Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.  ~Charlie Parker

While reviewing the album, At Peace by Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal, I was immediately transported to the dusty sub-Saharan landscape of Burkina Faso, West Africa, where I spent two years of my life as a Peace Corps volunteer. It only took a moment for the sounds to completely transition my focus from the routine task of writing at my desk, to feeling the sun bake the red earth around me, smelling the pungent odor of dried fish in the market and watching the leaves of my favorite baobab tree slowly dance in the breeze.

Sound is one of the most powerful keys to memory, and with it can unlock a slew of other senses tied to an experience or emotion. Scientists call this echoic memory, which is interesting because one may never know what sounds will trigger what memories.

Music is a potent influencer in so many ways: it can energize, mobilize, unify and also depress, destroy and anger depending on the specific echoic memory trigger. And we listen. We listen at work, at home, through our phones, as we travel. Carefully selected soundtracks are woven into TV shows and movies, and we make our own soundtracks (playlists) for the gym, home, parties and work.
Music taps into our experiences with the ability to create something larger than the individual notes or melodies ever can. I am grateful for the few minutes I spent back in Burkina Faso, courtesy of At Peace, and next time you are transported when listing to a song, I hope you can savor the unexpected moment.