Playlist: Flight 005
Photos: Marta Syrko + Benjamin Davies
FLIGHT 005
CAPTAIN : ALEX MERRELL
DESTINATION : London
When I left New York with a carry on at the end of June, the plan was to be gone for ten days. I had padded a gig in Provence with four nights each on the Italian islands of Ponza (pre gig) and Ischia (post gig). If I have a vice, it’s accepting adventurously last minute international invitations, and ten days somehow turned into just over ten weeks.
I’m ending a beautiful (mostly European) summer in London, a city I haven’t spent time in for years, but which has worked its way into my heart on this visit in an entirely new way. For eight sunny days, I’ve been dashing from meetings to museums, running into old friends on the tube, and catching up on work at Electric House, all set to a soundtrack of UK artists.
While it’s wonderful to begin sensing familiarity in foreign environments, discovery through exposure to newness grows us exponentially, and travel provides myriad opportunities for this. One gift of starting this platform has been my increasing focus to seek out and showcase what feels fresh in the global creative landscape. This process is enhancing the way I interact with my ever changing surroundings, introducing me to brilliant minds in cities across the globe, and allowing me to bear witness to one of the most uniquely beautiful aspirations of the human spirit: to expose one’s inner self through artistic expression.
Here’s a musical snapshot of London as varied and vibrant as the city itself.