Why add a musical recommendation to each Visual Story?
I’ve always believed that music complements everything. At least for me, it’s been there since dawn: when I head to work, I usually listen to piano or classical music to begin the day with a soft, steady mood. Then, as the hours pass, the soundtrack changes too. Music adapts to what I do, to what I feel, to what I need.
They say it brightens the soul. I believe it heals it too. There are songs that, at the right moment, hold you up. They steady you on a twisted day or give you that extra push you need to crest a mountain pass.
Yes, you read that right: when I’m out on the road bike, I listen to music as well. I use bone-conduction headphones; they don’t isolate you from your surroundings and still let that musical pulse, that little spark I enjoy so much, ride along with me.
On the other hand, when I head into the mountains with the gravel bike, I don’t need to connect to any music app: nature has its own soundtrack for anyone willing to listen. An endless concert of leaves, wind and life in motion.
With photography, something similar happens to me. I love getting lost in the photos of my travels, or in the eyes of those who see the world differently. A good song transforms any image: it opens it, expands it, gives it new layers. A photo series, or a single powerful photograph, paired with the right music helps my senses soften and open to contemplation. It helps me travel to that place, imagine what it would feel like to be there, wonder how the photographer played with the light, the shadows, the colour. Music invites me to stay inside the image a little longer.
What about silence? Silence is a refuge. In overwhelmed cities, in spaces where noise fills everything, silence is a fragile treasure worth protecting. In it, we find that turning point that separates overflowing from simply breathing.
But I’ve always thought that, in nature, silence as such doesn’t really exist: what we find is an absence of noise. Nature is always speaking, even if softly: the wind brushing against the leaves, the murmur of a nearby river, the rolling of our wheels over the earth.
I deeply enjoy looking at photographs of landscapes I haven’t seen yet, routes that widen my horizon. With the right music, those images rise to another level.
That’s why I’ve decided to add a musical suggestion to each Visual Story: a gentle invitation to look from a different place, to let the image breathe with another rhythm.
And, with time, I want to go even further: to offer my own soundscapes, recorded in those very moments, to expand the experience even more. Photographs you can listen to. Sounds that reveal what the image only hints at. A dialogue between senses that brings each Visual Story even more vividly to life.
If you feel like accompanying your Visual Stories with music, I’ve put together several playlists on Deriva Lenta’s Spotify account. Each one is shaped around a different mood, a different way of pedalling, a particular way of looking at the world. You can let them play while you explore the Visual Stories, or take them with you on your days out riding.
Gravel, unhurried
Music for riding without haste.
To observe, to listen, and to let the road set the pace.
Road, steady pulse
Music to keep the rhythm.
To ride strong, with focus and controlled breathing.
When the light fades
Music for the end of the day.
When the noise dissolves and the rhythm slowly loosens.
Would you like to follow Deriva Lenta’s journey?
Deriva Lenta has been built step by step, making conscious decisions along the way.
If you feel like following how the project evolves when there is something to share, the slowletter is the most direct channel.
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