A fourth cup, and the last — HAINA MAIKA PUANA's 'Cappuccino'

In three lines

• HAINA MAIKA PUANA's 'Cappuccino' has arrived at NONOL LIVE.
• It's an acoustic song that spreads like the smell of warm coffee.
• It's the fourth song from this session, and the last.

All four are out now

That's four songs this act has sung sitting at the playground. And this is the last one.

Song	Texture
Coconut juice	Daytime, a holiday
Soliloquy2	Night, words left unsaid
Find Me	Addressed to yourself
Cappuccino	Afternoon, sitting across from someone

Lay the four out in order and a single day gets built. Starting in daylight, moving into night, turning inward once, and coming back to an afternoon spent facing somebody again.

The length of one cup

'Cappuccino' is exactly what the title suggests. Neither hot nor cold, laid on softly like foam. The acoustic guitar doesn't step forward; it spreads slowly, like a smell.

There's a length of time it takes to finish a cup of coffee. And there's a temperature of conversation you can have in that time — not too heavy, not too light. The length and density of this song are exactly that much.

There's almost no editing at NONOL LIVE, so on a song like this even the silence right before the playing starts stays in. Something like the sound of a cup being set down in a cafe. That short silence before the song is, in fact, its first bar.

The place of a last song

The last song of a session always has a particular place. It's a seat for greeting someone who has heard everything before it.

This act put its most comfortable song there. Not wrapping up big, just suggesting you stay for one more. There are times when this kind of ending lasts longer than a dramatic one. Good conversations tend to end that way too.

There are people you don't say a big goodbye to. You know you'll see them again, so you don't press. The end of this song wears that same face.

'Cappuccino' as a name fits for the same reason. It isn't short and sharp like an espresso, and it doesn't stretch on forever like an americano. It's a cup with a set time, to be drunk before the foam falls. This song ends inside that time too.

What it means to hear it at the playground

Pulling the four songs out one at a time across several days was a different experience from listening to an album in one go. Space between them lets each take up its own place.

Today this song closes that session. If you've heard all four, try running them again in order. You'll see a day that wasn't visible when you heard them separately.

I also learned this time that four songs are enough to get to know a group. Hearing the bright one, the dark one, the talking-to-yourself one and the sitting-across-from-someone one lasts far longer than remembering them by a single hit. That's what a playground is for.

A new song has arrived at the playground today.