Distances Near and Far

Universal expressions will not be fixed to specific time and place.

Sounds and visions that remain outside the transient and disposable exist unto themselves, removed from the temporal, the faddish and superficial.

Yet they are for everyone, and often a respite from the sensational and mundane.

Illumination

Hear, listen, contemplate.

Myriad elements and widely diverse properties of sensory information, ideas, images, and emotions merge in sounds of a musical nature and perceptual consciousness, whether listening attentively or passively.

The commonplace engages the mysterious, the moment elongates, and the nature of the human condition and things as they are take on a degree of clarity.

Such are the effects of music and sound design composed and created with the intent of contributing to a contemplative state of mind, a pleasurable sense of reasoned emotional detachment, and a genuine, abiding expansion of consciousness. 

Ephemeral, Enduring

Vibration, perception, impression, memory.

Recordings reproduce sounds exactly as constructed; it is the composition that retains interest, and may be perceived differently by the listener over time.

When a work continues to expand and become richer with repeated listening, it connects intimately and meaningfully with the listener's consciousness.  It remains elusive, ineffable, in the way of art.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Elements and Impressions 

Sound echoes experience.

Noise at a crosswalk.  Wind and rain.  Conversation on a flight, above the ocean.  Hot afternoon, windows open, stillness broken by traffic.  Chimes, telephones, guitars.  Strange sounds and tones difficult to identify.  Hummingbird chittering among flowers, floors and walls settling, friendly laughter.

Spin these threads into tapesteries lifting on breezes.

Inner Ear

Listening pleasure demands no technical, esoteric, or arcane knowledge.

This is not to say curiosity about sound and its forms is not rewarded-- to the contrary, the more the listener realizes about the ways and concepts of artistic expression through music and creative sound design, the greater the awareness becomes of the scope of human perception.

Even so, the enjoyment of listening is intrinsically uncomplicated and instinctive; the composer's work is for every open mind and ear. 

Composition at Large

Unfettered by form and formula, music becomes more than accustomed patterns and specific sets of instrumentation.

Ranging beyond these frameworks and expectations, sound may function within limits chosen by the composer and particular to specific works.

Transform sounds into landscapes, still life portraits, urban expanses, time-lines, expositions of events, character sketches, poems, wildfires and possible futures.  Release the sound of imagination and accept the unseen distances, the unheard echoes.

Long View

Perceptions are grasped by interpretations, particularly those relating to obscure events.

The observer will note a reticence in society to consider the value of ideas regarding refinement of perception and consciousness.  While due consideration is given to analysis of the popular and consumer cultures, and the force of emotion is generally accepted to be superior to that of reason, heightened understanding of the virtues of contemplation and its association with deeper, broader states of awareness, along with classical scholarship on this subject and that of the human condition, tends to fall into neglect.

The arts may suggest such ideas; audiences, listeners, and creative people may look beyond the mundane and consider more fully the concepts brought to light through elevated and uplifting artistic works and expressions.