Art as Sound

Rhythm arouses emotional expression, which in turn is developed with ornamentation.  All else is refinement of sensibility, theory and technique, if this is the whole of the idea of "music".

Anyone who cares in any degree for the reality of art knows and perceives in ways that art requires for its very existence. Each individual and personal perspective holds insights into artistic ideas and concepts that may form a catalyst through which visions of future human expression and culture are revealed.   

The traditional and the popular have their places, but they are not held in positions of value and importance by either the arrogance of specious conventional authorities or the shallow whims and declarations of self-styled arbiters of fashion.

Most particularly in an information culture, one must see and hear the arts through one's own eyes and ears.

Sound, Sense, Thought, Being

Tone, mood, atmosphere: being sensory images or impressions, and thus suggestive of emotional content, these convey implications words alone can not provide the listener.

It is a widely-held view that emotional content forms the essence of music, and that it is the central reality of the musical experience.  There is no reason to dispute the nature and fact of this belief, yet it is equally certain there are other ways of listening and composing that are, by intent, removed from the ordinary limits of emotional experience.

Works created for such aesthetic ends may be thought of as presentations of auditory imagery designed to evoke environments in which the listener's consciousness is not subject to the vagaries of emotive excitation, but rather directed toward contemplative states of mind.

Conceptual Succession

Interrelated ideas form patterns and reorganize their elements to emerge in diverse manifestations, different intellectual and emotional perspectives, for instance, or unexpected expressions.

Consider, contemplate, analyze, draw conclusions, gesture, communicate, represent.

But, one objects, it may not be understood.

If such is the goal, do not look or reach beyond the obvious.  If there is more to art and expression, the aims and purposes are beyond as well. 

Understanding will arise in time, or it will not.  But measure the known against the unknown, and there is always more.

Imaginary Consciousness

Over time habits of listening and thinking become ingrained in the psyche.

Disregard for conceptual limits does not eliminate them, but they become plainly discernible as indifferent things that, for some, are obstacles that can neither be understood nor overcome.

Promoveo, promovi, promotum.

Film, Sound, and Thought

Combinations of auditory and visual imagery suggest, as do word combinations and connections in poetry, multiple possibilities and levels of meaning through concrete and abstract impressions.

In cinema and television applications, narrative pace, characterization and plot drive the action, as they do in theater productions, but these are translated through mediums that provide more possibilities in presentation than direct performance.  Lighting, camera angles, sound, and sound effects distort and color perceptions, producing a different total effect than that of works onstage.

The art made manifest in the combinations of sound and images as they change and move is of equal importance to all other elements of the film, and in some productions it is the central element around which the themes of the work arise. 

The term soundtrack cannot adequately convey the significance of this aspect of the work, given its critical contribution to the overall artistic statement made by the production.  Still, musical clichés are often the norm, metaphorical tones, sound sequences and textures that enhance mise-en-scène are rarely brought to bear artistically-- in even the more imaginative screenplays-- and subtlety is too frequently sacrificed for overwrought intensity, particularly in generating suspense.

As always, everything depends upon the vision of the artist or artists involved.

Late and Soon

The experience of sound is more than auditory sensation. 

Musically, it is cultural, attitudinal, and physical, as well as emotional and cerebral. In impact and influence, it is an existential phenomenon.  It is within the listener as well as in the air.

Beyond listening, one may also observe, contemplate, make choices, and create expressions revealing experiences, emotions, and ideas.  Transformation ambient music, through tones, textures and patterns, does so by placing less emphasis upon musical forms and more upon sounds themselves and the impressions they convey.

Vanguard and Context

It has been said that Picasso was as familiar with the work of the Old Masters as he was his own.  Andy Warhol's final series of paintings was based on variations of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper.  John Cage utilized the Classic of Changes, or I Ching, as a musical composition tool.

The avant-garde does not appear out of a vacuum, rootless, without foundation, directionless and devoid of cultural reference.  As a manifestation of the artistic impulse, it reflects elements of the cultural sensibilities of the artist, whether the goal is to advance traditional forms or break with them altogether.

In contemporary terms, this manifestation may encompass all cultures, all of history, and all human expression.

Listening and Being

Observe, absorb, and hear with imagination's ear what might be.

In bringing these inner landscapes into existence through the medium of sound, a total experience is made present with the listener, integrating a sense of dream and reality, the physical and the intangible.

Aural Exploration

To take one's departure from received wisdom regarding value and meaning in music is to become aware of sounds taking aesthetic form in unexpected ways.

Sounds previously ignored or dismissed as mere noise gain clarity.  Environments once perceived as essentially devoid of sounds become atmospheres filled with interest.  A different sense of order in the context of listening may prevail over an impression of randomness.

Experiences such as these suggest potential directions of forthcoming developments in composition and listening; these are likely to take shape according to paradigms distinctly different from those now in common currency.

Pulse, Flow, Cycle

The familiar rhythms of music are unmistakable, follow steady beats, and move in patterns of human design. 

The cyclical rhythms and patterns of natural phenomena are often subtle and fluctuate in movement. 

Lapping waves and pounding surf draw the attention before drifting to the periphery of consciousness, like the ticking of a clock.  Candles flicker, pulsate.  Tides swell and recede in the moon's embrace. 

Likewise, town and country, farm and city, office and schoolyard and street and caravan in the far reaches move to rhythms not cadenced in musical measures, but alive with pace, inflection and sequence.

Months, years, and centuries pass in the course of some rhythmic processes while others take only moments.  Patterns of rhythm they are, though not in the sense commonly associated with musical composition and performance; they are not driven or carried by drum beats. 

Transformation ambient music and the shorter sketches of the form, then, are not based upon rhythms of the familiar musical sort, but give rise to rhythmic patterns similar to the natural, cyclical type in the unfolding of the various works.

Primordial Presence

Music, in its most primal manifestations, may be heard in imitations of animal calls and cries, inarticulate expressions of human emotion, and percussive rhythms. 

Over time such utterances of an emotional nature evolved into symbolic language, and the beating of  sticks and stones, drums and shakers carried symbolic meanings in patterns related to dance and ceremonial ritual.

Tone of expression retains its emotive implications, variations in pitch articulate phrases and melodies in the manner of speech, and rhythms convey intensity of feeling, echoing these origins and communicating a range of moods with delicacy and force words alone mainifest in entirely different ways.

The various musical genres reflect diverse artistic purposes in manipulation of these forces, with the ambient stylings focusing greatest emphasis on tone, mood, and atmosphere while treating emotional intensity with moderation and restraint.

If What the Philosophers Say is True

Epictetus and Lao Tsu offer insights in regard to the idea that human will, in conformity to nature, affords the individual clarity of vision and action unburdened by material attachments and self-delusion.  The term nature here means reality in terms of human nature, social and cultural conditions, and an ordered cosmos made so by right reason and virtue, or the good.

Consider, accordingly, a concept of a music in conformity to nature.

Sounds of a moderate or serene type might be said, by some, to represent such a music.  Both Greek slave and Chinese sage would assure the listener, however, that any music, regardless of form, is part and parcel of reality, reflecting either order, chaos, or combinations of both in thought and expression, whether the composer, performer, or listener intended a "conformity to nature" or not.

Instead, conceive a combination of sounds forming a stylized representation of the collage of auditory phenomena encountered throughout diverse environments over the course of one's journey in life.

Perspectives

In the classical age music was viewed as communicating emotion and having the power to shape the moral sense.

To Plato and Aristotle, rhythm and melody were meritorious in education and entertainment as influencing listeners' dispositions in ways compatible with order and harmony.  To their way of thinking, these elements, as external influences, could also be detrimental to character if reflecting negative or extreme emotions and attitudes.  This is typical of an Aristotelian viewpoint in which a proposition is framed in "either/or" terms that may exclude divergent concepts.

Beyond this paradigm music may be viewed as design in sound; it may be produced by elements other than rhythm, melody, and harmony.  As an atmospheric setting or environmental envelope of tones and textures, it may be created for different aesthetic and contemplative purposes and effects altogether. 

There need be no limits beyond those set for a purpose.

Force and Form

Mutually involved forces are constantly producing effects, some foreseeable and some unpredictable.

The sound artist, like any artist using any media, may observe and represent a vision of this type of intertwined dynamic in the course of composing or fabricating a work. 

Setting aside the idea of structured, linear composition built on rhythm and melody, perceptions of the concept of music are altered.  The nature of sound itself, with its variations in tone and color and texture, may also be transformed into an aesthetically satisfying experience.

Contemporary Limits

Changes in culture, particularly those brought about by changes in technology, alter the ways in which reality may be perceived.

While opportunities arise for artistic expression using materials previously considered outside the parameters of "art", there may also be a disconnect between immediate awareness of information and historical knowledge.

That which is archaic, whether of the world of technology or of ideas, is not necessarily obsolete.

Variation and Unpredictability

Shifting currents in a stream, variations in the geometric shapes of flocks of birds in flight, changing weather conditions, cloud formations undergoing metamorphosis: these are patterns that are perceptible and expected but cannot be foreseen. 

Similarly, auditory phenomena encountered while in transit through various environments and settings may be conspicuous as having these qualities, if one but takes the opportunity to listen.

Such inconstant elements are among the distinguishing features of musical arrangements in the transformation ambient mode.  Along with the predominance of tones and textures, elusive turns and displacements in variable combinations of patterns contribute to the peculiar and perceptually striking nature of these works.

Fire, Warmth, Light

Music may impose itself upon the listener, draw the listener in, or exist as a part of the listening environment, with the potential to be engaged in varying degrees by the listener.

Times, settings, and temperaments of artist and audience form the listening experience as well as the sounds themselves, each aspect contributing to the total effect of a performance or recording. 

The responsibility of the artist to the listener, however, is the obligation of the artist to the art.

Gesture, Word, Tone

Meaning is conveyed through signs, signals and symbols.   Combined, they may communicate with continually increasing subtlety and complexity.

Archetypal meanings deeply rooted in the human psyche are associated with sounds. Perceptions prehistoric cultures associated with sounds-- bright and sharp, deep, ethereal, portentous or ominous, clashing, roaring, divinely or mystically strange-- resonate in modern consciousness.

As poetry communicates on many levels of meaning at once, so the symphonic tone poem suggests myriad levels of musical and emotional meaning, and that is the simple intent of my work with transformation ambient and sketch compositions in an electronic setting as well.

Vibration and Illumination

A sense of equilibrium in an artistic expression reflects a balance between opposing forces.

It is a condition uniting diverse and unexpected connections.  Spontaneity and restraint, for example, produce outcomes in combination unlike those they produce alone.  Light and shadow, density and sparseness, and contrasting tones and textures act in juxtaposition to create a unity of effect, whether serene or surreal, sensual or cerebral, vague, clear, or otherwise discernible.

Impressions of this nature represent a different order of seeing and listening, one that is simple yet not predictable, nor dulled by the frenetic and the mundane, but free of limits and barriers to a wider range of aesthetic experience.

Vision and Force, Being and Expression

Artists think for themselves. 

To the work alone, in idea and act, is the will surrendered.

Meaning Among Motifs

Assemblages of sensations.

Fragments of agreeable conversation. Icicles dripping, salt air, crackling firelight, clouds rushing past a full moon.  Fragrance of turned earth, echo of subway tunnel, oily textured lemon wedge, flight and calls of geese, beads of rain on iron rails. 

Sounds to call these to mind, in patterns that let them dance.

Tone Language

Expression manifests and communicates through various mediums, the processes of each informing and shaping the expression in unique ways.

Personal and subjective expressions, that is to say, those gestures reserved for close and informal relationships, contrast sharply with expressions of public opinion of a political or cultural nature, and neither bears any resemblance to impersonal expressions of art as representations of reality.

Mediums of expression include the visual and plastic arts, dance and performance arts, speech, poetry, the written word, and musical forms, established and unorthodox.

Tone in sound and tone of human voice communicate in the same ways, and the language of tone itself embodies meaning beyond the limits of spoken language.  This is expression of force and its application in sound art, as initiated through tone and its combinations in texture, regardless of manner, technique, or the means by which it is produced.

Relation, Manner, Formation

To be cognizant of the range of sounds in environments large and small demands the development of conscious effort.

With concentration, near-infinite admixtures of tones and timbres, patterns and lines appear to emerge, as it were, from formless shadows of sound.  Yet these dense textures and swirling aural tapestries are dashed into a fog of fragments and withdraw back into the psychic distance at the least distraction, however mild, that asserts itself fully into our consciousness.

Still, it is an experience of an immense pleasure, and, having known it, much to be desired again.

Musical works, or fabrications of sound design if you prefer, that evoke atmospheres of this nature are the objects of my methods and strategies of composition and recording.

Unrestricted Listening

Sound and emotion are inseparable, but the art of sound extends beyond simple association with mood.

Musical atmospheres may be designed with the goal of directing the listener's attention and perceptions outside the range of mundane thought and activity.  This is directly opposed to musical compositions conducive to escapist fantasy; the aim is that of bringing about a more creative and autonomous state of mind through engagement with listening experiences that are aesthetically pleasing, yet out of the ordinary. 

I desire music that is liberating, in an emotional, intellectual, and spiritual sense.

Imagery in Sound

Listen at any time and place to hear myriad events produce varied sounds in continuous succession.

These are sounds in an original state, so to speak, taking form without being intentionally given form in terms of controlled musical elements, like rhythm, melody, meter, beat, and so forth.  Certain sounds will be human in origin-- automobile engines, for instance, or laundry flapping on a clothesline in the wind.  Other sounds will be, like the wind or rain, primordial in nature.

The creation of a piece made for aesthetic listening, as if the sounds were happening in such manner, need not relinquish all control to chance, or be contrived as representing random, disconnected noises.  Manipulation of tones, patterns, contrasting sounds and textures may lead to compositions that fill the atmosphere and the ear with uniquely enjoyable sounds while allowing the mind to wander freely, unburdened by music that demands all one's attention. 

Synthetic, Organic, Personal

Environments most often encountered are combinations of natural and artificial elements.

A child puts an ear to the seashell and listens for the ocean.  Listening, interpreting, aware of the objects in the room, the people in the house, the sounds of traffic and echoes of windows and walls. 

The sea is not making the sounds inside the shell, but the sounds are real, and not the sounds of the everyday world of the child.  The room becomes strange, and deep and distant within the shell is a roar that is the ocean and is not the ocean.

This aural impression lingers for a while, and during this time the light of reality is subtly changed.

Stylized Realities

Art comes into being in its final forms by virtue of the efforts of the artist, and these labors include applications of abstract ideas as well as choices and actions regarding manipulation of media. 

Theories multiply as artists and composers investigate and analyze, experiment and evaluate. Ideas behind successful experiments are incorporated into works, and failures set aside, but not forgotten in refining the creative process. 

Ideas, concepts, and theories abound, but the artist in search of unique expression weighs, balances, measures, tests, and synthesizes these to suit intended outcomes.  The work embodies the elements the artist designs and produces the total effect the artist envisions, and at times inspires new concepts and applications as a consequence. 

From the perspective that sound is a medium for producing artistic works, it follows that theoretical constructs are of value as technical and aesthetic principles in the execution of such works.  A clear and critical view of connections that may be explored in aleatoric, generative, and emergent music, for example, provides insight into ways and means of originating cogent ideas and methods for developing them as well as new designs in sound. 

The final goal of these fundamental ideas and processes, as interesting as they may be, is a finished work of art in sound that is pleasing to the listener and interesting in and of itself.

Transformation Ambient

When styles diverge in popular music and coalesce into new forms that demonstrate a pronounced difference from previous styles, these forms are identified by new names to denote their originality. 

When experimental music follows suit, the same thing is done to distinguish one mode of sound and composition from another.  Well-known examples are ambient and generative music as developed by Brian Eno, as well as the widely diverse stylings of popular electronic music termed electronica during the formative phases of digital music culture.

In speaking of transformation ambient as the result of various processes utilized in its creation, I am identifying the asymmetrical form of arranging combinations of tones in temporal and spatial relationships I employ to design sound compositions, the works produced in this manner, and the concept behind the music.

This theory proposes that by dispersing as well as ordering tones and phrases, the composition provides the listener an experience of ambient music that reflects naturally occurring and perceived environmental stimuli, thus disengaging anticipatory expectations and responses --the "following" of the progress of the "tune"-- associated with music generally. 

The result is transformation, altering ideas and methods related to composition, and, in turn, processes of listening as well.

Unseen Worlds

 Transient emotion, distraction, and diversion bury perception. 

Caught up in the events of the day, carried along in a flood of  thoughts and activities, how effortless it is to lose contact with the wider, deeper awareness human consciousness engenders.

To certain artists and listeners, music not simply a medium for self-expression and diversion, but a gateway to penetrating insight, to a more intense and profound state of being.

It is a vision to be shared with all who can experience it.

Waves Through Distances

Boulevard, open field, highway.

Taxi, airports, countryside.  Street corner, city square, restaurant.  Rooms and porticoes, stairwells and metro trains.  Murmur of conversations, shouts of children, calls of birds and animal cries.  Engines, droning, purring, roaring, rumbling.

Patterns with no connections, in processes connecting.  Footsteps, laughter, wind and rainfall; movement, traffic, heartbeats, chimes; rustle, aura, crowd, procession, songs, silences, voices and noises, filling the corridors of memory and perception, colored by emotion, idea and the phenomena of existence.

Sketches of such impressions as these, utilizing the recording studio as an instrument of the imagination, seeking aesthetic equilibrium between idea and act along an axis of sounds.

On the Art of Sound

Everywhere percussion, rhythm, and melodic pattern typify and define-- I would say limit-- perception of music.

Acclimated to predominate stylistic norms, one may find it difficult to appreciate an art of sound that places no emphasis upon such things as chord progressions, back beat, or arpeggiation.

Yet elements such as these are imposed upon sounds to give them structures of various kinds.  They combine to serve as "framing devices" for musical styles, and ultimately, in general terms, for music itself.

This is like being aware of no more than that the sky is blue in the daytime and black at night.

Having worked as an independent songwriter, arranger, and producer, surrounded by these aspects of music for decades, it became incumbent upon me to move beyond musical ideas I no longer found interesting.  Through taking advantage of the freedom to do so, I remain engaged in experimentation, analysis, application of independent theory, and the production of new works.

These works, like all the arts, exist to illuminate their surroundings.

Coalesce, Disperse, Recombine

Tones are the essential elements. 

Riven from repetitive sequences of standard rhythms, beats, and predictable melodies, the dynamic interplay of tones is noticeably altered. 

The listener will still perceive pattern, duration, volume, pitch, timbre (or voice) and the usual qualities associated with musical forms, including compositional textures and apparent movement over time; yet freed from the confines of dominant percussion and insistent, regular meter, these elements reveal their intrinsic beauty.

Auditory impressions which might be described in terms of color, temperature, emotion, and depth of aural field are evident in these tonal combinations as well. 

Released from common expectations and restrictions, sound may be directed to fulfill extraordinary visions.

Eccentricities

Common habits of thought yield general failures of perception, ordinary expectations, banal expression, mediocre understanding, absurd criticism, and a broad spectrum of social and cultural problems.

Undo the causes and alter the outcomes.  To awaken is a personal choice.

Mine is the business of observing and engaging the world through the faculties of reason and will, awareness and action, communication and consciousness.  These things are within an artist's purview; extraneous to these are matters independent by nature and outside my influence.

But art extends this reach.

Extension

Art inspires reaction, response, interaction-- in short, communication.

Media, politics, entertainment, propaganda, the sensational and the superficial will go to, and follow, the crowd.

It is the individual who seeks out and goes to art, and it is art that will communicate directly, without guile or condescension, to the individual.

Above, Within, Outside, Below

Sounds directed beyond the narrow range of waking perception and linear thought.

Suggestion of events taking place past one's line of sight.  Partial recurrence of a lucid moment in a dream, while engaged in mundane activity.  Impression of sound and image out of far distant past.  Contemplation of night sky, ocean, movement of migrating flocks of birds.  Gossamer in autumn air.  Awareness of passing an hour along city avenues without seeing another living person.  Realization of change in the atmosphere, alteration of light, intensity of emotion.

Such are mere hints of things that may pass through a listener's stream of consciousness while engaged with nonlinear sound designs.  These are musical transformations created to bring about, enhance, and sustain a free-flowing state of mind.

Sketching

Convert visual impressions to sounds informed by experience, auditory memory and spatial relationships.  The outcome is a record of an imaginary setting.

This is one manner of combining and ordering elements in ways to create a total effect. 

Indeterminate in form, the sketch develops into a recognizable emotional landscape, unfolding in the surrounding environment and in the mind of the listener.

It is a simple aesthetic, designed to evoke and sustain artistically pleasurable atmospheres while remaining unobtrusive yet stimulating.  It also offers a different approach to listening and responding to a different style of sound, one having little resemblance to typical formulaic music.

Aesthetic Distortion

It may be an apocryphal statement, but I have heard it said more than once that Dr. Bob Moog believed that the electronic synthesizer should not sound like any other instrument.  Recently one of Dr. Moog's former students confirmed to me that this was true.

Synthetic sounds have unique qualities. They may create entirely novel combinations of tone, or reproduce certain obvious characteristics of specific instruments. In both cases these sounds can be manipulated to produce effects that reach the ear in striking ways.

The results may sound merely imitative, an echo of aspects of familiar musical works, or they may combine in more interesting synthetic forms, as Dr. Moog conceived them, to move in diverse or strange directions.

A sound that seems ancient and modern at once is particularly appealing to me, especially when it moves through time organically and unpredictably, and I often seek to attain it when organizing compositions.  The digital studio and synthesizer make a potent combination in bringing such sounds to life through innumerable means that were not possible mere decades ago.

It is no longer possible for me to think of music as being limited to particular forms, but rather as auditory images evolving in other ways altogether.

Method, Manner, Motion

Predictability may be more distracting than the apparently random or chaotic.

The purposes of customary and routine actions are for the most part desirable and necessary, organization being of value in terms of aims and intentions.  It is the loss of dynamic engagement with any activity that becomes enervating.

In the arts especially, it is the dullness of repetitive thinking that dims the imagination.

Perceptual and intellectual limits are not necessarily abhorrent in themselves, provided they are understood as obstacles to be overcome, and actions are taken accordingly.

That which would be filled must also be made empty.

Appearances II

Limited expectations and cultural conditioning reinforce each other.

Collective approval permits acceptance of the previously rejected.  What was formerly strange and unknown gains admittance, then common currency, often as the result of celebrity promotion or  commercial advertising campaigns. 

Those who think for themselves are not burdened by this sort of timidity, seeing and hearing what others do not, and being unconcerned with the vicissitudes of public tastes.  This is by no means a small and elite group, and often has greater influence on cultural attitudes than those with a vested interest in manipulating "consumer" perceptions.

The appeal of art is nowhere lost, regardless, but only obscured for a time. 

Soundwork and Process (Philosophy of Composition)

Combine elements and design emerges.

Manipulation of elements alters design.  (Auditory:  sound, tone, pattern, apparent movement.)

Aesthetic choice of elements conveys reason, sensibility, emotion.

Development of design reflects change over time.

Context is external in atmosphere and setting, internal in terms of listening and state of mind.

Sustain.

Curious, if True

There is a reticence to consider the possibility that having music "stuck in your head" might impair thinking or perception.  The German word for this phenomenon is ohrwurm, meaning "earworm".

The idea that such a thing as involuntary sound imagery could interfere with consciousness is problematic, as music is so prevalent in daily life.  Nevertheless, it is a fact that recorded music has existed for less than two hundred years, and has never been as accessable and ubiquitous at any previous time in human history.

In a waiting room recently I could hear the music a young girl was listening to on an iPod or mp3 player.  I was unfamiliar with the songs, but, objectively, they were interesting for what they were, being complex lyrically, it seemed, though instrumentally generic and predictable in terms of arrangement and production. 

Then I realized she was singing along with every song, so quietly her vocals blended perfectly with the low volume of the music, flawlessly in tune and, in fact, decorously, given the setting.  It was a rather long wait, so this continued for quite some time, exactly as described, through perhaps five or six songs.

When she stopped and glanced around the room, I complimented her on her voice.  I asked if she was "a singer".  She was not, but was pleased with the compliment.  "When you're not listening," I asked, "Do you hear the songs in your head?"

"All the time," she said.  "Always."

I did not ask if she could "make them go away".

Expansive Obscurity

Popular culture is more than immersion in entertainment and celebrity.  It is more than a vehicle for the communication of social and political viewpoints, more than a combination of business and industry.

 Pop culture is itself an art medium.  While the entertainer by necessity gives the audience what it wants, the artist expresses a vision.  In the context of mass media, the vision of the artist may gain common currency beyond the demand for entertainment.

For the most part this is a transient and superficial phenomena and retains public interest for a short while until being replaced by another, but from time to time there appears a work or body of work that alters the cultural perspective, becomes influential in diverse ways, and transcends the scenario of the "overnight sensation".

Ambient music in its numerous forms, while remaining relatively obscure over time in popular terms, has nonetheless changed the sound of the cultural landscape, and its potential to continue to do so appears unlimited.

Music and Sensibility

To consider the extent to which media is fused and blended with consciousness gives one pause.

Certain connections suggest themselves:  meaning may be clarified or confused.  Choices may be consciously made, or be no more than the result of having come to no alternative, emotion having superseded the faculty of reason-- the latter neither understood, developed, or experienced. 

Unselfconsciousness is no substitute for self- awareness.

Vicarious experience of reality does not suffice to replace human knowledge, any more than political ideology is a substitute for wisdom.  Distinctions are either made between the general and the specific, or they are not; the differences between a vine and a poisonous vine, as between actions taken according to intent or impulse, are significant. 

Love for the object of one's desire is not equal to love for another human being.

Music to enhance a contemplative atmosphere and state of mind can, beyond evoking aesthetic beauty and pleasure, contribute to creative and intuitive reasoning, lucidity of perception, and more. 

This is the raison d'etre of my work.

Art, Idea and Act

What can be conceived artistically can be assessed and developed according to its virtues.

Clearly, there are challenges to be overcome in bringing into being works that reflect truly the vision of the artist's imagination.  These will be numerous, and vary in degrees of difficulty.

The greater the challenge, the more patience proves essential.  There must be resources with which to work, there must be time to gain knowledge, skills, critical insight; these must be applied with an eye to risk, failure, and gain, and the will to accept results and modify approaches.

Acceptance of the idea of art as the work of a lifetime is an existential commitment.

To those who make that choice, and to those that support them, godspeed the new year's journey.

Creative Will

The exercise of will in artistic creation bears little resemblance to that of assertion of personal control over everyday events.

The expenditure of will in daily life is wasted on things beyond our control, unlike that focused upon artistic endeavors.  The latter evolve according to the artist's intent and efforts; the former will encompass much over which control is impossible, though this is not to say that none of these are within the scope of responsible influence.  Various things like health and reputation may be enhanced to some extent by effective choices and actions, as may gain and loss generally, but limits on art and creativity are few in comparison.

Art responds to individual will and temperament and is formed into a representation of reality.  Reality itself will not be compelled to be other than it is, a fact to be considered when contemplating the idea of life as art.

Forces of Art, and History

Music, like painting and the other arts generally, offers the artist a great deal of control over media.

Some mistake artistic control for refinement, but this is not always so.  To view Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine or a Van Gogh self-portrait elevates consciousness, though the artists' methods are completely dissimilar and at variance with each other in terms of control of execution.

The portrayals in stone and illustrations of the anonymous heroes of the Soviet era in the state-approved mode of "socialist realism" offer another view.  Demonstrating a subjection of art and artist to total control, these works reflect the stylized conformity of a vision of reality experienced through prison bars.  Affronts to the spirit, the productions represent absolute control at the expense of all else, and burden consciousness with oppressive implication.

Control of media, in any instance, suggests a force of will, in that the final work is a manifestation of the intent of the artist-- but it is through free expression that the arts, and musical arts particularly, are realized most fully and sustain their virtues over time.

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Pravomoci umění a historie

Hudba, jako je malování a další umění obecně, nabízí autor velkou kontrolu nad médii

Nějakou chybu, uměleckou kontrolu pro zušlechťování, ale to není vždy tak. Chcete-li zobrazit Leonardo Dáma s hranostajem, nebo Van Gogh autoportrét zvyšuje vědomí, i když metody umělců jsou zcela odlišné a v rozporu s ostatními, pokud jde o kontrolu provádění.

Zobrazení v kameni a ilustrací anonymní hrdiny sovětské éry ve státem uznaný způsob "socialistický realismus" nabízí jiný pohled. Prokázání podrobení umění a umělce úplnou kontrolu, tato díla odrážejí stylizované souladu vize reality zkušených přes vězeňské mříže. Urazí duchu, produkce představují absolutní kontrolu na úkor všeho ostatního, a zátěž vědomí tíživé důsledky.

Kontrolu nad médii, v každém případě naznačuje, silou vůle, v tom, že konečné dílo je projevem záměru autora - ale to je přes svobodu projevu, že umění a hudební umění, zvláště, jsou realizovány většinou v plném rozsahu a udržet jejich ctnosti v průběhu času.

Illuminations and Shadows of Sounds

A synthesis of sound sources and artistic perspectives is brought to bear within a selected setting:  it is an effusion of tones, colors, textures and movements.

We do not listen for one sound or another beginning and ending.  They merge and separate and reform in ways more common to weather patterns or tidal movements than to music.  Orientation in space appears to undergo changes, and time is perceived differently, or not at all.

This atmosphere is of the environment, and of the mind.

On Exceeding Parameters

Asymmetrical juxtapositions of varied sounds and their movements through time produce different musical effects than those dependent upon combinations of sounds in regular, recurring patterns and forms.

In standard musical frameworks notes and patterns are repeated with only slight variations-- if any-- as heard in the common combinations of verses, choruses, and instrumental breaks typical to pop/rock songs.  It is possible to become so accustomed to styles grounded in beat, rhythm, and melody these elements lose their force and become trite, boring, predictable, unlistenable.

To free tones, notes and instrumental lines from these paradigms and scatter them among each other in diverse movements disengages the ear from following and anticipating the cadence and action of the music and releases consciousness from the dominance of the sound.

Being fully absorbed in music is one way of listening, but it is not the only way, or even the most desirable of ways. 

This is a perspective of ambient music generally, and a starting point from which Black Mountain School compositions and recordings proceed toward extending the established capabilities and limits of the genre.

A Sense of Meaning, and of Mystery

Impressions are interpreted in myriad ways.

When given expression and form, these impressions may be conveyed according to various artistic conventions, approximated subjectively, reproduced with emphasis on particular content, exaggerated for certain effects, and otherwise brought into being for any reason or as the result of any impulse whatsoever.  Order may be brought to chaos, or the reverse may be so.

The result is a generation of force.  In view of art and ideas, the extent of that force can be known in terms of history, even predicted accordingly, but upon leaving the artist's hands it belongs to an unknown future.

Ancestral Shadows

Among the most imaginative of Christmas traditions in many places is the telling of ghost stories. 

Among the finest ghostly tales in the English language are those of M. R. James and Russell Kirk, and these are enthusiastically recommended to the reader.

At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows.

~William Shakespeare