Week 49 12/10/17

Certain things must be done.  Many are mundane.

The issue is the application of music to social and cultural situations in which music, "as we know it", is not optimal. This is always the case when music demands the listener's full attention, and, though it is less intrusive when it simply invites attention, it may still become a distraction.

Reading, thinking, conversation, and things of this nature do not benefit from distractions, and sound developed and expressed for these scenarios must be conducive to being relaxed, yet alert.  

Brian Eno's ambient music develops rarefied musical events to evoke this stage of consciousness; I have been developing, over the past decade, a means to a singular, and to the extent possible, an over-arching, non-musical, atmospheric and environment effect with disparate implications.

To paraphrase Poe, it is a total effect designed as a singular, overarching expression, suitable for the aforementioned occasions, and for the expansion of consciousness.  Yet, as I have since verified in academic practice, it has additional, peculiar effects, such as allowing, thus increasing, individual focus of attention on other activities, and providing extended relief from such challenges as ADHD.  

While not intentional, this is nonetheless a proven fact, verified by objective results, and a welcome artistic development, with possible applications to PTSD as well.  This necessitates continuing experimentation, study, and review.

Ambimusica.com

The Celestial Way (Excerpt)  by Black Mountain School

Night Traffic in Open Secrets (Excerpt)  by Black Mountain School

Ancestral Shadows  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 

Week 43 10/29/17

I am, in fact, promoting an aesthetic concept and concrete idea of sound that is not music.

It is, of course, sound designed with an entirely different purpose than that of music, and one which frees, rather than dominates,  the listener's consciousness, with none of the emotional manipulation that is expected of "musical entertainment".

It is the type of concept commonly viewed as "disruptive". 

Ambimusica.com

The Celestial Way (Excerpt)  by Black Mountain School

Night Traffic in Open Secrets (Excerpt)  by Black Mountain School

Ancestral Shadows  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 

Observe, Then Question

At no time in human history has music so absolutely saturated culture.

Thus it is taken for granted, devalued, viewed as a "given", without consideration for the labor of the trained musician or the intellectual rigor demanded of the composer, arranger, and songwriter, who are themselves considered marginal figures.

Opening

Merge sound and setting.

Within the dynamic of such an atmosphere, possibility and action can converge, thought finds form, and meanings become clear.  Music in other forms serves various purposes, but sound as expression of consciousness in real time opens the doors of perception.

Place

Consider the internal environment as well as the external one.

Find the balance.  Compose with the sounds of imagination that reflect and represent direct experience and the contemplative attitude of mind that evokes perceptivity of this nature.

Sound, Attitude, Perspective

One hears of the mood of the country and the tone of cultural discourse as factors in critical events.

Perhaps, then, it is worthwhile to consider ways in which the sounds of various cultural environments, including music and its reduction to a continuum of fragments that may be heard throughout all media, similarly reflect, influence, or direct the consciousness of percipients.

Absurdly, this is considered a "dangerous" idea.

Aural Encounters

Percipience of sounds in the course of moving through various environments is not the same as listening to music.  

This is a simple fact, and as such, it is not given any attention.  One might assume that listening to the sounds of most environments would not be as interesting as listening to music, and that will often be the case.  Yet it is not the particular sounds that we are concerned with here, but the differences in the ways in which the one is produced by events within the atmosphere and the other according to intent and instrumentation, because the effects of each are entirely different.  The act of listening to any piece of music, whether a pop song. a classical piece, or a performance by a jazz combo, combines both expectation and attention on the part of the listener.  We create entirely different scenarios.

The musical works of Black Mountain School are designed to be a part of the listening environment by reflection and representation of the ways in which sounds come into being in the organic sense, as part of the reality of a setting, to be experienced in the same ways as the surroundings are perceived in the course of the day, but with the additional element of aesthetic design that enlivens the sonic environs.  The resulting experience is totally unlike that of "listening to music", as it is based upon divergent principles, theories and techniques, developed to sustain beauty and interest and to intensify total effect.  In point of fact, no other ensemble composes and produces works revealing the art of sound in ways utilizing these ideas and methods in the same manner as does Black Mountain School, as their unique recordings amply demonstrate.

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.

Art and Influence

The composer must enliven, advance, and uplift the imagination.

Otherwise, the sound of reality reflects no more than the moment now in transit to obsolescence.

Pop, Tone

Consider auditory imagery in terms of visual imagery.

There will be stylistic sonic repetition as long as it is tolerable, that is to say, as long as an audience exists for nostalgia, the veneration of things past their time.

These sounds may be regarded as fashionable forms, and the attitudes they represent will be repeated as patterns filling various contexts engraved in the popular imagination as musical genres.

From this perspective, of course, there is no comprehensible future-- such impossibly distant sounds can only be envisioned and created outside cultural and commercial norms.

Fusion and Individuation

Experience is a continuum overflowing with words, imagery, and sounds.

The unconscious, in perceiving, adapting, and transforming, shapes the content of dreams and the faculty of imagination in myriad ways, contributing to realization of what Socrates and Plato called self-knowledge, and thus to illuminating reason and expression.

This leads to a quest for listener and composer alike, that of seeking the musica universalis, or "music of the spheres", outside the reach of the mediocre and the mad.

Ear, Brain, Sound, Being

Failure to experience and develop the contemplative spirit is, in point of fact, debilitating.

Contemplation and reflection nurture the imagination, clarify ideas and emotional states, reinforce analytic thought and strengthen independent will.

For music to lend its force to such essential conditions of consciousness, it must be composed and produced in ways that focus on the arrangement of those elements of sound that contribute most to immersive, atmospheric environments, within which the mind is as liberated as the physical body can be while dancing or engaged in athletic activity.

Sound Spaces

Sound and environment contribute in equal measure to the listening experience.

This balance is as important to the composer in the process of creation as it is to the listener in creating conditions conducive to the enjoyment of music.

It is essential to the aesthetic of sound composition as a form of artistic expression.

Clearing II

State of environment reveals state of mind.

Setting reflects more than wealth or poverty, luxury or simplicity.  Even the casual observer detects harmony and discord, virtue and vice, purpose and principle in the surroundings, whether intimate or public, emotionally charged or sedate.  The visual and auditory evidence is always apparent, and always mutable, whether by choice or changing circumstances.

My perspective of artist as composer leads me to create artificial atmospheres that are nonetheless based upon the sonic events of the real world, as opposed to musical methodologies.  My purpose in developing and evolving these sound compositions is to enrich environments, lift spirits, and fortify strength of mind, character, and state of being.

Illusionary Sounds

The term "music", in a general sense, is indefinite, yet boundless.

For the most part, the casual listener defines music, if at all, in vague, subjective ways, based upon personal preferences and experiences.

More often, musical tastes are simply shared collectively, with little regard given to artistic expression of music beyond lavish production values and sensational presentations.  Essentially, such attitudes toward music are representative of the cultural values of the day-- and they are misleading.

As artistic forms and representations, sound compositions are as expressive and powerful as any others, and they will not be confined, by their very nature, to narrow limits of imagination-- as both composer and discriminating individual listener well know.

Elevation or Decline

To be conditioned to experience sound in rigid forms is to lose touch with perceptual awareness.

By this I mean that the sensations of sound lose breadth, depth, and nuance.  A "sameness" of texture, tonal quality, and stylistic formula pervades the listening experience, and the ability to distinguish between the finely wrought and the merely competent is stultified.  Essential sounds of the surrounding world, with the exception of undesirable noises, are dimmed, such that they may even go unnoticed in the scheme of things.

Having experienced the joy of music and the beauty of sound, the faithful listener will find such a state of affairs unacceptable.  The composer would do well to accept the challenge of not only restoring a fullness of auditory awareness, but of improving upon the art of listening itself, and moving beyond the conformity of expression that diminishes listening pleasure.

Form, Reason, Insight, Expression

Consider the sine qua non of moral reason to existential matters. Still, its limits are clear.

The essential nature of intellect and the capacity to grasp the nature of reality through thought and evaluative judgement can hardly be overstated, but there is no doubt that conscience, intuition, and direct perception advance awareness and understanding beyond linguistic apprehension.

Well-balanced aesthetic sensibility reflects as well as appreciates this contrariety in both means of knowing and ways of articulating artistic perspectives.   For the artist as composer, this balance is the nexus of meaning within the work.

Waiting

Abandoned military vehicle parked at the edge of the woods, seen across an open field.

Suddenly, perspective changes; senses are heightened, and sounds of whippoorwill and insect appear very clear and close.  Yet nothing extraordinary is taking place, beyond a quickening of consciousness.  A zone is crossed and a transition from one state of being to another occurs.

Men appear in service uniforms, place surveyor's tools in the back of the vehicle. The engine engages; sound of approach.  They wave.  Friendly.  They drive away; the sound of the motor recedes down the road.  Now crickets, tree frogs, perhaps.  Rustle of leaves.  Distant drone of air traffic.

Conversation turns to other things, and sounds go unattended.

Such is one example of the manner in which sounds may be perceived with altered awareness; when listening attention turns to sound settings that contrast with the paradigms of music and expectations are set aside, the peculiar force of auditory perception is enhanced in striking ways.

Mysticism, Science, and Art

Trace the arc of imagination forward, beginning in the remote, historic past and projecting into the distant future.

Sounds emerge out of thin air in delicate points of light; manipulated into juxtapositions that please the artist and listener, they expand, rise, contract and fall like soap bubbles from a child's toy, to collide, coalesce, disperse, and form again as new tones and patterns.

Imagination finds ways of expression through technology, and the latter inspires again the former.

Metamorphosis

Changes in culture and changes in individual perception lead to the emergence of unexpected forms.

At first these forms are perceived as strange and unprecedented; then their origins become apparent as their effects are felt and their connections to sometimes obscure traditions become clear.

The composer acts according to the historical impulses at play in the world of outward, objective experience as well as those intimate and dynamic forces found within the seemingly infinite world heard and conceived in the inner ear of imagination.