Nicaraguan-American Jesse Beaman’s one-man local project My Empty Phantom emerges especially poignant on full-length bow Collection of Memories I/II, which lovingly pulls and canvasses all the colors of nostalgia out of the sky. His recollections feel tangible, blended and stacked from barren Earth to cloud-reaching silos. The listener gets transported via a levitating kaleidoscope for roughly 26 minutes, which seems much longer, easing in and out of various emotions. Enchanting standout “Forever” immediately frames the album, featuring rolling layers of drums and guitar. Movement and memories ground in the local producer’s reality, demonstrated on “Joy Years” and “City Lights.” Melancholy enjoys lodging in this world, as in “Goodbye My Friend” or “Confusion,” but at a minute each, his sadness quickly evaporates. Throughout, Beaman works the brighter ends of an aural palette, even in darker moments. Blackness and destitution never appear, lending Collection of Memories I/II a motif of self-compassion through the worst of times.
This article appears in Austin’s Most Eligible Dogs.
