The light is changing.
You notice it in the evening — the way it sits lower on the ridge, casts longer shadows across the valley. The mornings are cooler. The blackberries are (mostly) done. The mountain starts to show itself again through the trees, a little clearer each week as the summer haze lifts.
I love this time of year. There's something about the turn of seasons that forces honesty. Summer makes things easy — there's so much light that you can keep moving without really thinking. Fall asks you to slow down. To look at what you've built. To figure out what you want to carry into the dark months.
August was a magical month for me. I married the love of my life on August 1st — and then we disappeared to the Grenadines for two weeks. We saw sharks. We saw turtles. We played pirate games on a boat. It was fantastic.
Coming back feels like settling. The way a song resolves.
On September 16th, Si Sessions will turn one year old. A full cycle. Fall to winter to spring to summer and back to fall. Twenty sessions playing music for the mountain. The rhythm of it has become part of my life in a way I am loving.
Year two starts now. I'm glad you're here for it.
— Kyle
September 16, 2026 — one year since the first session on the mountain.
Twenty sessions filmed in the Snoqualmie Valley. Artists from across the PNW and beyond. Flamenco, folk, blues, jazz, acoustic soul. Performances in morning light, fog, late afternoon gold.
Year two: already in motion.
Video one Watch All Si SessionsMoontricks · Ayla Nereo · KAMAUU · Ruby Chase · Random Rab · Bluetech · HABITAAT · Yemanjo ft. Irene Rosalia · and more
imaginegathering.comThree upcoming shows, more being booked! www.oleajeflamenco.com
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The latest from the mountain — Si Sessions 20, Esther Marion & Sebastian Quintero. Three styles, one afternoon, all of it filmed at the mountain. This is what happens when you invite two killer flamenco artists in the PNW out to sit with the trees and play.
The deep song. Flamenco's most serious form, and they treat it that way.
The counterweight — rhythmic, alive, a different kind of fire.
Slower than tangos, heavier. The one to put on late at night.
A year of watching what actually works.
I have a better data set now than I did twelve months ago. The sessions that travel furthest aren't the most technically polished — they're the ones with the strongest sense of place. When a video opens on fog rolling over the valley and the camera finds someone playing like their life depends on it, people stay. The lesson isn't "film outside." It's that context creates meaning.
Fall is the best window to pitch venues.
Festival season cools off in September, rooms are actively programming, and audiences are genuinely hungry to be back inside with live music after summer. This is not a small window — it's the window. Not February when you're already behind, not July when everyone's festival-brained.
The long game is the only game.
I've been watching what happens to artists who chase algorithms versus artists who build real communities, and I keep landing in the same place: the latter group is more sustainable, less burned out, and more creatively alive at year three than year one. It's slower. It doesn't spike. But it compounds in a way that hype doesn't. That's the bet I made with MRC and Si Sessions a year ago, and I'm more confident in it now than when I started.