Heightening

Social contexts favor culturally familiar musical forms, while personal environments tend to reflect the state of mind and mood of the listener.

Satellite radio channels, for instance, attract the particular interests of specific audiences, as clubs and coffee houses do their clientele.  Individual audio players, on the other hand, invariably contain highly personalized playlists.

Contemplative music and sound designs are distinctive in their appeal to both public and personal contexts.  Such works are essentially representative of serene and elevated perspectives, whether in conjunction with ceremony and ritual, artistic productions, or in simply enhancing the atmospheres of living spaces.

Narrative, Perspective, Echo

The sounds of nature and civilization encompass concrete auditory imagery; conceptual imagination postulates sound, music, and atmospheric aspects of this reality, and others.

Prehistoric imagination brought thunder to life through drumming, conjuring the rhythms of existence, and found ways to summon the sounds of wind in the reeds by the rivers.  Words came to be shaped in chants and exhortations.  Sounds deep and high, wide and ringing came within cultural expression, vibrations refined over time by human creativity and following the courses of human longing, myth and legend. Simple and sophisticated, crude and sublime, sounds form signs, signals, and symbols of perceptual reality.

Time past, time present, time future are within the inner ear.  Listen, and hear.

Conditions

Perception influences perspective.

Any set of circumstances that impacts society directly will be reflected in widespread culture.

With war and plague emerge the flagellants and the danse macabre; the advent of the printing press increases literacy, then captures and conveys the oral tradition, particularly the ballad form; elevation of reason brings forth a reaction in romanticism, as skepticism and scientific materialism challenge the status quo of faith.  Impressionism, aestheticism, decadence, cubism, abstract expressionism, and pop art follow.  T.S. Eliot expresses disintegration, first shoring the classical ruins with poetic fragments, and ultimately envisioning renewal of psyche and culture.

And as the Age of Empire brought about vast cultural diffusion, so contemporary technology provides for it today, as well as for the greater democratization of communication wrought first by the movable type press.

What comes next, even in modernist terms and the context of very recent history, is beyond what came before, and is already happening.

State of Mind and Sound Art

Ways of listening change with cultural, technological, and social developments.

As forces set in motion by historic ideas meet possibilities engaged in the moment now, so they are fulfilled in the cultural arts.

What the composer hears with the inner ear emerges into being within the atmosphere of the modern, connected world, and will come to influence perceptions in everyday life.

Motion and Repose, Modernity and Tradition II

Sounds connect across the temporal spectrum.

Set aside the known, and what remains is nameless; unformed, yet closer.

Diffusion, Dispersal, Convergence

Atmospheric conditions alter sounds and their impressions on the listener.

Such experiences of sound are infinite in variety, yet can be difficult to detect when the perceptions are dulled by the myriad external pressures and distractions to which listeners may be inured.

These effects are to be pursued toward refinement of awareness, whether subtle or bold, ethereal or uncanny, and whether in the course of everyday events or in the process of sound design.

From a compositional perspective, they awaken the aural sense and the imagination, expanding the range of consciousness, and, in turn, depth of intellect and feeling.

Sound and Intention, Sound in Space

What is considered music generally conforms to traditional standards and ideas.

Sounds representative of the observable reality of settings, atmospheres and phenomena are most often considered to be other than music.

These are reasonable, if inaccurate conclusions.  Musical designs that intentionally replicate the patterns and movements of naturally-occurring sounds for aesthetic purposes combine aspects of both, yet conform to neither.

Except for Brian Eno's term ambient, or a broad (and generous) interpretation of the designation tone poem,  such designs are nameless and undefined, fusions of aural imagery on the periphery of music.

Musical Futurity

Directed developments in music and expansion of sound as art tend to diverge in the direction of "progression" for the former and "evolution" in the latter case.

While the first is heard across the spectrum of musical culture, the second process is more gradual in gaining widespread acceptance, reflecting its different aims and perspectives.  Both are interesting viewpoints, and often both are equally academic in nature.

The progression of music may be seen as a form of modernization, or essentially improving existing styles and methods.  Evolutionary developments, on the other hand, generally tend to advance toward undefined or uncategorized expressions.

Rightly, what is important to listener, musician, and composer is the artistic integrity of the work, which ultimately contributes to its universal appeal.

Wave, Sound, Movement, and Light

To fall prey to distraction is to lose touch with the beautiful.

This is a spiritual loss, a failure to appreciate life.  It is akin to drowning within sight of land.

Art reaches out, and one may grasp and be drawn back to the simple realization of the magnitude of being.

Sounds Before and Behind

At any given moment it is quite possible to pause and take notice of sensory perceptions previously ignored, unseen, and unheard.

Reflections may be heard as well as seen.  Changes in atmosphere may be felt, and nuance of voice will indicate attitude and emotion. All such things may be consciously perceived, just as they may be afforded conscious responses, heightening experience immediately and over time, if broader, deeper consciousness is desirable enough to warrant attention.

Elevated awareness of this type is within human capacity, and not merely a lost "survival skill" of our human ancestors.

To be regularly removed from chaos, confusion, and the burden of disorderly surroundings, even if for short periods, results in clarity and lucidity becoming predominate in approaching the phenomena of existence.  The senses gain acuity, as do intellectual and emotional perspectives.

As composer and percipient, I desire to design musical sounds that excite the sensory and reasoning faculties.  Now, as always, these are essential to fullness of being.

Mystic Apprehension

Intuitive understanding worthy of the term presupposes refinement of wisdom and perceptiveness beyond such measurable qualities as age and education, even given their intrinsic importance as contributing factors.

Apply predictive analysis to the arts. Communications and media change, becoming at once more broadly effective and more intimate in reach.  That which is personal is more clearly universal.

Thought, idea, emotion, creativity, judgement and imagination are consequences of consciousness.

Listen, hear the future.  No machine will ever do these things.

Still, Aware

Contemplative attention to sound takes notice of incremental change, does not anticipate, and does not follow, but rather becomes immersed in the calm dynamics of atmosphere.

This is childlike perception, uncannily clear in its directness, as compared to awareness distracted by external pressures.

Unattached to idea, emotion, imagery, and the vicissitudes of experience, a state of absorption in sound and setting invites composer and listener alike to engage the real and the imaginative with lucid grace.

Concept and Effect

Perception influences consciousness and state of mind.

Conscious awareness of subtlety and nuance may be learned, developed, and practiced through expression and communication, and not only in the arts.  Everyday circumstances are laden with opportunities to see, listen, hear and know reality and the forces that propel events both large and small.

These are matters of choice, and desire.

Within Being, Within Atmospheres

Perceptions, conveyed to consciousness, inspire memories, emotions, and ideas.

These, in turn, may inspire expression and representation of things perceived and things shaped by experience, in forms concrete and abstract.  These are gestures of sound and vision.

Tone Forms

Combinations of tones conjure textures.  Some suggest lightness and clarity while others evoke density and opacity.

In equilibrium and continuous movement, these shadings reflect the nature of environmental settings, whether real or imaginary, and may enhance the listener's surroundings and state of mind as well.

Extending Perception

Surrounding environments are to the ambient sound designer as views are is to the landscape painter.

The varied and changing aspects of the setting contribute the elements of composition, presences to be recognized, interpreted, delineated, and represented through the sonic media.

Artifice, Ideas, Vision

Any representation reflects the artist's perceptions and sensibilities.

These are individual aspects of the writer, poet, artist or composer.  Whether they in fact serve the art, or serve to make the art function for other purposes, is inevitably clear, as is the work's nature, and whether it is for the most part transient or permanent.

Currents, Waves, and Impressions

A broad view of cultural phenomena suggests prevailing influences that subject the senses to untoward pressures, often to enervating effect.

The inner ear responds to subtlety and sensibility, and ambient musical compositions are especially conducive to revitalizing the intellectual and emotional faculties, providing works to which the listener may respond, rather than simply react.

Approach, Response

Listen to voices, mix colors, determine limits, articulate words, observe shape, shading, movement, and expression; formulate and test theories, master processes, discipline vision; hear shadows fall.

All arts reflect being and becoming; every work is a synthesis and composition.  I want the effects of every composition I create through sounds to move the listener towards heightened, lucid awareness and elevated experience, as I desire no less for myself.

Glimpses, Echoes

Culture creates a sense of order that reflects, by degrees, social temperament and sensibility, particularly in the arts, and this is to be heard in the sonic atmospheres of diverse settings.

One accepts and absorbs the status quo or seeks other perspectives in keeping with one's nature.

This is often the existential position of the artist, the composer, and the listener as well.

Listen, hear, reflect, express.

Design, Intention, Representation

When sound mirrors nature, the aural patterns move according to the phenomena of the surrounding world, developing as do atmospheric and seasonal cycles, for example, as opposed to imitating "natural" sounds.

The composer may also follow patterns suggested by other arts and artists in any media, or by, for instance, architectural constructions and the sounds associated with specifically human or cultural ideas, events and environments.

Imitation alone can not bring forth that uncanny aspect of simultaneous strangeness and recognition that makes it possible for the experience of art to elevate awareness.

This demands the force of individual expression.

Nature and Civilization

The ear is conditioned to expect certain sounds.

Once accustomed to familiar atmospheres in the natural world and the human environment, we tend to blur or ignore the fullness of aural perception  This same attitude persists in the context of music.

It is possible to listen, and to hear, and to compose, differently, and while in concord with elevation of awareness and the spirit of the beautiful.

Timeless

Immersed in sound composition, lose temporal perception.

Continue to listen, and hear the moment now in all things.

Diffusion, Convergence

Complexity emerges out of simplicity.

Emptiness is filled, silence transformed.

Inside

In the interiors, spatial relationships alter auditory perceptions in ways the outside world does not.

Illusions of distance and direction are as pronounced as those that are out of doors, yet the listener will note more dynamic and dramatic responses to movement, while placement or adjustment of sound sources add to these effects.

As an artist must be cognizant of the balance of the elements of a painting, drawing, or sculpture, so must the designer in sounds have compositional awareness of the impact and interaction of the sonic elements in each creative musical effort and recording.

Motion Yielding to Stillness

Pause.  Observe the moment now.  Where there is stillness there will be storm, followed again by stillness.

The sounds of the Primeval are always present, interrupted only by the stormy and dramatic, the peal of thunder or the rush of the crowd.  Afterwards, there is not silence.  Listen and hear the innumerable sounds and movements within the clarity of stasis and balance.

In composition, this is aural beauty on the periphery of music, everywhere tones moving in lines and clusters, emerging and proceeding in non-melodic paths and patterns, reflecting the reality of natural settings and undisturbed cultural atmospheres.

Culture, Focus, Tone, Expression

The impact of environmental factors upon consciousness is a continuing variable in the long and short term, and one that should not be disparaged; nor should the contribution and importance of sound to setting be ignored.

Integrity of character, intellect, and emotional balance are obtained with due effort and sacrifice, and maintained by discretion, discernment, and force of will, while time and again one must defend these exacting qualities against the frailty and corruption intrinsic to human nature.  Reason demands that choices be made; lack of reason does not.

Art often serves to reflect this struggle, directly and implicitly in a multitude of ways.  This includes the sounds and imagery of the cultural atmosphere and surroundings.

Resonance and Action

Sonic imagery emerges in the awareness of listener and composer.

Perception and imagination yield aural impressions at once real and uncanny.

Finally. connections form between memory and sensory experience, concepts to be articulated through diverse artistic media, resources, and methods.

Stir of Impressions II

Emptiness will be filled, then emptied, to be filled again.

In composing, ask what sounds complement settings, with their spaces, objects, shapes, and colors. Choose these tones accordingly, set them in motion through gestures harmonious with the elements in place, and hear them settle into the silences before flowing away into memory.

Awareness, Intent, Spectrum

What sounds are actually perceived in any setting often make up an infinitesimal part of the whole of the aural environs.

In any setting, consciously pause, absorb, and identify sounds and their sources, and in doing so refine the capacity for discernment of spatial relationships, movement, tone, and meaning.

This receptivity is innate, and potentially may be developed to a high degree of realization in hearing and listening; moreover, sound designs and musical compositions reflecting such atmospheric realities are possible as well.

Cause, Effect, Mind

Consciousness acts as a filter.  It absorbs, and it projects.

The listener's state of mind may be altered by music, or it may alter the perception of music.

These are attitudes accorded to music, and not necessarily expectations related to myriad sounds experienced within settings or atmospheres generally. These latter may be perceived more openly and directly, and, from my vantage point as a composer, are of greatest interest.

Formlessness

Conformity applies to unconventional expectations as well as those that adhere to standard norms.

The way of the artist is one of perception, contemplation, reflection, and expression-- and indifference to expectations.

Hearing, Listening, Openness

Sounds the listener can anticipate or "follow" are the norm for most musical arrangements.

The experience of sounds in the form of auditory imagery is expansive, deep, and, more often than not, asymmetrical in nature. Much of my work in composition and sound design intentionally moves away from establishing and directing expectations to reflect both the continuous aural activity and surprising sonic events of real, yet non-musical, environments.

Surrounding atmospheres rich with subtle beauty and intensely interesting sounds may go unnoticed when perception is dulled by the routine and mundane.  I want my compositions to be catalysts for elevating that awareness.

Other Than Music

Creating structure sets limits.  Thinking does not always require them.

Separate music from given ideas.  Set aside thoughts of "using" technology as a tool, regarding it instead as a means of gesture. Listen past emotion and intellect into the sound of the surrounding world, and there discern aesthetic beauty with the goal of bringing it into the listener's range of perception.

Culture, Sound, Tone

Attitude of mind and emotion as expressed in the arts may or may not reflect specific time periods.

Some works sustain interest, while others become cultural artifacts; still others may share both attributes. Considering time a continuum, think, hear, and bring into being auditory experiences of emergence and expansion.  Listen and create, indifferent to all but sound.

Sonic Textures

Combinations of tones and patterns move within physical settings and internal, perceptual terrains.

From the source, or sensibilities and vision of the composer, sound designs emerge through varied processes of selection, sound synthesis and juxtaposition of elements.

The subjective impressions of tone, mood, and atmosphere are considered aesthetically; additional evaluations of objective aural properties, including volume, intensity, equalization, compression, and such effects as contribute to dynamic spatial qualities of the composition are brought to bear upon the work.

The finished work resulting from these artistic and technological processes will suggest multiple sensory and emotional impressions, including color and shading, contrast, movement, and texture, as well as evoking memory and stimulating the imagination.

Expansion and Order

Perspective reveals or conceals a sense of symmetry and balance.

Accordingly, wind chimes, bird songs, wind through alleyways, and one's everyday encounters with voices and machines may appear random or part of a greater pattern of sounds.

Listen, and hear.

Transmission VI

Cultural context influences the listening experience, as does history and individual taste.

The extent to which the listener is enriched by the arts of sound can also be determined by choice, along with the effort necessary to expand one's range of knowledge and awareness, much as the curious and adventurous musician may decide to explore beyond subjective interests in technique and formula.

Atmosphere and the Mind's Eye

I compose to mirror the continuous rise and fall.

Apparent, even in stillness, is the dynamic totality of existence as it moves and changes.  Through sounds designed to reflect organic processes, aural events that might seem beneath notice may be brought into range of perception.

Such compositions, I would suggest, effectively contribute to heightened sensory discernment and clarity of thought, and further, stimulate the faculty of imagination.

Aural Themes

Sounds form, as vibrational forces, essential connection to the totality of phenomena.

Every aspect of experience reflects meaning, whether personal, cultural, or cosmological.

Forward Listening

Inner perception merges experience and the physical, that is to say, it is a union of consciousness, memory, and sensory awareness.

Engagement in such a state of contemplative reflection broadens understanding, deepens insight, and renders temporal concerns of little moment. It alters perspective by transcending external distractions inimical to the spiritual faculties of reason and free will, and thereby opens imaginative and meaningful corridors of thought.

My interests lie in developing musical compositions and sound designs that reflect and contribute to such attitudes of mind and emotional outlooks, as these will often provide for prescient impressions, the rise of speculative ideas, and productive courses of action.

Thought and Feel

Lucid perception stimulates clarity of thought and insight.

In giving thought to the content of the arts and experiences open to personal choice, it is plain and clear which ones elevate or degrade awareness and understanding.

The way of the artist is to perceive and create, and more, to sustain.

Impression, Design, Expression

A composer's aesthetic reflects sensibility and conceptual vision.

One who hears sounds as they reflect environments sees their visual counterparts: emergence, movement, lines, patterns, fluctuations, interaction, order, unpredictability, and every kind of phenomena, including color, nuance, light and shadow.

Listen Closely

Patterns emerge, then disperse.

Sounds collect together, suggesting activity; they move independently and circulate together. Tones stir beneath notice and become prominent, coalesce and gradually grow to be illusory.  Perceptions change; awareness expands with permutations of sound and nuance of mood.

The combinations set in motion in these events mimic the sounds of natural environments and human habitats, and, rather than converge as musical forms, they take shape as aural images in dynamic atmospheres.

Mind and Inner Ear

Generally, music is considered to be a  form of entertainment, though emotion, attitudes, and cultural ideas are expressed and conveyed through every musical form.

Now in contrast to its entertainment value, the wider cultural purposes of music are often given little attention or are perceived as being of lesser importance. Certainly not all listeners would agree with this, particularly those of wide-ranging and aesthetically informed tastes, but nonetheless music designed for personal reflection and the rituals and shared experiences of community is somewhat neglected as a result.

We all think, we all reflect and sometimes contemplate the world, events, and our surroundings.  It is neither necessary nor desirable to expend every free moment upon entertainment and diversion in a life open to myriad and meaningful pursuits.

There are other sounds, other musical works meant to complement a full life as well.

Waking, Dreaming

Imaginative vision and sound may lead, at times, to experiences far beyond the mundane.

Divergent states of awareness are at the edges of common shared experience; historically, these are visible in extraordinary artistic expressions, and suggestive of the idea that wider, deeper perceptions are possible through other than the normal channels of the senses.

Outside and Within

External atmospheres are perceived by the senses and generate internal feeling.

The creative arts, and the arts of sound in particular, may produce these emotional, aesthetic and imaginative or intellectual effects, and not only to convey information, mood and tone, but, beyond these and other concrete experiences, a sense of the ineffable.

Stillness II

Processes of organic growth unfold constantly, and for the most part unnoticed, in their unhurried subtlety.

The composer, like any other artist, may choose to develop works applying such processes through the medium of sound.  The effect is that of movement and change outside the urgency of the passage of time.

Elements of Subtlety

Sound follows every turn of events.

Attuned to sounds, listen for the nuances of life, follow them through to their conclusions and back to their origins.  Sense and realize their meanings, express their insights.

The formless leads to the formed, and then returns.

Imaginary Atmospheres

Fill spaces with sounds shaped by the character of objects to be suggested in desirable environments.

Consider these conditions aesthetically.  Sparse or crowded, in the wild or in well-appointed interiors, uniformly arranged or asymmetrically scattered, the limits of space and the compositions of objects imply meaning and mood, content both emotional and intellectual, and movement of both music and listeners.

What happens in the mind is as meaningful as what happens in the setting informed by sounds.