Balance and Emphasis

Our reactions to things are for the most part unconscious; our responses to events and information are more often thoughtful, well-considered, reasoned.  Both are subjective, both authentic.

Works of art are of a different nature than such things as provide what is commonly called instant gratification.  The enjoyment of an art work, even one appreciated fully upon first encounter, increases with repeated experience of it; it cannot all be absorbed at once like an ice cream cone or an intense sporting event.  Knowledge and experience gained between one viewing or listening and another may allow one's appreciation to increase beyond what was previously possible.

Art engages the intellect and the emotions when it elicits a response with time rather than an immediate reaction and nothing more. 

Mind at Large

Gradually things may become such commonplace parts of the environment they go unnoticed.  The ticking of an antique clock.  Scenery along routes traveled every day.  Music in a car, in a restaurant.

Patterns become too familiar to the senses and impressions grow weak and dim.  The radio is switched off and the brain continues to generate the illusion of sound out of habit and memory. 

The deliberate exercise of subtlety in thought, apprehension, and expression contributes to an awareness unburdened by bland routine and awakened to unbounded possibilities. 

It is not external sensation that elevates consciousness, but refinement of reason and will.

Non-Music

Sounds considered musical, that is, having tone, timbre, pitch, apparent texture, and so forth, and being subjectively pleasing to the ear, still lack qualities usually considered necessary to be termed "music".

Wind chimes, bird songs, the sounds of rainfall, crickets, and ocean waves are common examples.  They may be somewhat melodic, rhythmic, and repetitive in nature, but they are not fixed and defined by these qualities as are symphonies, pop tunes, or jazz arrangements, though the latter are stylistically free-form and improvisational.

Ambient sound design may combine any of these qualities, as the numerous ambient genres demonstrate, and it may also be digitally generated according to various programs and techniques.

The intent of the "sketch" music of Black Mountain School is to generate, pattern and evolve musical sounds that reflect the shifting, natural dynamics of real-world sound perception, these being ungoverned by formal structure.

Forms

Space and time are measurements of convenience.

Auditory perception structures environments, and our positions in them, according to such things as the placement or origin of sounds, their intensity, and their meaning.  Near and far, quiet or loud, sounds inform the listener in ways gross and subtle, simple and complex.

Processing spoken and written language and listening to music engage the intellect and emotions in communications practically infinite in scope, and they generally adhere to the technical "grammar" of their respective modes of communication, as do mathematics and the arts and sciences. 

Communication is but one aspect of life, and one exceedingly dominant in contemporary living.  One must, at times, consciously make time to contemplate, to ruminate, to reflect, to muse.  Such music as would heighten these faculties of consciousness would not be have to be content-specific, and might be more akin to environmental sounds structured in part by the listener's perception than to typical musical arrangements and song forms. 

Perhaps it can only be called music as a matter of convenience, and it will be considered something else entirely in the future.

Mirror and Nature

Art reflects the consciousness of the artist as well as the subject of the work.

The experience of the work reflects something of the self-knowledge of the individual, and, to a great extent, the attitude of the culture that is home to the experience.  Cultural emphasis on the value of the historic past or on a mind-set concerned with envisioning the future will produce differing responses to artistic works, for example.  Each way of thinking has its virtues, as does receptivity to the vision each offers.

Atmospheres

Fill an environment with sounds that the setting proposes to the mind.

Such sounds will represent diverse sonic properties; linear and random, loud and quiet, dissonant and harmonious, they will come from various perceptual angles and apparent distances.  Yet they will be more than combinations of natural and artificial auditory sensations in that they will imply a sense of emotional and aesthetic space as well as an enhancement of the physical surroundings.

Both the artist and the listener bring their respective sensibilities to such sound designs.

Sudden Winds Do Not Last All Day

Perceptual impressions, emotional associations, connections to ideas and combinations of experiences join together in the artistic impulse.

The exercise of creative thought demands discipline and stamina, and must, at times, be as vigorous and exhausting as an athletic endeavor.  To see, and hear, and know things that do not yet exist and to act to bring them into being may involve grueling effort, lasting patience, and depth of faith in the possibilities of the artistic vision. 

While the flash of inspiration is a phenomenon that comes from the same synthesis of sources, preparation, a critical eye and a steady hand are no less valuable.

Patina

Sounds are associated with sensory experiences, and this is especially true of those found in variations of musical combinations. 

Certain sounds are considered warm, cool, light, dark, rough, smooth, and so on.  As descriptive terms they are generally agreed-upon metaphors; one hearing a "sour note" will recognize it as such.  In the case of those who experience the neurological processes of synesthesia, sound and color may be experienced as a mingled perception, or a sensation in which the two are bound together in varying degrees.

In fabricating tones and patterns to combine in a sound design, it is interesting to consider what sounds a specific natural or architectural form might suggest, what patterns its symmetry bring to mind, and what musical characteristics might be associated with the particular shade and angle of light falling upon the scene that will evoke a sense of presence that endows the piece with spirit.

Events, Altered by Observation

Simplicity and ambiguity sometimes embrace to confound the intellect and charm perception.

A swirl of fireflies in deepening dusk, creak and groan of ancient maple limbs in still air, peppering of sleet against the windowpane.  The odd coincidence on a downtown avenue, laughing inwardly at sensing what a more "primitive" mind might call an augury, the appearance of someone or something that simply should not be there.

Capture such things as these in sounds that evoke their presence.

Speculative Music II

Collage, fragmentary combinations of images and words, and experiments with tape splicing and manipulation of electronic sounds are elements of the contemporary perspective, yet they have been in existence as art forms for quite some time, and in some cases for well over a century.

Art, obviously, does not replace reality, but rather represents aspects of it. 

While imaginary worlds and artificial sounds, as products of artistic vision, become more sophisticated with developments in technology, it is not the imaginary environment with which we are concerned here.

By design, sketch and transformation ambient music follows a progress similar to that of the consciousness of the dreamer, in which any sound may be music.  Such musical elements as define linear time or particular types of structure are not of paramount importance, but neither are they intentionally subverted for mere effect.

Arising in the environment of the mind, any vibration may be followed to realization in some form, and the intention in combining these sounds is to create an atmosphere that suggests or evokes experiences any listener may associate with the sound and movement of the work. 

Four Minutes, Thirty-Three Seconds

The well-known work 4'33" by John Cage is, to this day, more often than not described as four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence.

The point of the piece is that it is not silence, but the establishment of a context for the perception, on the part of the listeners, of the sounds of the environment itself.

Audience reaction varies, but neither is it the response of the audience to the piece that is important, and one might rightly question the legitimacy of the performance if it is staged solely for purposes of condescension or to exasperate listeners.

Rightly understood, 4'33" is an awakening.

Sketch and Transformation

Sound, form, proximity, and movement.

These elements (among others) order perception in time and space.  A great deal of this focus is visual, but conscious concentration on listening reveals a richness of shades and textures as well, whether in an exterior or interior environment.

Drone, hum, distant roar, voices both directly spoken and reproduced, rumbling, noises of animal, bird and insect, automobile and aircraft, timepiece, hiss and rush of air, movement of water, sounds made by metal, glass, leather, plastic, electronics, doors opening and closing, gravity settling and shifting  walls and foundations.  Just now, a siren, approaching and finally fading in an eastern direction.

The sound of musical instruments will be heard as well, and songs, whether fragmentary or complete, but setting those particular cultural artifacts aside, consider an approach to music and listening based on the seemingly random but perceptually ordered nature of sounds, tones and patterns within environments.

Listen:
Excerpt from "The Celestial Way is Like Water" (30:11)

Perception and State of Being

The mind interprets.  It will come to terms with perceptions outside its scope of knowledge by making connections to those things within its range of experience.

Such connections will be personal and cultural in nature, and may also involve abstract knowledge gained from a number of sources. The resulting interpretation, then, may or may not be reasonable or accurate, particularly in coming to terms with the creative arts. 

Still, the direct experience of an artistic work and one's subjective response to it is of great value.

Setting aside the impulse to narrowly define or place a painting, for instance, or sculpture, or piece of music, in one specific context or another may ultimately enhance the perception of the work, while depending on the interpretation or approval of others may spoil it. 

Between the Idea and the Act

Among the things that come to our attention in the world around us, some enter our awareness by conscious choice. 

These things must be actively sought out and actively encountered, and among them are the finer points of the arts and sciences, the philosophical viewpoints, and the abstract cultural concepts.  They may be met with serendipitously, but otherwise they must be pursued.  They are not in common currency, and will not be passively gained.

Expression means risks must be taken, or it will not be.

Glance, Listen, Question

What appears fragmentary may yet be linked to a greater whole.

The separate notes and tones in music, the separate colors of the spectrum, the separate molecules in a cell, the scattering of raindrops and stars and words on a page have an existence unto themselves, it is true.  But in combination they become anything and everything.

Breathing In

Observe the ubiquity of information and the compression of time and space. 

But individual consciousness is not perpetuated indefinitely.
 
The shared experience of art provides the opportunity to reflect upon the creative perspectives of, for example, Jan Bruegel the Elder, Hilda Doolittle, Charles Ives, or anyone, whether living or dead, celebrated or obscure.

The living artist, then, is a bearer of inspiration, and of fire and light.

Mirror of Consciousness

Contemplate, interpret, portray by bringing into representational form.

The reader does not see these old oaks, young cypresses and maples, tall grasses swaying in the autumnal breezes outside the windows here, nor hear the hushed whistling through the distant pines, but such things can come to light in the imaginary spaces of the reader's mind. 

The arts of image and sound and language, if allowed to absorb the attention, may return us to the things we know that sometimes are pushed aside amidst the tension and abstraction of our own endeavors.  Then events, and our actions, may be impelled by the motivation of a different, or renewed, perspective.

Obscure Knowledge

Aldous Huxley viewed the mind as a filter, and its function as a limiting of perception. 

The burden of the creative mind is that in many cases it has fewer such limits.  It is a problem of perceptual simultaneity, of observation and interest given diverse events, whether associated or disconnected from each other, at once.  Rather than approaching reality by ordering it according to learned constructs of, for instance, linear time or spatial relationships, as Huxley's "filter" would suggest, the sense of the imagination is open to more extravagant amounts of stimuli.  Rather than hearing the conversation alone, it is heard within a field of sounds, memories, impressions of emotional connections and intellectual references.  One is not merely reading The Iliad, but is a phantom presence moving among the black ships, hearing the murmur of the wine-dark sea.

The difficult nature of such thinking is easily imagined, and more difficult still is coming to terms with obligations of communication and empathy with those whose hearts and minds and ways of doing things are different, yet equally human and consequential. 

If one would actually create, one might be well advised to create equilibrium, that is to say, to develop effective method of execution, manner of presentation, and works with historical and cultural perspective that offer aesthetic appeal as well.

And there is no compromise necessary in doing so.

Intensity of View

Atmospheres, times, places, sights and sounds.

Whether perceived by the senses or reproduced by artificial or artistic means, these impressions enter our consciousness from external sources, from the environment, or, having been created by human intent, through external processes that reveal the perspective of the artist.  In either case there is an effect on awareness.

The question to consider is not that of which perspective is most interesting or valuable or "authentic" at any given point, as these will vary from one case to the other, but which offers the most insight into life.

Wealth in Solitude

Rainfall patter in wooded hills.

Shapes of the surroundings delineated by sound.  Low clouds and shadows broken by clear air and light, rustle of leaves overhead, birds alighting in branches with scolding calls.  Stir of movement, fragmented voices, laughter.  Music of the day.

Approaching the Phenomena of Existence

The mundane captures all our attention if we allow it.

If we were less absorbed in our subjective emotions and intentions, in the superficial and the sensational, and in the continuous flux of activities surrounding us in life, we should perceive with wider, deeper clarity the human condition and the immensity of what we do not know.

Some say, of ideas or beliefs, or of different viewpoints, "this is surreal", "this is impossible", "this is absurd, without meaning". 

To others such things represent both vision and experience, the results of efforts expended in reaching past the "given" in life.  Such habits of mind as they now practice may be common knowledge and custom sooner than one may think.

The possibility exists that, while such perspectives as these can and do grow into the future, so may they have had previous existence in ages past.

Process

Not every work of art that comes from an individual perspective involves developing ideas along with the means to bring them into form, but neither is every artistic endeavor an act of spontaneous generation. 

My goal in fabricating transformation ambient music sketches is realization of pieces that effect the perception of environments and offer the listener an engaging work suitable for contemplative activities.  The sound may be experienced as decorative, unobtrusive and aesthetically pleasing, or as complementary to active thought.

Observation, Observer, Reflection

Images invite sensations.

Landscapes and seasons; cities and their environs, villages; countrysides, harbors, hills and deserts; the first frost, bonfire on a riverbank, college common as darkness falls. 

Conception of idea, restraint of emotion, intensity of perception, manipulation of media, realization and presentation. 

Tapestry

The fragrance of rain becomes an abstract memory in the dry season.

Our sojourn appears at times to have resplendent clarity, then a glance in another direction renders it stark and bleak until light breaks again. 

The perceptions reveal the shapes and sounds, textures and colors of the fabric of existence; the mind and emotions interpret them with the cultural instruments they learn to use.

Yet the imagination conceives things that seem impossible until they are experienced.

Romance and Reality

The idea that life can be, or should be, art, is self-evidently problematic.

It can be an appealing concept, and echoes historical perspectives of every sort.  Some will atttibute the idea to the Beats, to the Black Mountain College, to Walter Pater and the Aesthetic Movement, or to any number of schools of thought reaching back to the Renaissance, and beyond that, to the Epicureans.

Given its rich history and broad scope, it is nonetheless an intensely subjective perspective, and difficult to reconcile with the vicissitudes of life.  It is one of many aspects of a vision of existence, sometimes fitting, sometimes untenable.

Nor should it be confused with the art of living well, and with fullness of purpose, regardless of circumstance or external challenges.

What is undeniable is that an artistic and creative point of view may realize the products of the imagination in concrete form, and in doing so establish a foundation for realities yet to come.

To Hear and to Listen

Much goes unnoticed.  Listening consciousness does not cease, but will be passive if not engaged.

That which is unusual or striking meets the ear.  We arrive on the scene at the moment bells ring; a fragment of conversation is humorous, interesting, or alarming; a curious piece of music, at first unfamiliar, drifts across the lakefront and with a sudden surge of emotional energy we recognize the song, followed by a host of connected images and associations.  The psyche is engaged, we are attentive to developments within and without, and we participate in the art of listening.

Synthesis

The ambient composer or listener may become preternaturally sensitive to the sounds of the surrounding world.

The drone of an idling car; bird call; light fall of rain; Doppler effect of passing truck with radio, briefly casting the aural shadow of an undefinable musical instrument; light hammering of minor construction work suddenly becoming multiplied in broad and deep echoes across a hundred yards of open field; refrain of crickets and cicadas downhill toward a distant riverbank.

Art and Consciousness

Aristotle considered art to be a representation of reality.  In broad terms this is clearly so.

Some view art as a vehicle for emotions or ideas; some as a means for expression of universal, idiosyncratic, or transgressive viewpoints.  Some may see the various arts-- painting, photography, film, music, architecture, performance media, and so forth-- for their cultural potential in persuading an audience to act or think in certain ways, or as mediums to be exploited for profit.  All these are legitimate positions recognized by critics and artists themselves.

Art may also be an approach to the phenomena of existence, a way to perceive the appearances of things and create representations of these observations. 

In this sense, art questions and assesses the validity of perceptions, then generates viewpoints of reality, as opposed to expressing those already in the mind of the artist.  By such means the artist and those who engage with the art may enhance their perspectives in ways beyond the narrowly limited and mundane, to gain certain degrees of insight-- and foresight-- as well as aesthetic pleasure.

Convergence

Consider the phenomena of existence, the sights, sounds, mingled impressions, historic and human elements and connections of interrelated events.

Music, noise, sounds of the street, voices, insects, animals and machines.  Clocks striking and shouting children, weather conditions, the stirring of air.  Travelers passing overhead.  Ring tones.  Birds and the fluttering of wings.  Back to music, footsteps, automobiles passing.  Wind in the ears.  Breath.

Vibrations, at times, that are perceived yet cannot be identified.

They are all the sounds of a journey.

Tone Poems

The idea of programmatic music, so called because it creates aural impressions of  "real world" concrete and conceptual phenomena, lends itself particularly to the "transformation" and "sketch" ambient forms.

Well known symphonic tone poems by Debussy, Sibelius, Richard Strauss-- and, of course, Gershwin's An American In Paris-- were composed to evoke images of times and places, ideas, events, legends and the like, and certainly represent some of the finest examples of program music.

Works such as Sonic Seasonings by Wendy Carlos, for example, and other ambient creations such as these, might properly be considered extensions of the "tone poem" concept, though developed in entirely different ways with different intents and purposes, and having more in common with impressionistic and other artistic styles than with classical music.

Sound and Relationships

Ceremony and ritual are forms and symbolic acts of community.

Musical expressions of all types imply this shared sense of association; some reflect common sentiments and fashions, others indicate similar interests in such things as the cultural arts, politics, spiritual beliefs, and so on, as distinguish particular audiences.

A notable attribute of ambient music is its quality of providing both interesting listening and contributing to an environment for activities both personal, like reading, and social, such as conversation. 

It is not designed to be the sole focus of interest in a given situation, and may, in fact, complement that focus, whatever it may be.

Vision and Sound II

Juxtaposition of sound elements in collage.

What the eye and experience may intimate, imagination and manipulation of tone, pattern, and movement may realize.

Speculative Music

The names "transformation ambient" and "sketch music" are meant to fit the peculiar sound designs they describe.

It is music that is neither minimalistic nor verging upon static in terms of its content and progress over time.  Rather, as ambient collage or fabrication, it brings varied sounds into contact as they might be heard-- or overheard-- in changing conditions, and in locales both public and "organic" in nature.

It represents, rather than imitates, the development of sound perceived in the course of human movement through imagined environmental spaces. 

Aural Memory

Symmetry and geometry suggest different sounds filling interior and exterior spaces.

Depth, volume, the sense of distance and spatial proximity, the qualities that reflect and absorb sounds in natural environments and in areas defined by human design and structure all impart shades and subtleties of tone color to diverse sounds. Various effects and instrument settings may be used to enhance, approximate, or manipulate these characteristics in a studio scenario. 

Accordingly, the experience of the listener is apt to incorporate personal recollections of the sound features of various environments in context with those generated by the musical pieces themselves.

The "sketch" of a transformation ambient piece is thus completed, in varying degrees, by the listener.

Art and Sound Design

Impressionism is suggestive of perceptions of the external world; abstract expressionism is often representative of the inner workings of the mind of the artist.

Conceptually, ambient music can be designed as work programmed to be produced in a completely artificial way, with almost no input from the artist, or it can be created by fabricating sounds in the manner of painting an aural canvas, upon which the artist renders his ideas, emotions, and intentions.

There are few limits for the listener as well as the artist.

Hawk and Hummingbird

Through a window, shadows of leafy branches swaying in a breeze are cast on the wall.

What comes to our attention is shaped by openness, awareness, subjective attitudes, and the things we carry in our minds; among them are responsibilities, emotional connections, pressures, and desires.

Perception may be refined by conscious attention to subtlety, which is both art and science, as the professions demanding insight and predictive analysis demonstrate.  Such perceptivity graces one's view of life as well, bringing with it the pleasures and satisfactions of foresight and choices well made, along with a greater sense of aesthetic beauty and the complexities of the phenomena of existence.

Wind in trees and the angle of late summer sunlight.

Transmission III

Boundaries of time and space are meaningless in the transmission of culture.

Artists complete works that can become part of anyone's experience, and thus may become suggestive of ideas that lead to the creation of new artistic endeavors in the present day and in the future.

Works of art carry the seeds of works to come.  They germinate in the minds of artists, and may be given form in any medium.  A painting may inspire another painting, a piece of music, a sculpture, a poem or novel, or an architectural design.

The creative arts become interrelated in the expansion of the forces of history, uniting such visions as those of cave painters, theoretical physicists, cubists, and jazz musicians.  So it is for ambient music, with its broad synthesis of artistic forms and ideas.

Earth and Water, Fire and Air

Elements of sketch music include representations of sounds within environments, some completely natural and others reflecting social settings with their equally unique panoramic and intimate aspects.

Both environments, the one entirely natural and the other predominately human, are subject to common phenomena, such things that effect sounds as atmospheric conditions, geographic features, variations in light and darkness, echoes, reflections, concentrations and dispersals of sound waves, and, most particularly, change over time.

These are not content-specific sounds, and so do not necessarily dominate thought, awareness, and perception.  As sound collage, such music (or non-music, if you prefer) is designed to respect the consciousness and activities of listeners and to enhance the surroundings with clarity and subtlety.

Inviting the Moon

Consider reading only books or watching only movies that are constructed around variations of the same plot.

Much music merely drives, in general terms, from point A to point B, repeats, changes pattern, returns to point A and B, and ends by repeating point B. Classic songs and imaginative, complex musical pieces are created with standard patterns and typical forms in which verses, choruses, and so forth are combined to best effect, and much that is atypical and avant-garde can be rooted in such forms.

Give thought to a vision of music that emerges, radiates, flows, shades and illuminates, drifts and surges, fills and occupies spaces, revolves, expands, unfolds and transforms sounds into atmospheres.

The sun is one source of light, the moon, another.

Pop

The ubiquity of pop music means easy accessibility; listeners will tend to hear it more often than other styles.  Listeners become receptive to an emotional connectivity associated with content and patterns of sound common to pop music genres. 

Whether in ballad, rock, or dance, these common patterns are built around repetitive rhythms and refrains, and are made cohesive with instrumentation anchored to bass guitar and percussion.  Listeners come to enjoy this frame of reference in the music they prefer; it is imprinted, to whatever extent, as a subtext in the listener's consciousness. 

Music that does not fit this paradigm, with its rhythm, instrumentation, tempo, and "hooks", is not as accessible. We can observe also the cultural conditioning that effects some listeners in their choices as they identify with certain musical styles, often to the exclusion of others.  The same set of expectations for what defines "music" is in play; classical music and jazz, for example, along with country music and blues, share the aforementioned elements in varying degrees.

While these elements, those of instrumentation, repetition, and rhythmic pulsation may be utilized in the creation of ambient music, they are not essential to it.  Yet the nature of the ambient style, which complements moods and atmospheres and times of day given to activities unburdened by stress and frenetic pace, can be enjoyed by anyone who experiences it in such a context.  In form and function, it is not unlike a kind of audio impressionism, expressionism, or pop art.

Vision and Sound

A perception of the atmosphere of an environment is the result of the setting, its contents and surroundings.

Certainly atmospheres are imprinted with the human touch, contributing to emotional states of being associated with various settings.    The imprint of Frank Lloyd Wright reflects the architect of the Fallingwater house in ways subtle as well as extravagant.  The flow, rush, and fall of the stream there generates rich and nuanced sounds, a kind of natural music.

Our own surroundings reflect attitude and mood as well, and our own choices in music form a part of the setting that has greater importance than we might think.  The touch of the creative musical artist goes far to enhance those atmospheres in which we may feel exhilarated or at ease.

Sketch Music

All environments resonate with the sounds of activity.

Indoors and outdoors, sounds may be perceived to accumulate into a whole comprised of gradual but constant changes in pattern, dynamics, tone and movement.  To "sketch" such events and their transformative elements by selecting representative sounds and combining tones, repetitions and progress over time creates a form of ambience that parallels the sounds of active environments. 

A walk in the woods or down winding streets, across a park or through a public mall, up stairways, down corridors, into subway stations or out in the weather, whatever it may be, fog, noonday sun, wind on the beach-- such things form the framework of the sketch music, and the transformation of sounds reflects movement through time. 

Thank you to Mitchel Harbin for suggesting the descriptive term "sketch music" as applying to these types of transformation ambient pieces.

Sensing Sounds

Popular music, in one form or another, fills so many public environments one takes little notice of it.

In the environments over which we have control, we listen to what we choose.  Much of what we listen to, even then, may be a result of cultural conditioning.  It is always possible to become more perceptive with our sense of sound, and more creative as well.

Vibrations and Consciousness

Music is more than sound patterns, narratives in song, inducement to dance or even artistic expression.

There are those who deny music produces effects on temperament and attitude and so forth, but one obviously hears, sees, and experiences these effects.  Various kinds of music, from the subtle to the bombastic, create impressions within environments, and may give the surroundings a particular emotional and aesthetic appeal.  Just as the listener desires to hear certain music, the musician desires to create it, and sound is associated with sensibility.

Permutations of Sound and Listening

Waterfall, highway, morning in distant foothills, avenues in Krakow, Shanghai, San Diego; fishing pier, railroad crossing, theater lobby, campus, grocery store, low country farmer's fields.

Combine these sounds, tones, and their associated patterns into events, aural metaphors, and reflections; they generate a dynamic and series of movements that coalesce, unfold, disperse and return. 

These represent nuances of human movements and perceptions of environments, a kind of musical journey within a psychic field. 

I think of Futurist music as a kind of "transformation ambient" or  "sketch" sound art, designed with these general fundamentals in mind, with the intent of reaching the listener's unconscious and natural awareness.  This is why the typical elements of beat, rhythm, melody and so forth are not apparent, or left undeveloped, in these long-form musical pieces.

Observer and Observed

So much forgotten in the next moment's breath.

Hold on to scraps of phrases, mental photographs, moving pictures of the imagination.  What do they say about you, about me?

Half-formed thoughts, held or let go in the passing of green fields, power lines, graveyards, accidents, laughter and radio talk.

What we have and know, and what we deny ourselves, rests with us alone.

Creation

What is magic?

Whatever begins in solitude.

The babble of the street and the rambling of mixed media recedes to silence and the doors of a wider world seem to be ajar. 

What did Plato know of shadows on cave walls in comparison to "virtual reality"?

Archetypes

The pace of life is often subjective.  The absence of what is called "excitement" need not mean "boredom".

Consciousness rooted deep in history is different from consciousness rooted in "the now". 

It is the difference between living in the universe and living only in a narrowly limited environment.

Patterns

Think of dreams, and the attendant sensory perceptions so far removed from reality.

Time and space, both distorted in such ways as to be meaningless, are inconsequential to the dreamer.

And what of music, of the sound of dreams? 

Absence of Light

With a decline in reason and free will, the spiritual faculties become hopelessly dull.  Conscience, and with it the soul, or the center of our being, becomes lost to our experience of life.

One cannot say it has died, this conscience or moral sense, or if, in some people, it ever exists at all.  Empirically, one might dispute its very reality, but, ineffable though it may be, one knows one's own.  It is a quality of character that can be recognized in others, as can its absence.

Still, when the senses are continually overstimulated by impressions both real and artificial, directly and indirectly, the end result is a kind of suspension of connectedness, a diminution of awareness.