Today came the terribly sad news of the passing of Dani Long, who along with her husband Will, recorded under the name of Celer. While only recently making her acquaintance online, I had been very familiar with her work over the past few years, as was anyone with even a passing interest in contemporary ambient music. I always felt their prolific output came from a very honest place, utterly free of any pretensions and full of wonder for the world around us. As well as her work as Celer, she also recorded as Chubby Wolf, and has left behind an extensive body of work that puts the rest of us musicians to shame. If you haven’t listened to any of it yet, you really should.

Dani Baquet-Long 1983 - 2009.






From the Celer myspace page:

“Dear friends,

With great sadness I have to announce to you, our friends, that Dani passed away yesterday, July 8. On Tuesday morning I woke to find her unconscious, and not breathing. The medics were called, and she was revived, but fell directly into a coma and didn’t wake up. She passed away yesterday at 3pm, with her family by her. All that is known to say why is that her heart stopped, for no foreseeable reason. The only relation is that her father died in the same way, of a cardiac arrest at the age of 29. She was 26.
Right now I don’t know how to express the loss and sadness I feel, knowing that someone so ultimately close to me, and such an inspiration and friend to so many other people in the world is gone. All I can say is that she won’t be forgotten, or pushed aside only because she’s gone. She’ll always be with me, as my inspiration, my love, my everything. All I can say is I miss her, every second.
Right now I won’t be able to answer many emails, as there’s only so much I can talk about this. Time will heal this, but I know the sadness will never go away. This, I’m ok with, as I never want to forget every way she changed my life, and touched my heart.
I appreciate all your support and love, and even though many of you only knew her through her poetry, or her music, I hope they are good memories. Enclosed is a favorite photo of her, taken at her beach, at home.
Also, here was her favorite quote:

“The Meaning is in the Wonder”
- Kenneth Patchen.

Sincerely,
Will.”

www.myspace.com/celersite
www.myspace.com/chubbywolfsounds
artificialcolors.blogspot.com (Celer website)

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