Trial and Error by Fire

Various proprietary techniques are used in all these compositions, giving them unique character.

The discriminating listener is aware that these recordings are created with peculiar effects as intended outcomes.  There is no "pop sensibility" at work; there are no catchy rhythms or melodies, no "hooks", and none of the commonly anticipated electronic embellishments are to be found. Still, there do exist a number of aesthetic qualities in play that enhance the listener's experience, whether listening attention is active and direct, or passive and otherwise involved in particular activities.

These productions require a high degree of patience and painstaking, meticulous craftsmanship. It is a challenge to conceive designs in sound as well as to develop the means to bring theoretical ideas into reality through experimentation. One work, just completed, has been in progress for over a year.

One might be forgiven for failing to express an unbecoming humility, or lacking interest in "reaching out" for attention, given the intensive nature and critical integrity of these many processes.

Imagination, Technology, Creativity

Technical developments allow compositions and productions to be made with an ease that was heretofore impossible, yet many are simply flat, uninteresting, and puerile.

These are simply appearances of sophistication and craftsmanship, reflecting a low degree of both in their final form and total effect. Excellence will be realized in the mind's eye and the inner ear before it is brought into being, and even so, the technical aspects of creation will lag behind the theories and concepts of the artist.  For example, technology does not, as yet, allow the composer to make use of the reflective surfaces in an environment to extend the depth of a work through the generation of perceived echoes. This can only be accomplished  by dynamic juxtaposition of sounds. through effort and artistry, and by virtue of intent and experience.

Sublime Sense and Inner Ear

A vast majority of people refuse to view themselves as "consumers", and the listener, most assuredly, possesses the range of experience to seek and discover a greater perspective than one merely concrete and material, even from a very early age.  This is the direction of sublimity of perception.

To speak of the sublime is, on the surface, to be transported to the rarefied atmosphere of nineteenth century aesthetic philosophy and Walter Pater's "gem-like flame" of ecstatic consciousness. But these are entirely legitimate concepts, fully formed, that anyone may comprehend and realize with complete presence of mind and emotional vitality. That they are indeed transcendent and impersonal states of awareness, and that they find representation in finely rendered artistic expressions is not in question.

It is a curiosity of the contemporary age that these aesthetic states of consciousness are so rarely given the consideration they warrant as existential phenomena alone.  They direct and refine the attention toward expanding levels of elevated awareness; in terms of art, and particularly art of a musical nature, they convey profound insights into the dynamics of being, reality, and the human condition worthy of more thoughtful examination in the context of modern culture.

Enter the Contemplative

These compositions are conducive to thinking, and further, to the setting aside of thought.

Of course this is different from overwhelming thought with volume, rhythm, and so forth, as holds with music meant to compel generalized, physical ecstatic states.  It is no shocking revelation that elevated forms produce perceptions of a higher order than those that induce frenzy, and that restraint, even elegance, in delineation may yield intensity of awareness of a divergent nature.

Every culture understands the value of introspective solitude, and conditions in which it is impossible to be alone with one's thoughts, whether due to social or psychological dysfunction, are unworthy of free and enlightened people.  These compositions are produced to bring about settings and situations in which the listener, by choice, may ruminate and reflect, even to the extent that thoughts may be set aside in the clarity of contemplative consciousness.  There is a time for dance, and a time for stillness.

Wake the Dead

What foolishness, to deny history.

Sounds ringing in the ears were born in reeds and wind, blood and thunder. In the artist's tradition, who we are is who we were.  There is no definition, no leave of authority, no stamp of approval or opprobrium in time present that endows or renews the life of an artist, but only this: the primal gesture of expression, brought forth in time out of mind, to be cast always into futurity.

Sound and Time

Sounds need not simply suggest forward movement from beginning to end.

The structure of musical form contributes to it's appearance of sounds moving through linear time. Structure differently.  Suggest radiation, ebb and flow, expansion and contraction simultaneously, in juxtaposition.  Create an ouroboros of sound imagery, of movement turning in upon itself.  This, too, is but an appearance, yet it is one that reveals a contradistinction in perception of aesthetic beauty.

Opposing Forces

Progress is more than expansion of the status quo.

Progress in any form involves change.  It is inevitable. Whether in the arts and sciences, politics, social and religious contexts, or within culture generally, there are those who seek meaningful change, and those who desire only superficial alterations to existing forms and conditions.

Promoveo, promovi, promotum.