Hills Beneath the Mountains

Every setting has its unique sounds and sound characteristics.  To become aware of them is to hear music, formless and flowing.

In a remote rural area an hour before sunrise a crescent moon revealed by a scattering of dark, heavy rainclouds provokes the sound of roosters crowing a mile or more away.  Traffic sounds rise and fall on a distant highway; the shrill hissing of night insects reaches a crescendo and goes silent. 

Hushed winds stir and wildlife moves among the shadowy trees with cracklings of leaves and branches.

Frames of Mind

Constraints on twenty-first century composition are few.  Structures may be expanded, sounds explored and modified, and methods and strategies given flexibility in the design of expressive works.

Artistic vision is shaped by sensibility, receptivity, and perception.  One chooses one's cultural tools-- ideas and technologies-- from those accessible, and develops according to proficiency gained through their use. 

A Black Mountain School recording is designed in such a way that, with each completed piece, listeners may engage their individual emotions, experiences, and visions through the context of the work, as though they were finding shapes, patterns, and pictures in clouds in the sky.

Reason and Vision

Ideas imply responsibilities.

The gifts of knowledge and and understanding bring with them an awareness of the necessity of sharing them, and of expressing them with integrity and honesty.  To be realistic, one must be cognizant of the negative aspects of cultural phenomena as well, and be prepared to counter them with reason and example.  It is a challenge to see beyond the superficial and the absurd, and to creatively engage in communicating ways to look beyond the trivial and mundane.

But it was ever thus, and thus the value of the arts and sciences.

Stillness

The sounds of quiet moments possess enchantments, if one but listens.

Transformation Listening

Each piece recorded by Black Mountain School is oriented in such a way as to sustain mood over a length of time through a slowly evolving dynamic series of independent combinations of sounds.

 

These are sounds to be perceived as they are; it is not necessary to "follow" them, especially by the typical means of melody, rhythm, and beat, those being elements that commonly dominate the listener's attention.  While serving as enhancements to the environment, these recordings also exert a subtle influence on one's state of mind, providing atmospheric space in which to think outside the often frenetic pace of things generally given to be "normal". 

What these works are and what they do is unconventional, though accessible to everyone receptive to diverse musical styles and to different ways of listening to music. 

Subtext

Observe the ways in which the attention is directed to certain aspects of cultural reality, and away from others.

Through artifice, glamour and attitude are generated to fulfill needs and expectations of a consumer audience for atmosphere and a sense of connectivity and community.  Some would argue that this is an incomplete and unfulfilling arrangement, but that is not of moment here.  What is notable is that the context itself is often more interesting than the activity designed to engage the attention, for what it says about cultural conditions and the vision of those involved in producing or opposing them.

Postulate music that appeals to sound emotional temperament and invites reflection and creative reasoning.

Technology and Technique

The studio process, and the studio considered conceptually as an instrument, have undergone change over time that rivals that of the evolution of other twentieth century technologies.

Beyond the elimination of financially prohibitive recording scenarios and esoteric equipment, the means of manipulating sound forms and reproducing aural textures has led to conditions through which the imaginative artist or producer can envision entire sonic territories that may be brought into being. 

With due emphasis on patience and meticulous precision, it is possible to develop a repertoire of strategies and methods to create works that have never before been possible.

The Wright brothers first flight took place in 1903.  In 1969 Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the lunar surface, on the Sea of Tranquility. 

People of vision are even now touching the future.

Form and the Formless

Visual and musical arts, like those of a poetic or tactile nature, may direct perception in unexpected ways.

Before we take notice of weather reports we are fascinated by the way raindrops dance on hard surfaces, the ways they form wide patterns while disappearing in a sudden flash of liquid silver; only later do we first think of carrying an umbrella.  With the acquisition of information and familiarity with the commonplace, it is easy to rely on the routine ways of seeing and being, hearing and thinking.  

Easier still is to become distracted by the pressures of responsibility or the popular diversions, losing, along the way, the sense of the unexpected or unknown.  But the beautiful and the marvelous are always to be found, sometimes in simple things and sometimes in complexity.

This is to explain nothing, but to take note, as always, of artistic ideas and intentions. 

Art, Music, Poetry, Mysticism

Much of what is considered ineffable with regard to the arts has more to do with coming to terms with reality itself than with the mysterious or the paranormal.

"Who we are" is more than a function of society and culture, and more than self-image, persona, and intellect.  Measurements of character and integrity, and of the genuine or spurious nature of the appearances of things, convenient and useful as they are in navigating day-to-day experience, do not confer more than a deeper regard for the problems of human nature.

The arts challenge all of these, and the complacency that accompanies dependency upon any of them as sources of smug self-absorption.  That these values and ideas have their place is not in question; that it is possible to rise above attachments to the mundane and the narrowly limited, in culture, ideology, and world-view, is of equal importance to the expansion of consciousness.

To see beyond the present and to strive for the fulfillment of higher ideals is a transcendence of the "given" in our lives and a more powerful understanding of what it is to be human.

The arts offer perspectives from which to consider these possibilities.

Ways of Meaning

Correspondence between setting and sound implies application of the same freely nuanced juxtapositions of imagery as those that appear in poetry.

T.S. Eliot conceived the objective correlative as a set of objects or events that objectify and evoke emotion through concrete sensory imagery.  The connotations associated with such things as walls and windows, rivers and horizons, running and waiting, and the familiar archetypes may bring, in the context of an artistic work, moods and states of mind to bear on a reader or audience. 

In terms of music, emotions are aroused by the full spectrum of audible sounds and their myriad combinations, though much of it is melodramatic and bombastic, or trivial.  Nevertheless, as more is communicated at times by tone of voice than by words, so may expressively tinted music, unfettered by inflexible formula and form, reveal or elicit subtleties of heart and mind not always perceived directly.

Danube Riverfront, Saturday Afternoon

Now consider the imaginary landscape, having attended to the phenomena of sound in a number of given situations.

If every significant line, shape, form, pattern, and emotionally suggestive impression in this image corresponded to a sound, tone, pattern, and musical texture, the sound design would be reinforced by spatial separation, impressions associated with the acoustic properties of the elements therein and the perceived distances between them.  The resulting composition, then, is contemplated with attention to total atmospheric effect.

The same place at another day and hour would sound completely different.

Visual Music

Today my wife and I visited the 77 Million Paintings exhibit by Brian Eno at the YMI Cultural Center, 39 S Market Street, Asheville, NC USA. We would urge anyone with a love for the arts to attend this "visual music" presentation between now and November thirtieth. This is the first installation of 77 Million Paintings in the US outside Los Angeles and San Francisco. It is a unique work of art, and it is a masterpiece.  Below is a detail of an original Eno work we purchased at the Cultural Center gallery, where the installation is now open:

Still images and other means of representing this profound and marvelous work, beautiful though they are, can do no justice to the direct experience of the installation itself any more than a photo in a textbook can a Brueghel, a Van Gogh, or a Warhol. For true insights into the future of art and media, it is an opportunity that is not to be missed.

YMI Cultural Center Hours: 11:00 AM to 6 PM Wed - Sat / 1:00 PM - 6:00 PM Sun (closed Mon and Tues)

Accord

Conformity to popular culture is no transcendent experience, certainly.

Nor is it less absurd to consider the so-called highbrow culture to be more than what it is, refinement of taste and intellectual probity being a matter of character and principle, independent of particular mores, academic institutions, and social constructs.

To be knowledgeable and conversant in both contemporary and classical arts and attitudes is valuable for the simple reason that there are fewer limits to be encountered in doing so, and wise because it provides a greater fund of information through which to navigate the world of ideas and emotionally charged perspectives.

Cultural detritus is easily dismissed; the unexpected may lead to an epiphany.

Crisis and Discovery

Unconfined by conventional expectations, music moves in the direction of its own meaning.

The forms and genres have their pre-existing audiences, and consumer and celebrity culture contributes to their popularity as always.  The novelty of recasting a previous form into a different context is consistently attractive stylistically, if stale creatively.  A cursory overview of the state of music only a century ago, nevertheless, demonstrates the inevitability of development and change.

As forms fail to sustain interest over time, new directions are forged by throwing off the tyranny of the timeworn, the pedestrian, and the sentimental.

Exploration beyond known boundaries is an obligation to art, and to reason.

Solitudes

The sounds of lonely places have their own characteristics, wherever they may be.

At a distance from routine activity, textures and movements of sound strike the ear as being less predictable.  They may seem to have a stronger presence and a greater impact in the stillness of time and place.  Their quiet contrast to the common auditory sensations of everyday experience, whether encountered on an urban rooftop or in a pastoral setting, leaves a profound impression if it is heard with fullness of attention.

It is an impression that cannot be recreated, but musical efforts to suggest this state of consciousness, ones that follow such patterns and evoke similar textures of sound, may bring such an atmosphere to the receptive listener.

Integrity and Remoteness

The total effect of a work of art has as much to do with "feeling", or emotional effect, as with intellectual perception or appreciation.

While it is possible to be knowledgeable about particular forms of art to a fine degree, it does not necessarily follow that one will find such works to one's taste.  Perhaps only a very exceptional piece of, say, film or sculpture, will appeal to one's sensibilities, while others in that manner or genre will not.

Both content and style contribute to the total effect of a work, and to the degree that the audience experiences the intent of the artist.  It is a distance to be crossed.

Failure and Vision

No conventions need be adhered to in experimentation.

The idea is to look for ways and means and methods to accomplish a vision.  The experiment itself is a process, not an end.  Fail once, fail a thousand times, and then the eye of the imagination is opened.

That is the goal, and accordingly, the value of risk.

Peculiarity of Expression

Attempt to define the indeterminate, yet its nature remains beyond grasp.

That which is sui generis may correspond in some ways to some things and be communicated according to those similarities.  Call it a transformation ambient sketch; it consists of  an engagement of interactive sound forms lasting between a few minutes and an hour or more, developing and changing over time, moving without percussion or structured melodies according to patterns more likely to be heard in environmental, rather than musical, terms.  Hence it is atmospheric, and for lack of a more comprehensive term it can be called music of the twentieth and twenty-first century, given its roots in modernism and the reaction against atonality in classical composition.

It neither needs to be understood in a particular way nor defined by what it is not.

Media and Psyche

What is generally assumed to be “the media” is a combination of arts and industry associated with printed matter, radio, television, cinema, and most recently, the internet. 

For some, there is no other culture, and thus no original point of view, no past, no sense of curiosity, and ultimately no imagination.  Out of the burden of this shallow, passive and superficial perspective a host of problems arises.

According to the degree that it afflicts a person's relationship with the world at large, such problems may result in anything from minor misunderstandings in communication to heinous acts intentionally wrought by individuals and groups.

This is not "the media", but a construct of what might be called self-sustaining social and cultural errors.  Media is, in and of itself, neutral.  It is no more and no less than a tool, and it can no longer be dominated by one group or agenda. 

The results of this scenario remain unsettled, but bode well for the idea that mediocrity need not be the cultural and social norm it has been, more often than not, within living memory.

Rhythm, Pattern, Movement

The rhythms of nature flow so continuously and change so constantly as to appear formless.

Within these appearances are many forms, however subtle.  Tidal rhythms and waves over water are clearly recognized, but there are others discernible to the mind and the emotions.  The pull of the moon's gravity, the pace of an urban environment, the movement of seasons, weather patterns, and all types of growth and decay are rhythmic, but in ways we are not accustomed to in music.

Consider, in composition, such transformations represented by sounds.

Echoes Over Time

Music in contemporary life is virtually omnipresent. 

This has become possible over the last hundred and fifty years, during which time the process of recording sound evolved from initial concept to the high quality digital reproduction devices useful in everyday situations and easily available now.

In terms of recording sounds and music, this brings to mind the advent and development of the printing press. The technology is here, the medium everywhere, and culture and the human imagination define the future.

Perspective

Mindful of pattern, direction, aesthetic sensibility, and emotional content, the artist must free the design to suggest itself if it is to have integrity, balance, and purpose.

One does not tell the waves to reach the shoreline in a certain way, or leaves to fall in a particular configuration, or clouds to form and dissipate according to a preconceived notion.

With clarity of observation and subtlety of method, a deft brush stroke, a critical camera angle, or a thoughtful juxtaposition of musical elements, art may manifest itself as if by invitation.

Design

Expansion of simple elements.

When a system is sealed, growth ends.  When it it open, it expands beyond expectations and arbitrary limits.  Now reason and judgement play a critical role, in that the system will thrive under direction, cultivation, and care, but otherwise will become unable to sustain itself, and waste away. 

In art and music, one must recognize when a work is finished.  In life, one must know how to experience gain and loss.

Phenomena

Released on 10/31/11.

The Long View

Perhaps the future is present at times before we take notice of it.

My wife and I enjoyed the rare good fortune of the opportunity to attend Brian Eno's Illustrated Talk this afternoon at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, N.C., USA. A great pleasure and an elevating experience, both for Mr. Eno's wit and his grace in delivering an artistic and scholarly presentation of ideas and concepts of genuinely profound cultural importance, it was also the finest example of public speaking I have ever seen, having been privileged in the past to attend talks by, among others, Carl Sagan and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Anyone given the chance to see the Illustrated Talk should not miss it, particularly if you embrace a love for the future of music and the cultural arts.

The Bob Moog Memorial Foundation / Moogfest

Moogfest 2011 will be held in Asheville, North Carolina, USA this weekend.

Tangerine Dream, Adrian Belew, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Tim Heckler, Moby, and many other featured artists will be present over three days.  Perhaps I will see you there.

Brian Eno will present his ILLUSTRATED TALK at 1.30pm, Saturday October 29 at the
Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, Asheville Civic Center, 87 Haywood Street, Asheville, NC 28801

77 MILLION PAINTINGS (28 October to 30 November)
YMI Center, 39 South Market Street, Asheville, NC 28801

Hour and Moment

Art answers the question, "What is your experience?".

Those to whom art communicates consider the answers.

Unspoken, Understood

In the absence of a direct narrative, atmosphere and tone communicate a sense of meaning.

A work need not be content-specific to offer such things as refinement of perspective and nuance of mood.  In fact, these may be made more apparent without the association of direct exposition. 

In poetry and literature, a character description or sketch of a time and place alone may entertain and inspire insights, while music, painting and sculpture need not reference a specific account of an  imaginative tale or historical event to evoke feelings and ideas in those who encounter the works.

Consider the sounds of seasonal change, of the rise and descent of cultural phenomena, or posit those suggested by light in landscapes or the movement of time through generations.  Intuit and put forward tones and musical textures that bring these into being, and though they are nebulous, they reveal worlds within worlds.

Direct Experience

The appearances of things are multidimensional.

One does not gain an estimate of an individual's character by looking at appearance alone.  That is an absurdity.  Neither is it of any value to accept or reject works of art, from the classical to the the avant-garde, by mere surface impression.  An interpretation offered by someone else is not an informed personal judgement, and an "open mind" is no substitute for a critical eye or ear. 

This is the value of self-knowledge as well.

Fields of Perception

Fragmentation, fractured awareness, spatial and temporal dislocation, sub-textual meaning, and the idea of word and image propagating as viral constructs have provoked debate for a century or more.

That these concepts are influential in cultural consciousness is beyond doubt, particularly in the arts.  Setting aside the often trivial disputes associated with analysis of these cultural and social phenomena, there is much aesthetic pleasure to be found in the happenstance encounter with surprising justapositions of sensory imagery, particularly those sounds and images which are often ignored as unintentional or as mere by-products of the environment.

The interested observer might consider this an opportunity for an artist to be less obtrusive in the creation of works of art.  Not absent, certainly, but mindful of the nature of the inspiration.

Dimensions

Depth, distance, clarity, obscurity, reflection, texture, intensity, proximity, color, tone, and meaning.

Within human and natural settings-- the perceived subjective experience of environment and atmosphere, with its associated emotional and intellectual connotations--  these measurements, among others, serve as intuitive guides to our journey, our movements, and our actions.

If the senses are reliable and the chosen courses of action true, the journey is graced with integrity, balance, spirit and reason, especially in adversity.  If life is torn by contradictions, driven and dominated by the passions and appetites, perhaps some good will come of it, but whatever measures may determine that are vague at best.

Culture is ever in flux, ever subject to events and ideas, some meritorious, some ruinous.

Look and listen.  Choose with care.  The foremost of these measures is meaning.

Higher

If the aims of music are more than the perpetuation of vanity and greed, the listener will know.

Art exists for reasons as old as human existence, and music, as an art form, invigorates the senses and the imagination.

It may be crass, exploitative, absurd, and pointless from time to time, but whatever its negative attributes, it can always be more than a sign of the times and a signal of despair and desperation. 

It can symbolize, through sound, our higher ideals and most uplifting desires.

It can, and does, illuminate past, present, and future.

Between the Lines

As sensory images, sounds may be metaphoric, and so symbolic.

Symbols and metaphors conveyed non-verbally will be associated with universal meanings in many cases, and these archetypes-- in the case of sounds suggesting flight, for example, or depth, or solitude-- bring to mind concepts associated with such things as freedom, mystery, the serene and the sinister, the obscure or uncanny, the pastoral and the seasonal.

Music moves and is moved by culture and the imagination, and the transformational ambient sketches discussed here are designed to immerse the listener in an atmospheric hour for the refreshment and renewal of the mind's eye.

Synthesis II

Sounds are considered warm, cool, even cold.  When a sound or combination is hot, you know it.

Listening for other sounds and ways to describe them we may find them wet, dry, light, heavy, metallic, silken, glassy, airy, ethereal.  In terms of mood they might be called stormy, serene, highly charged, gloomy, bright, or anything related to the feeling they bring to the listener.

Composers and musicians always capitalize on these sensory images.  Any examples that come to mind are illustrative, past or present, in any genre, with any type of instrumentation.

It is the capacity of the electronic music synthesizer to access and generate an abundance of sounds that may be manipulated to breathe life into these aural images that make it a marvelous tool for sound design and collage.  And by marvelous, I mean evocative of magic.

Reality, Existence and Art

Chaos and order exist together.

Disordered thinking is manifested in daily living as impatience, emotional instability, clutter, hazard, and noise.  Chaos happens of itself; it is trifling, irrevalent, and easy to perpetuate. 

To create a perspective free of the pettiness of chaos is no small challenge, and requires effort and vision equal to the task.  Beyond the labor and choices involved, it is also an art.

Out of that art comes culture, and its strength.

Like Water

In the visual arts, a sense of movement may be evoked by line, pattern, repetition, and shading.

In music, these elements are produced over a period of time, in the course of the musical piece.

An "atmospheric" design made with sounds similarly gives this impression of movement.  Unlike a song or instrumental performance, however, created to move more or less directly from beginning to end, the ambient work suggests movement in multiple directions. 

These may approximate an ebb and flow, for example, or movements near and distant, high and low, in asymmetrical juxtapositions and in varied placements in space.  Technological developments in digital stereo and surround-sound recording greatly augment the capability of creating such apparent movements and perspectives with subtlety and clarity.

Ultimately, from an artistic viewpoint, these aspects of the work, with their simplicity and elegance, are meant solely to enhance of the experience of the listener. 

Total Effect

Combinations of elements and their arrangements contribute to the completeness of an artistic work.

In a work designed with sound, such things as the production of tones and elements of movement, contrast, and pattern develop a sonic environment experienced by the listener in ways that differ from those typically fitting the definition of music.  While there are no specific organizational structures that the piece must follow, neither are such structures out of bounds.  They simply may not be useful in contributing to the total effect of the work.

If the goal of a piece is to liberate thought and emotion from the dominance of standard musical patterns, for instance, or to engage listening in ways other than the insistently repetitive and predictable, elements of melody, rhythm and percussion may prove more shopworn than interesting or uplifting.

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.