The arrival of Seann Medicina‘s “As without So Within” EP feels less like a new record dropping and more like someone’s carefully tended, slightly wild garden gate has swung open. This five-song collection, crafted by Medicina alongside Kristina Mira and Whitney Toogood, weaves a curious tapestry – threads of North American rock and folk get wonderfully tangled with South American rhythms, all under a sky that feels decidedly spiritual.
You hear it, and there’s this immediate sense of earth underfoot, but it’s an earth that’s travelled. One minute you’re on a dusty road, the next you’re by a rushing, unfamiliar river. The whole “Shaman King” notion, of being so attuned to nature you practically speak its language, doesn’t feel like some lofty pronouncement. Instead, it’s like noticing the way sunlight hits a particular leaf, and for a second, you feel like you understand the Theory of Everything, or at least, why squirrels are so permanently agitated. It’s peculiar, this connection – almost made me want to go apologise to my long-suffering cheese plant.
Then, the EP draws you into a quieter, more intensely personal space. This “inner sanctuary,” shared with a trusted other, isn’t about grand pronouncements. It’s more akin to that feeling when you find a perfectly smooth stone on the beach, warmed by the sun, and slip it into your pocket – a small, perfect secret. There’s a profound sense of safety and healing in these musical nooks, an unspoken understanding that needs no translation.
What Seann Medicina, Kristina Mira, and Whitney Toogood achieve here is a kind of sonic alchemy, transmuting natural immersion and inner trust into something that hums with quiet gratitude. It’s a gentle nudge, a reminder of existing beauty, rather than a bellowed revelation. By its end, you’re left not with a bang, but with a settled breath, a subtle realignment. And you can’t help but wonder: if the world outside and the world within truly mirror each other, just how vast does that make our own quiet places?
