Week 7 2/17/19

Know, with will to vision.

Much goes unseen.  Far more goes unheard.  This is to say, perceptual awareness is dimmed by a passive focus on perspectives reinforced by conformist attitudes.  To become knowledgeable beyond this mental and emotional bondage demands conscious intent to expand critical thinking.

Ambimusica.com

Week 23 6/10/18

In listening, and hearing, perceive source and origin without predetermined perspective.

This is accomplished without imposition of attitude or prejudice. One does not project emotion or idea, apprehending, instead, direct impression.  Develop the aural composition accordingly, to the extent possible, and the formation of atmosphere and art come about with clarity.

This is merely an ideal to be approached, rather than a superficial goal or ultimate objective.

Ambimusica.com

Week 11 3/19/17

Creative freedom cannot be conferred, or earned.  It must be seized.

Like every choice, the creative act implies risk, reward, and consequences. This demands grace, if the end result is to possess meaning.  

Ambimusica.com

Obscure Terrain  by Black Mountain School

Delmarva (Excerpt)  by Black Mountain School

The Voice of Time in Gold  by Ghost Radio Orchestra

© Crucibulum Publishing (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved. 
Compatible with iPod®, iTunes, Windows Media Player and other MP3 players.

Note from Crucibulum Media: 

All Black Mountain School and Ghost Radio Orchestra Albums may now be ordered directly from the publisher.

© The Crucibulum Media Recording Label; Crucibulum Publishing (ASCAP) All Rights Reserved.

Comments?  Questions?  mediaworks@ambimusica.com 

Resolution for a Problematic Music

Observe a surfeit of information yielding little in the way of what might be called enlightenment.

One proceeds with awareness and intent, not subject to the idea that "such and such a thing has been done before".  As these notes demonstrate, there are ways and means to look beyond "the given".

Needed is a conclusive synthesis and assessment of these concepts, falling, as they do, outside common musical limits, that illuminates the resulting form of aesthetic sound art, its purposes, methods, and effects.

Ambimusica.com

Defiance

Nuanced expressions reveal sharp contrasts between factual and specious perspectives.

Visual and sound arts convey some things that can only be communicated indirectly through language, particularly in conditions corrupted by cultural ideologies.

Ambimusica.com

Exercise XIII

In any setting, consider the various ways in which limits apply to the conditions.

This is not to determine what is possible or what is not possible, but rather to observe the ways in which unforeseen outcomes might be set in motion within the confines of control and restriction.

Restrain what is predictable, directing action toward intention or purpose if, and only if, the desired effect is clearly realizable.  The result is a decisive gesture, whether concrete or abstract in nature.

This is true of artistic gesture, communicative expression, games, or other activities with set "rules", yet it cannot be otherwise that it involves risk.

Distortions

Absurdity is ubiquitous; it remains no less pointless.

There are those who believe, and who are being conditioned to believe, that reality must comport with one "narrative" or another.  There is no such reality.  What is needed is transcendence.

Imagery and Individuality

Imagery's representations are formed in perceptual impression and memory.

Out of these origins are formed poetry and narrative, the visual arts, and certain forms of music, in particular the tone poem, ambient music, and aesthetic non-linear sound arrangements or designs.

These are produced by the artist, not by "collective culture".

Normal

In the absence of noise, attuned only to the brash and frenetic, some claim to hear "nothing".

Surrounding atmospheres are only as perceptible as the auditory sense is awakened and alive.

Air Space

To grasp the term "aesthetic" it is necessary to know far more than its definition.

Aesthetic means a great deal more than "appreciation of beauty" or knowledge of a set of principles underlying a work of art, architecture, literature, poetry, music, dance, and etc..

These suggestions indicate little more than general impressions and appearances.

The aesthetic experience is not simply how a given thing "looks" and the reaction one is expected by others to have in relation to it.  This is superficiality, a shallow reflection at best.

The aesthetic experience is a full and clear perceptual awareness of what, and how, such a work of art means.  As such, it is an authentic expansion of consciousness.

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Two Essays By Kyle Chayka:  

From theverge.com: Welcome to Airspace

From theguardian.com:  Same old, same old. How the hipster aesthetic is taking over the world

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Approaching

Art must be, as it will be.

What any creator envisions that is brought into being serves to make the future present.

Symbol, Custom, and Balkanization

Rather than the case or situation of "audience", observe that of "participants".

It is a phenomenon of identity politics projected into the cultural setting.  One is no longer informed, experiencing, and sharing aspects and elements of culture and community, but separating into any one of numerous highly insular subcultures that evidence hostility toward all others.

This has nothing to do with art and artists, but is rather an anomaly of social conditioning that must ultimately run its course before a renewal of aesthetic values comes about.

Listening Beyond Music

Whether simple or sophisticated, music is subject to general principles of organization.

But what I am interested in are compositions based on evolving tones and their spatial and temporal relationships.

State of Being, Perceptual Acuity, Elevation

Rhythm generated responses develop as actions in individual and social interactions.

Hence, the art of advertising utilizes rhythm in its productions to enhance desirable effects, with the implication that rhythm may be consciously used to manipulate activities in various settings.

Conversely, stillness enhances reflection, equanimity, and reasoned decision making; these responses make external motivations difficult, if not impossible, to take hold in individuals and groups.

As an artist and composer, I assert that more of the latter forms of music and sound art, those based upon tone and atmosphere as opposed to frenetic movement, are called for in contemporary culture, for obvious, and yes, existential, reasons.

Exercise XII

Observe settings as a perceiver, or experiencer.

As a visual artist frames a photograph or sketch, the composer expands the aural sense into the sonic field, identifying individual sounds, their origins, their juxtapositions within the atmosphere, and the dynamics of the sound setting as a whole.

Transpose this sonic reality into an aesthetically rich representation, an evolving canvas of auditory impressions.

Style, Presentation, Action

Certain audiences seek only appearances.  To these, substance is secondary.

In contrast, others seek depth of content, vision, and meaning.  Each audience reflects cultural perspectives that impact art, and each changes, with culture, over time.  Regardless of method, expression exists to convey content to both, through works that open doors to all.

Symphony in Rising Heat

The mind seeks patterns through all levels of consciousness.

These patterns serve as fundamentals of awareness, and reasoning, which may be expressed in any form. The artist as composer, like all intent observers, listens, and hears.

Exercise XI

Take in the sensory environment.

Attend to the elements of the setting according to perceptual information impressed upon all the senses. Envision all this information in the form of sounds, as a fusion of sensory material.

Consider the final form of this fusion as a sonic composition in full, without imposition of the common musical elements of melody, harmony, etc., focusing on tone, pattern, and form only.

Actionable Intent

For desired change to come into being, it must be created.

Therefore take action, regardless of scope or scale, and cause will yield effect.

View and Variation

Art expresses belief and judgement.

Certainly this means art represents a philosophical perspective, whether viewed as a representation of reality or as gesture alone. To interpret or to simply experience any work implies a philosophical choice.  Were it otherwise one would have no choice, other than to accede to, or impose, diktat.

What cannot be expressed directly can, and will, be evoked by other means.