Saturday, November 17, 2012

Sound Merging with Light and Image

All the arts intersect in countless ways.  While music is most often created according to traditional theories, it may also be based upon any number of artistic ideas and philosophies.


Today's image has been selected by Brian Eno and his team as one of the featured images on the LUX - Day Of Light website. It will appear on the large main photo display and within the live streamed video on http://lux.brian-eno.net .  It also lives within the 'View Submissions' tab, complete with a special red dot to signify that it was featured.

Please spread the word:  http://lux.brian-eno.net

Friday, November 16, 2012

Changing Recognition

The material and physical in nature are impermanent, undergoing constant transformation.


Recorded compositions that are designed to evolve gradually around the listener reflect this reality.   As in the case described by the aphorism that says it is impossible to cross the same river twice, because the river and person crossing it are different, the attention one gives such musical works varies and is modified with each listening.

In becoming acclimated to aural atmospheres of this type, the listener may gain diverse perspectives on music and sounds. Old biases may be set aside, altering approaches to listening and hearing.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Shift Perspectives, Devise Doorways

Simply postulate music as combined sounds that emphasize elements other than those of rhythm, percussion, melody, harmony and the standard arrangements of genre fare, and approach it in the manner of mixed media art.


In concept and execution, set aside the sour, narrow pretensions of the amateur, striving instead for the beautiful and elevated, focusing on aesthetic arrangement of tones, textures, colors and shading, form, space, depth and total effect.

Listen.  Hear.  Allow the atmosphere to become what it is; without interference, bring it into being.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Combinations, Effects, Outcomes

Experimentation is a matter of process.


In the arts, when experimentation leads to desired effects, progress is made in the development of methods; when these methods result in works that meet the criteria upon which they are conceived, and, when evaluated, they meet aesthetic standards of completeness, the works are no longer to be considered experimental.  They are then, in the sense of reaching successful conclusions, finished, and the ways and means of their design and construction may continue to be refined.

From concept to conclusion such processes involve risks and obstacles, and may take many years. But this is the way of the artist in the pursuit of bringing visions and expressions into being.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Inner Echoes

Sound is by nature intimate.


Sounds are internalized; their embrace is emotional, spiritual, cerebral and physical.  Their imprint is felt in character and attitude, and in the aesthetic and moral senses as well.  Combinations of sounds and their manner of presentation engender feelings and states of mind with lasting effects.

Such are the impressions the composer offers the listener.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Stir of Impressions

The artist perceives, and expresses.


All the senses interact with the reasoning, emotional and spiritual faculties to weave the threads of personal experience.  Drawn together and given form in sound, these threads convey the realities glimpsed by the composer through musical images and aural gestures.

To listen in accordance is to hear the impress of being and meaning.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Spirits of Place

All settings possess distinctive properties suggestive of their counterparts in sound.


Every atmosphere exhibits dynamic possibilities, whether they may be expressed with the intensity of thunderclaps or the subtlety of gradually fading voices.  Accordingly, through aesthetic choices involving selections of tones, forms, patterns, and manners of combining and manipulating diverse elements, the composer releases these lyric qualities of locality and perceptual narrative.