Hearing, Listening, Openness

Sounds the listener can anticipate or "follow" are the norm for most musical arrangements.

The experience of sounds in the form of auditory imagery is expansive, deep, and, more often than not, asymmetrical in nature. Much of my work in composition and sound design intentionally moves away from establishing and directing expectations to reflect both the continuous aural activity and surprising sonic events of real, yet non-musical, environments.

Surrounding atmospheres rich with subtle beauty and intensely interesting sounds may go unnoticed when perception is dulled by the routine and mundane.  I want my compositions to be catalysts for elevating that awareness.

Other Than Music

Creating structure sets limits.  Thinking does not always require them.

Separate music from given ideas.  Set aside thoughts of "using" technology as a tool, regarding it instead as a means of gesture. Listen past emotion and intellect into the sound of the surrounding world, and there discern aesthetic beauty with the goal of bringing it into the listener's range of perception.

Culture, Sound, Tone

Attitude of mind and emotion as expressed in the arts may or may not reflect specific time periods.

Some works sustain interest, while others become cultural artifacts; still others may share both attributes. Considering time a continuum, think, hear, and bring into being auditory experiences of emergence and expansion.  Listen and create, indifferent to all but sound.

Sonic Textures

Combinations of tones and patterns move within physical settings and internal, perceptual terrains.

From the source, or sensibilities and vision of the composer, sound designs emerge through varied processes of selection, sound synthesis and juxtaposition of elements.

The subjective impressions of tone, mood, and atmosphere are considered aesthetically; additional evaluations of objective aural properties, including volume, intensity, equalization, compression, and such effects as contribute to dynamic spatial qualities of the composition are brought to bear upon the work.

The finished work resulting from these artistic and technological processes will suggest multiple sensory and emotional impressions, including color and shading, contrast, movement, and texture, as well as evoking memory and stimulating the imagination.

Expansion and Order

Perspective reveals or conceals a sense of symmetry and balance.

Accordingly, wind chimes, bird songs, wind through alleyways, and one's everyday encounters with voices and machines may appear random or part of a greater pattern of sounds.

Listen, and hear.

Transmission VI

Cultural context influences the listening experience, as does history and individual taste.

The extent to which the listener is enriched by the arts of sound can also be determined by choice, along with the effort necessary to expand one's range of knowledge and awareness, much as the curious and adventurous musician may decide to explore beyond subjective interests in technique and formula.

Atmosphere and the Mind's Eye

I compose to mirror the continuous rise and fall.

Apparent, even in stillness, is the dynamic totality of existence as it moves and changes.  Through sounds designed to reflect organic processes, aural events that might seem beneath notice may be brought into range of perception.

Such compositions, I would suggest, effectively contribute to heightened sensory discernment and clarity of thought, and further, stimulate the faculty of imagination.