclinations are celestial and cathartic, her lyricism delivers sweet truth while the music itself is fortifying. 

Seeds that would lay the foundation of Arima’s career were sown in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church where she witnessed mezmur, Ethiopian spiritual music, transform people. It was here where Ederra was floored by a fact of life: All things earthly are striking, being alive is dire and romantic. To Arima, making music is one of the most rewarding fruits of life’s labor, releasing what’s inside to be free on the outside— a treasure that she doesn’t take for granted. 

Inspired by a range of musicians including Amel Larrieux, M.I.A. and Radiohead, it’s evident that she’s not only a lover of, but a student of greatness. Moving through Georgia, Nevada and California, she’s collaborated with cherished pieces of the musical quilt like Noname, Mereba and Jon Bap offering something soulful and sweet to each collaboration. 

"So much of the music has come to me like a flash of lightning," says Ederra, who keeps angels on both sides of the veil surrounding her, oftentimes crediting otherworldly spirits for the messages in the music. She’s built this latest release, An Orange Colored Day (2022), in her own musical universe alongside collaborators Teo Halm and Jon Bap. The songs on this project are dynamic and sobering, but imaginative and playful. Like conjured rhythmic slaps played on her knees, this project is filled with storytelling that reminds us to get free.

An Orange Colored Day has been highly and unsurprisingly anticipated. Conceptually focused on storytelling as a tool for earthly survival, the 11 track LP paints the landscape Arima is inviting us to live in with her from top to bottom. Debuted for the first time splitting a sold out show bill with KeiyaA (2021), the new tracks struck the audience, building on the buzz. With an early 2022 release planned, the long awaited record won’t be much longer. If you leave your windows open, the project might even let itself in with the wind.

Wave Farm Archive Contribution, SIauson Malone on CRACK Magazine 2021.

Words by Mallory Leisten

Rebroadcast from CRACK Magazine November, 2019.

With the release of his album A Quiet Farwell, 2016- 2018 (Crater Speak) Jasper Marsalis marked his departure from New York City's experimental jazz collective, Standing on the Corner. Under the moniker SIauson Malone, his sonic works are digging deeper, moving his listeners beyond the vehement sounds of clashing instruments into the fabric of collaborative musicianship.

Split into nine loosely defined yet cohesive sections, this set walks us through chopped and collaged classics alongside dreamy deep cuts— the two seemingly playing tug of war. If you aren't awake yet, it won't take long for Marsalis to get you there. Arthur Russell rubs shoulders with Death Grips while Wynton Marsalis is heard minutes before Dreamcrush*r in a set you can't sleep walk or nod off through.

MAMAG/group 2021— Website Copy

Words by Mallory Leisten

A labor of love directed by Beyoncé Knowles herself, “Black is King” is both a tribute to Blackness and the exhumation and exploration of that identity in the past, present and future. Featuring African artists like Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage, Nija and Shatta Wale as well as Black American artists Childish Gambino, JAY-Z, Pharell Williams and Tierra Whack, the film’s soundtrack sonically mirrors divine images of Black people Knowles presents throughout and challenges pre-existing notions of blackness on a global scale. It’s not merely about history or identity, but the Black diaspora as a whole and Knowles’ hopeful vision for Black prosperity and life.

PHLEMUNS 2021— Website & Newsletter Copy

words by Mallory Leisten

Closing clouds with pink skies, we’re laying an era to rest and sowing seeds for our next evolution.

Like our natural landscapes, we’re always at the intersection of exalted & accessible.

Grounded in our real, natural environment— PHLEMUNS closes out Clouds with animated pink skies evocative of dusk, celebrating the joy in the evolution of a season with undemanding, brown ribbed jersey grounding us back on earth.

PHLEMUNS is genderless by nature– when we’re what you like: wear us how you like, when you like.

Advice Column, unlisted on holybeings.co. 2021.

Words by Mallory Leisten

Anonymous asks:

Know you’re not an advice column and are just a person out here living their life but I gotta ask since the way you see things makes me feel calm. What do you do when you feel set wrong inside? I’ve Been living unwell for such a long time that I no longer have a sense of my life force that always kept me going. Weather being out of whack with climate change has me feeling like there’s not even earths cycles to rely on, Ive been self soothing for too long and now I’ve turned into someone I don’t recognize/like. Don’t know where to go from here.

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Mallory writes:

I really, really relate to everything that you’ve written here. I’m also flattered and touched that you might read my own reflections and that they bring you a sense of calmness. I’m about to write a lot, so buckle in.

I wonder what you mean when you write that you’ve been living unwell. You shared that you’re self soothing, and it’s been for too long. I know that it can feel like a bad itch, but I hope you can honor that it’s a big deal to know how to self soothe, and to name that you’re doing it in ways that you no longer identify with. It takes most of us years to get there, it’s great that you’re self reflecting. I think that if we can acknowledge that we’re coping when we do things (we are all coping), we can also be honest with other people about what’s happening in our emotional worlds. But to do that, you need to give yourself grace to unravel and know that you are doing your best. Let yourself be human. I don’t think that it’s possible to make shifts towards nurturing yourself into good feeling motion without first allowing yourself to be a person who isn’t doing well in a global health crisis, severe climate devastation, in late stage capitalism. It’s deeply, deeply human of you to be depressed right now.

If you’d like more personal advice— I ended a lot of relationships that didn’t feel fully whole and loving, that’s helped me a lot in navigating my own depressive periods. My life is precious and I want to write and I am too sensitive to spend time with people who I feel small around. I’ve been waking up early and making my own coffee every morning. When the water boils I have a few minutes, I either stretch or sweep. I cannot believe how godly I feel when I stretch or sweep in those few minutes. The mornings that I don’t, I feel cluttered and hurt by nothing. I think sweeping does something really beautiful to a space and a mind. The dust is gone! We are free to think! When I stretch I can feel energy and life move through my body. I can look at my toes, my knees and be amazed that they move. I wonder if what I’m trying to get at is I feel my best when I experience some sort of gratitude, and it just takes a small moment of quiet with myself to achieve that. I think we can all do that. It’s amazing to breathe, it’s a miracle. 

I also write every single day, mostly in the morning. If I didn’t write, I think I would die. I wonder if there’s something that you feel similarly about? I know it feels impossible but if you can MAKE yourself do that thing just once, it’ll be easy to do again the next day and then if you stop for a whole week even, the next week you’ll remember that you did it before just a week ago and it’ll be easy to begin again. A friend’s therapist told them once, “When you wake up and you dread getting out of bed, you have to just do it immediately. The moment you think about how it’s the last thing you want to do, just do it. You have to” and I think about that a lot when I don’t want to make myself a meal, sit down to write, get up and make the cup of coffee. Some days I really can’t make myself, but I know that you can tell the difference between the days that you can and the days that you can’t. Do it the things on the days that you can, you’ll gain momentum.

The last thing I’ll write is that paying attention has saved my life over and over again. I read once that the gift of life belongs to those who are willing to pay attention. My journal entries on my best days are my noticing, “A lizard was on the porch today when I went outside to check the mail” and I always want to tell a friend. And I can think about that all day and it will, for a few moments, change that the world is falling apart because— Yes, it is! But there was a lizard on my porch this morning and when I told my friend who lives 3,000 miles away where there are no lizards, they cared.

We have to be easier on ourselves. My roommate last night said that one of her coworkers told her that if she were to prepare for the apocalypse, she would go shopping for end of world looks. My roommate was like, “How could she have clothes on her mind if the world was ending?” and I was like, ‘The world is ending and didn’t you and I just make plans to bleach my bangs later tonight?’ and we just laughed. The ocean was on fire last week, and on the other side of the world we went swimming.

I hope you can catch a moment of really loving self reflection that gives you some relief and laughter. I hope you WRITE about everything you’re going through and feeling because it’s special to be aware and to know and to know that you’d like a different world. I hope you read Octavia Butler’s works! Okay, that’s all!

Mal