Arlington Garden in Pasadena is a true gem of urban green space and community determined land reclamation. Being a refuge for all sorts of flora and fauna, one would never guess that this three acre garden is actually located on the site of a former staging ground for the 710 freeway. As the last orange grove left along Pasadena’s historic Orange Grove Blvd, we are honored to celebrate this victory of urban wildlife habitat and regenerative gardening through monthly gatherings underneath their olive trees.
Joining us this Mom’s Day morning is our friend Moki, the brilliant composer that is Lionmilk. Bring your parents, your kids, or just yourself, and bliss in with us. We’ll have Arlington’s infamous volunteer-made marmalade and some bread with us! Bring your own coffee though.
Lionmilk, the primary solo project of Los Angeles musician/composer/producer, Moki Kawaguchi, for some time now, operates in an explicitly therapeutic mode. When discussing Lionmilk, Kawaguchi regularly foregrounds the absolute necessity of music-making as a form of self-care. First and foremost, he produces sounds and songs that provide him with some modicum of solace — “music to feel less whack to.” One gets the sense that he’d be doing exactly what he’s doing (exactly the way he’s doing it) even if he was the last man on earth. But he isn’t. And, in fact, one of Lionmilk’s primary concerns—evident across track titles, as well as the sung and spoken words that dot his releases—is community, or more specifically, what it means to exist and act in his community. How might we transmit our solitudes via music and to what extent? What does a shared solitude sound and feel like? And, in the context of this transaction, what novel relationships arise between the recording artist and the listener?