Album: Gleason
Artist: Dan Romer & Saul Simon MacWilliams
Released: 2016
I, like most Americans, have watched the catastrophic flooding unfold in Houston. Having both friends and American strangers there, I fear for the loss of life and property that we see on social media and the news. I am also proud, however, at the response of the American people in mobilizing for rescues. First it was the Houston locals joining the military in search and rescue operations, then other Texans, then the ‘Cajun Navy’, and now more and more people from surrounding states. We’ve been a bitterly divided country, fighting on Facebook and in some city streets over politics, but now it looks as if we’ve set all that aside and remembered what America is, ultimately: a group of survivors. We all pitch in as we can.
During trying times, I look to music. During flooding of this magnitude, I return to one composer specifically: Dan Romer. He, along with the director, composed the music of Beast of the Southern Wild. Flooding was a component of that film and soundtrack. Here, in Romer’s soundtrack for a documentary about an ex-football player dealing with ALS, the idea of drowning is ever present, but not without a beam of hope through it all. I hope this soundtrack adds to the backdrop of what you are viewing on social media and convinces you to reach out and donate in the many places asking for help.
