“I find beauty through sound, nature, personal growth, and the growth toward deeper love,” says Ben Harper, “and also through appreciating our human journey.” Harper’s new album Wide Open Light offers a glimpse of his own evolution: It’s a stripped-down meditation on love, loss, and longing featuring 11 previously unreleased songs written throughout his life. “It captures me exploring my way to being 53 years old,” says the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose music draws from blues, soul, folk, reggae, gospel, and funk. This past March, Harper made his acting debut in Extrapolations, an Apple TV+ series about the environmental crisis. He has long used his platform for advocacy, supporting organizations such as International Medical Corps, which provides humanitarian aid, and New Light, a safe haven for at-risk children in Kolkata, India. “I don’t confuse myself with frontline activists,” he says, “but maybe I’ll grow into that, because you can’t rock and roll forever.” For this issue, Harper curated a playlist with the theme of beauty, including songs like “Longest Apocalypse” by his daughter Harris, “Everything Is Everything” by Lauryn Hill, and “If We Were Vampires” by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. “I was driving home on this dark highway, and it suddenly came on the radio out of the static,” says Harper of the last track. “It was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever heard.”