Given the impossibility of experiencing transit, movement and the swell of the sea during the pandemic (forgive the potential pleonasm), I decided to make use of an audio file from my archives—a recording taken with an amateur portable device six years ago in Acapulco on the balcony of my room. The recording was made while I slept (you can hear some light snoring), and I entitled it Mareah in very personal phonetic play on words with an album I called Nareah, released in 2009.

I thought about reproducing this three-hour-long recording in its entirety, and as an intervention, adding some ambient layers I usually play in my concerts (something I have been doing since the start of this millennium, albeit less regularly now). This means we can hear a variety of aural layers interfering intermittently the soundscape.

It is impossible to reproduce three hours of audio continuously on tape, vinyl, or on a CD, but not when using digital formats, tools, and devices. I have always wondered why, when we started using mp3s, we used them in the same way analog or physical-digital formats were being used. It took us a while to delve into the much-extended temporality they offered, compared to traditional mediums. Nowadays, for example, amazing sound projects are reproduced for years, ever transforming, over the internet.

I would like to share these three hours with you; you can listen to them continuously, or pause, stop, and listen again later, or even let the piece run on repeat for more hours. You could also play the piece through a speaker wherever you like: In the kitchen, on any table, in the shower, on the toilet tank, or on a dresser, in the bedroom, on some books, at a window (so your neighbors can feel the sea breeze as well). You can listen to the recording in the daytime and imagine whichever seascape you prefer, or listen at night and try to make out those distant lights. You might listen while enjoying a cup of tea, or open an ice-cold beer, savor a Cupreata mezcal from Guerrero state, or—why not—take a toke on a joint, or maybe a few. Make use of the piece contained in this practical device however you like, and if possible, share your experiences with us.