Via: L.A. Times

In October 2008, while Steven Ellison’s mother lay dying in a hospital bed, he was at her side recording her.

The young L.A.-based musician, who records abstract electronic music as Flying Lotus, hadn’t been especially close to his mother until her later years. But when finally faced with the weight of the impending loss, Ellison brought in a mobile recording rig and set microphones around her room to gather audio samples: the hypnotic wheeze of a respirator, the ambient pings of vital-sign monitors.

In the stillness and sadness of his mother’s last days, he found comfort in the rhythms of the machines.

“I know it was a weird thing to do,” Ellison said. “I’m not the type to go out recording things like that. But I didn’t want to forget that space.” [Read More]