Encounter, Response

Impression, followed by processes of envisioning, resulting in representations reflecting reality and the imagination.  Such is one concept of art among many.

So cycles of creativity continue, constantly revised, completed, restored, and renewed.  One artist gains perspective in regarding the work of another, and another painting, poem, or musical piece follows.

Ultimately, fully evolved and internalized, the artistic vision moves beyond the traditional into the personal, shaping and shaped by experience itself.

Variations in Pattern

Throughout the human and natural environments find designs, repetitions, change and development.

The myriad choices of tones, lines, spaces and clusters of notes and patterns combined in sketch music and transformation ambient music are reflective of such designs as those observed in sediment deposits and erosion, roads and trails, cloud formations and the movements of crowds or flocks of birds, to suggest a few obvious examples.

Sounds arranged and produced in this manner have very little to do with popular music-- but everything to do with sensory impressions of the good and the beautiful.

Projection, Perspective

The fusion of reality and the imagination is essential to the composer's art.

Begin with the personal-- setting, surroundings, cultural history.  Question the possibilities; hear their sounds, and bind them together into the real.

Critical Perceptivity

The way of the artist at once embraces and transcends.

All elements of culture are interrelated and exert forces upon each other over the meandering course of generations.  Life is fleeting; human consciousness, awake and dreaming, remains mysterious; art is the tangible evidence of possibilities, whether seen clearly or glimpsed in shadows.

In experience, draw close.  In creation, elevate.

Consciousness, Perception, Questions

Not everything can be viewed, understood, or heard subjectively.

Yet the totally objective, like Reason itself, has final limits.

The way of the artist is to choose.

Other Sounds, Other Views

Speculation about the cultural future, though interesting for what it is, has limits based on linear viewpoints.

Such perspectives grasp at darkness, projecting the present.  There is no knowing any number of potential developments, as history consistently demonstrates.

The way of the artist creates the future by bringing it into the present.

Obscure Sense

Sounds in time may be perceived as moving in a linear fashion.

Sound compositions may also be designed in such a manner as to suggest a musical continuum.

Linear listening reflects attachment to rhythm, beat, and melody as they develop from beginning to end, while music designed to ebb and flow without direction elicits temporal detachment in hearing and listening.

Sublimity

Sound designs of simplicity and clarity grace the atmosphere of a setting, and the listener enjoys a sense of vitality, presence of mind, and composure.

Black Mountain School paints the air with sound.

Visit Ambimusica.com

Around, Within, Between

Regard the idea of negative space in sonic terms.  Initially, one might consider it to be silence, but it is more than that, and of greater subtlety.

Consider negative space to be a matter of perceived distances and surrounding areas within which notes are clustered or scattered, for instance, or of the differences in shading between various timbres.  These shifting areas of negative space are as valuable as the aural "objects of focus" themselves.

Viewed in this manner, tones and lines as objects of focus are of equal-- or greater-- importance to composition when compared to the more commonplace components of music, to wit, rhythm, beat, melody and harmony.

Changing Patterns

Music, with its rhythmic and melodic formulas, is a constant.

As a cultural and social force, it is held harmless, given no thought beyond entertainment and profit, and reflects the impulses and patterns at play in human affairs.

The sounds of life can be more than this.  A moment's pause, and fireflies in a dark grove beneath a sky burning with stars, rain striking the face while passing along a crowded avenue, or a hand filled with nothing greater than sand on a lake shore evokes mystery without end.

Find the sounds of these moments and embrace them.  They are formless forms, beyond the limits of time.

Sound Cycles

Emerge, rise, descend, return.

Observe the way of nature reflected in the course of human events; thus it is to hear and listen, and to recognize these sound designs with understanding and clarity.

Extended Perception

Foresight, when clarity of awareness evokes anticipation of potential events, actions, or outcomes, is a naturally occurring phenomenon.

Similarly, in sound design and musical experimentation, prior knowledge of the many ways through which combinations of sounds connect and interact lends itself to insights into the various aesthetic effects that may come about by manipulating tones, patterns, and other aspects of composition and recording.

Far from a being a process of controlling, it is rather one of freeing sounds to evolve in diverse ways and engaging listeners with unique experiences. 

Synesthesia

Contemplate image, environment, sensory impressions, setting, scene.

In stillness of consciousness and imagination, sounds come into being.

Sounds of Images

Point of view shapes and is shaped by imagination.

Consider the implications.  Do not simply seek vision, intent, purpose.

Realize them.

Illuminated Passages

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

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

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

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

Nothing is possible without everything.

Opposing Forces

Dynamic movement begins.

Tones, lines, and clusters, lights and darks, the warm and the cool merge, coalesce, fragment, disperse.  The sounds are reflective of such events as atmospheric developments, air and ocean currents, cyclical patterns and unpredictable combinations of conditions.

Remaining constant, they continually change.

Auditory Dreaming

The listener is well aware of the hierarchy of musical elements found in typical works of all types.  Rhythm, melody, harmony, and beat have the most appeal in popular music, and are generally considered essential in all other genres.

Setting aside these dominant forms opens the imagination, where possibilities are illuminated and sounds move in every direction, seemingly formless and elusive, waiting to be captured and brought to reality.

No Less Art

Decorative design is not a necessity.  It is no more needed on an article of clothing than on the hilt of a sword.  It exists for other reasons.

As sound, let it beautify the air; let it enhance the atmosphere if nothing more.  But there is more, certainly, and there are many more reasons for every form of sound art.

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One Year Ago

from Thursday's Crossword:  "Music Producer Brian _ _ _."

High Strangeness

In folklore, those who experienced otherworldly or haunting music describe it as mesmerizing and overwhelming, and unlike anything experienced in life.

Often described as the most beautiful sound the percipient had ever heard, the common thread in most cases is that it was impossible afterwards to remember the tune.

Art in the Present Day

The disconnect between art and music in the popular imagination is considerable, given the fact that popular singers and musicians are always referred to as artists.

In many cases elitist notions of art appear contrived to limit the public appreciation of works that diverge from the commonplace, and cultural conditions at times reflect the idea that the broad audience of people is incapable of understanding and enjoying a diversity of works. 

This is nonsense.  Such ideas are unworthy of the cultivated mind.

Sound, Consciousness, Expansion

Listen to everything in relation to all things.

Consider and experience a continuum of sound, rather than simply regard the idea of music as patterns of sound in time.

Discernment

The inner ear grasps meaning in emotional, intellectual, and spiritual terms.

Sound perception differs in various circumstances and environments, whether they be considered natural or artificial, contrived or unaltered, but the percipient's experience is personal, reflecting the individuality of the listener.

Envision, compose, record, produce to create this personal experience.

Sensory Apprehension, Nonlinear Grasp

The listener will recognize the experience of a gradual recognition of a piece of music.

Upon first becoming cognizant of the song, perhaps from a distance, the perception is one of an extremely vague and nebulous familiarity.  At times this sense of emerging recognition fragments and scatters rather than quickly coming into focus, yet the sounds themselves may gather clarity as mental processes intensify in connecting to memory.

From my perspective this is always a mesmerizing event, and invariably the musical piece itself seems diminished once it is identified.  Whereas it began with an impression of mystery and uncanny strangeness, it then ceases to draw the mind in the direction of the unknown and all the elements fall into place and pattern.  The actual music, finally grasped, is insignificant in comparison with the perceptual experience that preceded it.

Seize this awareness-- draw upon it to intentionally compose works that evoke such states of unique aesthetic engagement.

Ambient Confluence

Disparate musical elements merge in sequences of auditory effects and imagery, dreamlike in nature.

In the wild, so to speak, there is no pure and permanent order or chaos. Storms subside, seas become calm, light breezes become howling gales and grow quiet again.

This, too, is the way of the artist.

Variance, Divergence, Expansion

The observer will note the striking degree to which contemporary listeners are self-directed in their musical choices.

This is not to say that the conformity in listening of the self-styled hipster no longer exists, or that music has become less of an attitudinal or fashion statement.  What is apparent is that, given a wider range of choice and access to sounds and styles, listeners have no need of being directed by others, particularly those in the media, in developing personal aesthetic values.

Generic music of all styles permeates culture, as an evening of listening to television advertisements makes clear.  Imitation, not innovation, rules the day, and this is anathema to the astute listener.

Conditions such as these broaden the choices of the composer as well, and the challenge, especially when working outside the boundaries of popular taste, is to retain clarity of vision and directness of expression.

Emergence

The possibilities of sound confront the composer, and the composer must listen.

It is possible to direct, arrange, form, force, and shape sound to the desired end; it is possible to control every aspect and element of its reality to the most minute degree; it can be made to conform to style and genre and be used as a vehicle for any emotion and idea.

Or sound may direct the composer, and unknown possibilities be brought into being.

Familiar, Yet Strange

Arcane, untried, and out-of-the-ordinary ideas and processes combine with contemporary technological methods in ways that may appear startling or uncanny.

Perspectives on the appearances of things are altered; unexpected aspects of sensory impressions are revealed, and fundamental ways of ordering experience become tenuous.

The concept of sound as art remains for the most part undefined and is as often represented by absurd juxtapositions of noise as it is by aesthetically delineated works of aural imagery.  But this is to be expected, as a natural development in the course and evolution of art and cultural events.

Ways of listening, and thinking, are changing. 

Assemblage and Framing

Diverse elements, given context, offer multiple meanings when experienced as a whole.

Lucid yet oblique suggestiveness in poetry and sound design, for example, offers much for thoughtful consideration while refraining from direct statements.

The composer brings differing elements of sounds into a unity of expression.  Listeners may interpret in any number of ways, or not at all, in encountering such works, and thus the individual imagination, emotions, and perceptions are interconnected in varying degrees with the works themselves.

Sequences, Organization, Methods

With change as a constant, processes may lead in some scenarios, follow in others, toward any number of possible outcomes.

Sounds move in time in relation to other sounds as they are brought together, juxtaposed, removed, set in opposition to each other, fused, dispersed, repeated, and recombined.  The nature of the action is in some ways asymmetrical and in others a matter of aesthetic choice.

In their final recorded forms, works such as these have more connections in common with cubism, action painting, pop art, impressionism, and abstract expressionism than with generic musical styles.

The sound art and design under consideration here, like the aforementioned visual arts, suggests and rewards a change and renewal of perspective as well.

Composition Models

The composer of representational or program music may be as realistic or imaginative as is desirable in evoking aural metaphor or sonic symbols to various effects.

As the photographs on this site suggest the examination and elongation of the moment of perception, with its colors, shades, contents and spatial qualities, so too does the music of the Black Mountain School project generate settings and atmospheres directed toward the awareness of things both large and small, to subtle and overarching perceptions that may go unnoticed, whether far away or just outside the door.

Recognition

Mind and media interrelate, and to a great extent the connections are unconscious, the results of repetition.

Putting aside the problematic aspects of advertising jingles, catchphrases, and political slogans, consider the retention of music-- popular songs, personal favorites, and the like-- and the effects of these memorable sounds.  For numerous reasons, but particularly in emotional and nostalgic terms, attachment to such music can be quite strong, and some listeners' musical horizons begin and end with works confined to particular styles, times and places.

Yet for many, there is always more, always the unknown, and so, as well, the anticipation of sounds that strike the ear like none before.

Perceptual Fields

Listen, hear, and think.

Consciousness encounters the totality of reality perceived through the mind and the senses.

Each person is unique, perceives differently, focuses in various ways, and measures according to experience that gives regard to diverse phenomena, objects, ideas, and events accordingly.

The same musical work is experienced and understood differently by each listener.  Individual listeners may give attention to the same work in numerous ways according to such variables as setting, mental and emotional disposition, and clarity of consciousness.  Attitudes such as curiosity and intellectual openness will impact the experience, as will cultural and social conditioning and the capacity for independent, critical observation.

Observe, conceive, create.

Aural Metaphor

Sound is scenario, vista, substance, environment, idea, soul.

Book of hours, spirit of avenues, temptation of whirlpool, canyon rim, skyscraper.  Flock of wild geese, motorcade, hunting camp, epiphany in darkling cold, dust devil across dry wash, rainbow and moon with drifting contrails.

Conversation, nervous and soothing.  Crackling fire.  Echoes down mountainsides.  Light moving through cafe at midday.  Flood of foreign voices, riptide of foresight, tributaries merging into the deltas of mind.

Systems

Give thought to the numberless causes and effects combining and interacting every moment.

Choose, combine and transform sounds accordingly; set them in motion, let them rise and fall without interference, as far as is possible.

Atmospheres emerge.

Unspoken, Undefined, Sublime

Thought and emotion are continually communicated through nonverbal expressions, and among these means of conveying ideas, feelings, and perceptions is the manipulation of sounds.

Auditory, visual, and verbal imagery are equal in force and nuance; the composer, visual artist, and poet must be equally adept in illuminating the numerous subtleties and strengths intrinsic to their respective fields of endeavor.

As a delineator of aural environments, the composer reaches the listener through expression of mood and tone and attitude, creating, by way of myriad processes, sonic symbols that may enhance and elevate the work, and, by extension, the aesthetic experience and the consciousness of the listener. 

Wider, Higher, Deeper

Seek and regard the things that go unnoticed.

The superficial and egocentric mind forms illusions of common knowledge, and to such a way of thinking attachment to wealth, status, celebrity, and materialistic attitudes apparently fills every space at all times.  Clearly preposterous and untenable, these perspectives dominate popular and commercial culture.  It was ever thus.

In reality, civilization is formed of stronger ideas, ideals and visions.  This is the way of the artist.

Aural Imagery, Natural and Artificial

Humanity whispers and roars, as do the winds and waters.

Sounds of avenues, hills, bays, deserts, town squares, rivers, heights and entire regions have their respective charms and interests.  Crowds, wildlife, machines, and meteorological phenomena play disparate yet oddly interdependent parts in creating an infinity of dynamic atmospheres through which the listener and observer may pass.

Voices and vibrations shaped by spaces, at times open and reflective, or dense and muted, close and intimate, then distant and curious, encounter the senses and impress or nearly slip past awareness.

Hear the essence; listen with prescience.

Impression, Response

The perception of a moment given to memory may be direct and clear or distorted by multiple factors.

Experience may be colored by emotion, for example, or rendered fragmentary by distraction or a lapse of reason.  The depth of understanding that gives an event or situation meaning may deteriorate or increase over time.

Lucidity and clarity of awareness lend themselves to contemplative, creative analysis and artistic expression, yet they may not always be the final aesthetic goal of a visual or musical work.

Sometimes desirable total effects may be better served by representing the vagaries of experience rather than idealized views of reality.

Atmospheres, Environments

Phenomena surrounding and encompassing consciousness.

Pause and contemplate; turn the attention inward and outward as well.  Consider what has been and what will be.  Look beyond mortality, and listen with the unifying principle of existence.

Observe.

Act as the agency and instrumentality through which that observation is expressed.

Imagined Perceptions

The world.  Events.  Consciousness.

The sound of the mind wandering.

Distance and Direction

As a listener, one may be led to believe that one is either fully engaged and appreciative or one is not.

For the most part, one expects to listen intensely or engage emotionally with a song or instrumental work.  In doing so one is focused upon and diverted by external stimulus.  Thus for some listeners music provides an escape from the ordinary.

But this is not always the case, nor need it be.  Observe the widely differing degrees of attention given to various sounds, diverse passages of music, external atmospheres, etc., and it is readily apparent that a vast spectrum of awareness and concentration is at play.  Furthermore, sophisticated listeners are not always interested in merely following musical progressions or being dazzled by instrumental wizardry; music can also be an inspiration to thought, creativity, study, and numerous other aspects of internal motivation.

Clearly, the composer's palette and manner need not be limited by narrow definitions of musical perception.

Sound Complexes

Aural constructions created individually in various forms combine in unique fashion to produce total effects that may be experienced in a vast multiplicity of ways.

Tones, note clusters, lines and dynamic densities interact in ways similar to the kaleidoscope or film collage, emerging, unwinding, dispersing and recombining forms that defy effortless recognition, predictability, and the auditory "hooks" that make disposable and ultimately boring generic sounds.

Repeated listening over the course of time offers continually fresh perspectives on works such as these. Recordings do not change, but awareness of their content, atmospheres, and moods, as well as the mental and aesthetic stimulation they provide, offer the listener continually interesting musical engagement that will not be dated or outmoded.

Sounds Unheard

Acclimated to cultural norms over time, one may be unaware of possibilities outside the limits of one's personal experience.

The more rich and deep one's knowledge and experience becomes, the more certain one becomes of the extent to which one knows nothing.

Allegory

Look how reality is perceived, and upon what things self-understanding is projected.

Similarly, the understanding of expression and communication through the art of sound is directed towards ideas that suggest a validation of romanticized, purely subjective experience rather than confirmation of direct, informed perception and lucid recognition of realities behind and beyond appearances.

Bring music into being that reflects the phenomena of existence, not merely shadows on a cave wall.

Selective Awareness

Take notice of sounds; follow their movements, be cognizant of their subtleties.

Note variations, atmospheric effects, juxtapositions, and the vividness of impressions they make. Regard how they appear to emerge, and to ultimately cease.  Consider the ease or difficulty of recognizing their origins; be receptive to the images and ideas they may suggest, subjectively and objectively.  

The mind is relaxed, yet alert, engaged with the reality of the surroundings and actively, creatively thoughtful,  reflective, and contemplative.  Such states contribute not only to aesthetic enjoyment, but to the capacity for critical thought as well.

One need not merely accept the given notion that music is only meant to enhance mood or stimulate emotion, whether in the form of excitement, nostalgia, ecstatic or spiritual feelings, etc.  Nor is it necessary that the composer design works solely to attain such outcomes.

There is more to sensibility, and more beyond the senses.

Mind as Instrument

Observe vibrations, reflections, forces, pressures, effects of movement in space and time.

Aesthetic awareness of atmospheres is shaped and organized by the content of settings and the perception of the listener as well.  Consider the ways and means of listening and hearing to have as much influence in forming the sensory experience as the sounds of the surroundings and the musical accompaniment that may be present.

Consider also that what is typically considered to be silence is, in fact, filled with sound in myriad forms.

Emerge, Expand. Internalize.

Listen and hear differently.

Rather than follow musical forms, imagine; envision sounds as images, ideas, memories and scenes.

Perception, Reason, Nuance II

Design originates in the imagination.

The impetus to develop a means to original and fully-formed, personal creative expression may be satisfied with patience and an eclectic, painstaking, asymmetrical approach.

Every artist knows this in the abstract and through experience.  Even a work of random synthesis is just that, whether it is executed with grace and style or otherwise.  It does not manifest itself out of a vacuum.  In generative music there is programming, process, and the artist's initiative; in transformative compositions the artist fabricates and provides direction according to imaginative intentions and desired outcomes.  The open-minded and aesthetically appreciative listener recognizes the nature of such works and is active in becoming acquainted with them.

The formulaic and generic styles, in contrast, reflect conformity to popular tastes and attitudes, not only in presentation and performance, but conceptually, in the artist's vision.  By this means the artist reaches out to the audience; otherwise, as noted, the listener must be of such a temperament as to seek out the art.

Contemplation: Sacrifice, Gratitude, Honor

Mystery, Motivation, Form

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

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

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