u/analaline

Note 1: This review will be about the expanded edition with 8 tracks, but I used the non expanded cover art as it is much more beautiful.

Note 2: I'm going to reference the first review some times, you should read it: here

I've slowly been writing a very, very long review of this album over the past months, but it's unfinished so I'm writing something new here.

You and I can't ever change comprises of 8 tracks, a total runtime of 9 hours, each track being a loop repeating for the whole runtime of the song.

Ambient is a genre with strong emphasis on personal connection. Take Long Way Home, you could have people listen to it, ,and some wouldn't get it at all (I didn't on first listen either). .But others, they can grasp the beauty hidden in it. The same is true for most drone and anw music.

Celer is renowned for his ability to capture and freeze moments in time. Celer turns beautiful moments into beautiful drones and the listener can feel the feelings that Celer had felt in those moments.

The only way to describe it is magical. Celer lives through beautiful moments and lets us experience them.

The album cover itself is a beautiful capturing of a intimate moment between lovers, at the west lake. The title itself, you and I can't ever change, shows how, like the droning, the two people can't change, or maybe that their relationship can't change.

But why is this lifechanging? I'm unsure whether I can accurately describe what changed, but I will try.

Humans have hopes and worries, emotions, things they love, and things they hate. Humans are the very definition of profane, bound by earthly shackles from the things they love. But as I hear the gentle drone fade in, it shifts me to my deepest level. My shackles break, I am unchained, I am free.

By focusing on the droning and leaving everything behind, I enter what can be described as a transcendent state, where I'm free and at peace, and above everything else, without worry or fear.

Experiencing it for the first time was magical, and made me realize much about the world, that I can't really say in words, but it truly changed a lot about how I see things.

This isn't my favorite celer, that belongs to xiexie, but this for sure changed me as a person.

This is the first in what I hope will become a series of sharing ambient albums that I deem to have significantly changed my life, or have the potential to change others.

This is "Long Way Home " by Silver Dove, a 4.5-hour lowercase/ambient-noise wall masterpiece.

It comprises 7 tracks of varying lengths. The core sound throughout its runtime is crackling and popping.

Having read that, a question might come to your mind: Why is it life-changing?

Long Way Home is brilliant. The crackling noises are extremely quiet and beautiful, and, counterintuitively, such a 'simple' and quiet album is quite difficult and exhausting to listen to, as it requires your full attention. The sounds have their own personalities, it seems, and they are comforting, beautiful, and loving. Throughout the listen, they grow on you, and you form a relationship with them. You come to see the beauty contained in the small sounds.
When you reach track 4, the notes that play are a shock to your system. They are a beautiful addition and are a dramatic shift. They keep you warm.

On track 6, a beautiful drone swells over, but you can still hear the other parts. The drone is loud, beautiful, and encompassing. After having heard everything before it, I was brought to tears. It's truly my favorite ambient song ever made, and so emotionally potent.

As everything fades out, and you're left with your old friend, the crackling sounds, it's truly lovely. This is one of the most love-filled albums I've ever heard.

After finishing it, I've grown to appreciate everything in life. Things that are constantly ignored, and yet still important. Small, faint background noises. The droning of the bus's engine. The chorus of a multitude of voices. Ticking of a clock. The whirr of a computer fan. The feeling of clothes against my skin. Dust on my glasses, ever so slightly changing my reality. Ants, insects crawling and flying, each living their own lives. People, walking by and zipping past in cars, going somewhere, doing something. Tiny, tiny scratches on things that are important to you. Does it mean that they are broken? Faint rustling at night. The way food's flavors actually feel. The way light reflects. The sun is behind the clouds. The sun is coming out of the clouds. Rain falling and traveling on the ground. Plants growing out of cracks in the concrete. People's eyes. People's words. Subtle shifts. Subconscious messages. The changing of the sky as the sun goes below the horizon.

Long Way Home has had a profound effect on my worldview, causing me to feel things I didn't know I could feel, making me notice things I couldn't have possibly noticed, and bringing me deep satisfaction and peace. I have lived much happier since, and felt much more love for the world around me.