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 

Direct Experience

Connectivity is not creativity. Not by a long shot.

Effortlessness renders expression dubious, spotlighting its impermanence and eviscerating its power.

If my concepts are not given due consideration, if my music is not in your ears, I accomplish nothing, as far as "connectivity" and other such claptrap goes.

And far more than wasted effort is in progress; here, now, and at all times, one must move forward.

Promoveo, promovi, promotum.

Outside Perceptual Limits

Reveal the unseen and unheard.

Elevate the real; eliminate the false.

Now, When, Where, Why

Consider those times and places that represent humanity's greatest cultural achievements.

Objectively, the elevation of culture, even at the most base levels, evolves in conditions that promote and defend the freedom of the individual and the merits of reason and work.  Without these, there is only the stasis of collective morbidity, held fast by the tyranny of small minds.

There Are No Terms

Every artistic potential that becomes real does so because of choice and action.

Neither cultural attitudes nor the "preparedness" of "the public" can stop the artist. There is one thing of importance, and one thing only: the work.

Meanings, Objects, Actions

Expect the invention of new forms.

It is not necessary to abandon the old forms, and unwise to act as if the historical forces that shaped them no longer exist.  One must be prepared for the unexpected, take the measure of possibilities as they emerge, and create according to the means afforded reason. Regardless of the risks of failure, (and there will be many), the future will be come into being, renewed by perception and forged with daring, integrity, and sweat.

Unawareness and its Opposite

Intense focus and unnatural importance are attached to inconsequential events, people, and things.

One chooses aesthetic purpose, rather than meaningless cultural and social perspectives that focus on mundane diversions, not to disengage from experience, but to embrace reality.

Creative Impulse

Nothing is conceived of nothing.

Reality, culture and the evidence of the senses provide the raw materials necessary to engage and come to terms with life's mystery.  Grasped, manipulated, and combined, they emerge out of consciousness in new forms to the extent the mind and imagination allow.  This is the synthesis of idea and vision out of which emerges expression of every type, whether in the arts or the sciences.

All else is simply information, leading to nothing, in and of itself.  And nothing happens without imagination, inventiveness, innovation, and individuality.

Equipoise and Energy

Work requires patience.

Clarity of concept does not always assure ease of execution.  Work must be focused; it cannot be forced.

Landscape, Still Life, Atmosphere

In accord with the principle ideas of the visual arts, the artist as composer works to attain the ends of artistic expression through sound productions and recordings.

The first principle is that of work.

Such productions are not the result of innate gifts of inspiration bestowed, as "celebrity culture" might lead some to believe, at birth. The artistic outcomes under examination here are those that come into being through prolonged labor, study, and effort, and they are manifold.

As the traditional painter is often engaged in the imitation of nature, as the impressionist is focused upon sensory perceptions such as fluctuations of light and color in changing conditions, and as the abstract expressionist is concerned with gesture and energy, so is the composer of sound art and aural atmospheres intent upon animating sonic forms through applications of these-- among many other-- essential aesthetic concepts.

These concepts are learned, practiced, developed through action, experimentation, and risk-taking, and only then may they appear, indeed, effortless.

Future Echoes

Begin with that which is not possible.

Walls are breached, and doors opened, through imagination and action, reason and free will.  It is not up to the artist to say what will be, but to work to bring that idea, concept, vision or sound into being-- impossible or not.

Disconnection, Immersion

Technology may serve a variety of purposes, or be no more than a diversion.

In the former case, technology may yield increase in capability, expanding potential; yet it is clearly the latter that occupies the attention with little in the way of reward. Here, in fact, is an example of a situation in which power of choice rests with the individual will, and the artist acts accordingly.

Omnipresence, Decadence, Eminence

Becoming ubiquitous, music becomes an afterthought.

Saturation heralds decline in listener appreciation and cultural impact.  Difficulties arise in apprehension of originality and subtlety, and less attention is given to the quality of sound reproduction.  As an event, sound is diminished; as a perception, its intensity is dulled.

These are unacceptable conditions for the musician and composer of integrity, who will not compromise the finer points of art.

Illuminated Passages

A child's experiences and interests become the work of a lifetime.

The elements of life and work may be many and varied.

Isolation, deep distances and echoes, ghost stories, shadows, fires, Reformation, Reconstruction, myth, legend, baptism, poetry and mysticism, good and evil.  Debussy.  War.  Art school. Literature. Folk, bluegrass, rock, jazz, fusion, avant-garde.  Love and Reason.  Performance. Studio. Production, arrangement, experiment. The Academy.  Digital.  America, Europe, The South, Bohemia, the Western Lands.

Expansion and decline, form and the formless, ten thousand things.  Elevation.

Nothing is possible without everything.

Mystery, Motivation, Form

Every composer's work is predicated upon choices; simplicity and complexity develop accordingly, sometimes to work themselves out in unexpected ways over the fullness of time.

In combinations of rock and jazz, for example, extemporization and improvisational fluency lend themselves to creativity in delineating structural elements, ideas, experiments and elaborations.  As these evolve and develop, command of these open-form methods may be further enhanced by restraint and refinement of vision, ultimately moving toward new creative ideas and methods altogether.

Inspirations must be given shape to reflect an artist's intentions; ideas are given life by giving them forms through which they may be conveyed and shared.