Space

This evening I listened to Peter Gabriel’s New Blood, after seeing the album mentioned on Thomas’ blog. As I listened, I kept thinking “this is my favourite song so far!” There were so many tracks that I liked. Downside-Up, Wallflower, and Mercy Street were all terrific.Toward the end of the album there is a track called “A Quiet Moment,” which is mostly silent unless the volume is turned up, in which case the sound of a flowing river and birds singing emerges. The song creates a moment of space before the last song. I didn’t even notice the silence – or, rather, near silence – at first, having been making dinner in the background. But when I did, I realised that the silence was intentional: I was listening to a track.This has me thinking about space in other creative contexts. My website has a lot of blank space on the page, by design. I wanted the words to stand out, so I made the words the most prominent part of the page. My blog posts end with a tiny bit more padding – space –…