I wager that democracy lives or dies there—in pleasure, in taste, in the private moment when something moves you before you know why. Magic happens in the slippage: between sound and body, image and desire, freedom and its consequences. It seduces by rhythm. Magic isn’t mystery so much as timing—knowing when to make the cut, when to let the note ring, when to stop explaining and let the room do the work. Music is the proof. It bypasses reason, rearranges the nervous system, makes belief feel like a physical fact. You don’t agree with a song. You submit to it, or you don’t. I listen to music when I make art, and this playlist is whats been on loud lately.

Photo: by David Wojnarowicz