Issue #89

Dearest readers, 

We spend much of our lives searching for places, people, and moments that make us feel we belong. 

Perhaps that is why music matters so much. Before it connects us with others, it connects us with ourselves. A melody hummed in an empty room. The lyrics scribbled into a notebook. Fingers searching for the right note. A feeling that cannot quite be explained but insists on being expressed anyway. 

In the act of creating, we come into contact with something deeply personal: a memory, a hope, a fear, a question, a part of ourselves we didn’t quite know how to reach before. 

And then something remarkable happens. 

The song leaves the room. It enters the world. Someone hears it while walking home. Someone dances to it. Someone finds comfort in it after a difficult day. Someone feels understood by a person they have never met. 

What began as a conversation with oneself becomes a conversation with countless others. 

In this issue, our writers explore music as exactly as that kind of bridge. Between artists and audiences. Between strangers sharing a dancefloor. Between past and present selves. Between communities, cultures, and ways of seeing the world. Again and again, these stories return to a simple truth: we are all looking for connection, and music has a unique ability to help us find it. 

In a world that can often feel loud, complicated, and divided, there is something beautiful about that. The idea that a song, a performance, or a shared rhythm can remind us that we are not alone. That someone somewhere has felt something similar. That for a few minutes, or perhaps for a lifetime, we belong. 

We invite you to spend some time with these stories, and perhaps reflect on the music that has accompanied your own journey—the songs that shaped you, comforted you, challenged you, or helped you find your people. 

Thank you for joining us once again. 

With warm regards, 

Dragana J.