Embracing Bandcamp Randomness

Chronicle of a discovery from a quick search

Like lots of people, I have lanes I follow on Bandcamp, genres I peruse almost reflexively without thinking. This morning that behavior registered as the music-search equivalent of a “news bubble” — one that only returns projects in genres I’m default curious about. Self-reinforcing in a way.

Bandcamp makes it super easy to overcome that type of search bias. Here’s my 10-second account of finding Italian pianist and composer Marco Lucchi: I started out scrolling through genres and realized I have very little awareness about the classical music on Bandcamp. (Still the case, but that’s another story). I rolled through the New Releases looking for artists outside of the U.S. Lucchi was the first one I found.

I was intrigued by the description: Lucchi has composed a series of short “patterns” for piano (he’s up to set number 12 now) and synthesizer. When he finishes a set, he invites electronic artists to “rework” the patterns. The compositions are ruminative and drone-like — a slight issue with this search example is that I found Lucchi under “Classical” but his work could easily be filed under “Ambient.” His albums often feature the original compositions in proximity to the reworkings, which are often dusted with hovering, celestial synthesizer textures. It’s like witnessing a slow, non-real-time collaboration. Highly recommended for quietly returning to center after a long week.

Share your rapid fire Bandcamp discoveries (any genre) with others in the comments or via our digital suggestion box:echolocatormusic@gmail.com.