I make it a point to revisit my old articles in order to check up on artists I may have covered, but let slip through the cracks. Some days there are blessings. Like today, when one of those artists reached out to me with a new album.
Up Mine, Sunshine is the married duo of Matt and Ashley Beck. By day Ashley is a Hollywood makeup artist and Matt is an electron microscopist. Both occupations sound meticulous and possibly mind-numbing, which is what makes the shimmer of Up Mine, Sunshine feel like the couples' therapy – a therapy with sanguine trim. The couple create all sorts of art together, but Matt considers their collective sound collages their “most impassioned passion” – ahh the symbiosis of marriage is still alive and kicking! Divorce statistics be damned!
This is Up Mine, Sunshine's third record. The record was recorded from October 2009 to February 2010. The title Locus Amoenus means “Pleasant Place” in some dead language. In his email, Matt described his current city of Temecula as a place “where it has beautiful sunrises,” so maybe it's that self-explanatory.
Download Locus Amoenus here.
