Balance, Experience

As a composer, my attitude toward my own conceptual or artistic vision is that it can be both natural and somewhat objective as well as individualistic or personal.

When the way of nature and the way of art converge, there is a kind of equipoise between the real and the subjective; stark realism and romantic illusion yield to probity of perspective in both the aesthetic sense and in stylized expression.

Ear to the Wind

Beyond obvious needs related to bare survival, there are more important values than the merely material.

There must be art.  There must be dance.  There must be sounds to excite, and to engage the contemplative soul.

Zone Crossing

Atmospheric sound art in its various forms has existed for more than a century.

Consider the "symphonic poems" or tone poems of Liszt and others, the furnishing music of Satie, the works of John Cage, and ambient music itself, as defined by Brian Eno.

What becomes apparent is the movement from a "fine" art form to a "popular" art form, and what will ultimately be an elimination of the distinction between the two-- if that has not, in fact, already taken place.

Artifice and Execution

Technological advancements offer changing variables for the imaginative composer.

Patterns and structures tend to remain static in generic music, as long standing formulas yield expected results and popular culture tends to change only in superficial ways.

Yet the creative artist is not averse to risk or the failures associated with experimentation, and thus continually gravitates toward interesting ways of engaging and manipulating media.  It is possible to find oneself applying concepts and techniques never previously discussed in professional journals or utilized by other artists, and certain of these may be of an inspired and singular nature in development of original expression.

Aesthetic Character

Consider perception of sound as it reflects inner and outer experience.

Observe and reflect upon the sounds of diverse surroundings, and the meanings and insights they suggest.

Approach, Encounter

Perspective on visual and auditory events changes continuously.

These changes may be sudden and shocking or gradual, and so subtle as to almost escape notice altogether.

The significance accorded artistic efforts will depend to a great extent upon the perceptual acuity of the individual, whether observer or listener.  It is yet within the artist's power to communicate in ways that heighten awareness and attention, so as to increase the possibility of establishing a shared point of view.

This is particularly the case when such a perspective is uplifting in nature.

Aural Tesserae

In sound designs, tones and notes may function as do tiles in a mosaic or shards of colored glass in a kaleidoscope.

The dynamic fluidity of tones in these arrangements enhances impressions of kinetic art-- sculptures, or mobiles composed of environmental or atmospheric sounds.

By nature these are nonlinear productions of uniquely peculiar symmetry, yet they are conceived and executed with the purpose of bringing aesthetically beautiful sound events into concrete, if somewhat ethereal, forms.

Look, Listen, Hear

Directness of perception is neither difficult nor mystical in nature, but it is, in fact, quite often obscured by distractions, attachments, discomfiture, emotional excitability, and difficulties in reasoning.

Environments burdened by stressful, frenetic activity contribute to these notable types of malaise, and various media, including music, may be contributing  factors as well.

Rather than through the means of utilizing the traditional elements of music, it is possible to enhance environments and acuity of perception by developing sound designs composed primarily of tones and juxtapositions of aural textures.

Bringing such compositions into being engages a total effect of clarity the listener may share, one that elevates reason and a sense of well-being.

Aesthetic Form

Unite sound with state of mind and being.

Bring awareness to clarity with lucidity of expression.

Sanctuary and Power

Climates for contemplative thought fortify consciousness.

Thus, a purpose of these compositions is to evoke a liberating solitude, bringing atmospheres conducive to elevated awareness-- which are not always easily accessible-- within the listener's reach, as well as enhancing the aural environment.

That such states of mind and associated perspectives stand in contrast to social norms in common currency cannot be an issue of contention.  They are historically representative of individual virtue and thoughtful understanding of the human condition.

Observe, Consider, Act

Art does not occur spontaneously.

In any form it is vision made manifest.  It is delineation of life and being.

Echo, Illusion, Presence

All atmospheres contain elements of time past and time future.

Among the artifacts of what has been and what can be, the act of the artist in time present is choice.

Rise and Fall

Common to narratives great and small, literary and musical, are the arrangements with their beginnings, developmental processes, and conclusions.

Yet life goes on, as do the sounds of life, outside such limits-- ungovernable, surprising, cyclical, dynamic, subtle, and strange, all moving in constantly shifting atmospheres.

This is something different than music, and to give it expression the composer must reflect the musical, the formless, and the sensual.

Sound Virus

Author William Burroughs' prescient works refer to word and image virus and the idea that behavior may be modified by unconscious receptivity to repeated and intentionally replicated verbal and visual imagery.

Predictive analysis easily indicates the spread of contemporary ideas, attitudes, and ultimately states of mind in this manner.  Observe conversations follow headlines and popular memes, obscuring and dulling while reinforcing the mere semblance of original thought.

Spend hours viewing Renaissance paintings themselves until their being radiates through the brush strokes; afterwards, Botticelli's eye imposes its vision on the facial features of the girl across the room; Caravaggio's mystic light falls meaningfully on the mendicant at the street corner.

In terms of sound, such viral forms are the styles, rhythms and melodies, percussive qualities and instrumental timbres that shape emotional tension and perspective, individually and over widespread cultural contexts, most often outside the listener's knowledge and control.  These are external forces that become replicated internally, through memory, as auditory illusions of music, also known as ohrwurms.

The individual may define the extent to which these "earworms" reflect or define mood and attitude; informed self-consciousness of this kind does not occur collectively.

Sound designs may be composed that literally stop the ohrwurm and sound virus dynamics, releasing their burden upon consciousness while enhancing perceptive listening.  Interestingly, this is, in fact, a secondary effect of atmospheric compositions designed to parallel sound events that spontaneously occur in nature and in various contexts of human environments.

Simply put, my compositions are fabricated as sound events that are neither random nor the result of a synthesis of traditional musical elements.  Rather, they are fundamentally based upon the spatial relationships of tones, asymmetrical arrangements, and cyclical movements.

Listening to the recordings of Black Mountain School will certainly stimulate the imagination as well as brighten aesthetic sensibilities.  Additionally, they do not merely mask, but will disperse "songs stuck in the head" while enhancing atmospheres and pleasurable perception of sound.

Expression, Technique, Art

Composition and manipulation of sound as an art form need not conform to the generally-accepted parameters of musical creation.

It nonetheless depends upon the artist and composer intent upon creating a body of work of appealing aesthetic qualities to develop, usually through experimentation, concepts and methods through which sound designs may achieve total effects of considerable beauty.

Art is a means of discovery, and it is ever thus.

Aural Space and Sensory Focus

The character of environments influences the impressions, emotions, and ideas.

The character of sound may compliment or contrast with these physical, mental, and affective states.

Thus there is the need for music for movement and the need for contemplative atmospheres for the inner ear, the soul, and the awareness of the extramundane.

Vita Brevis, Ars Longa

Present-day culture is not the only landmark of being.

The deeper into the past one probes, the greater the reach of foresight.  This is the gift of historical perspective, tracing, as it does, the patterns of the human condition, the arts and the archetypes of sound and vision, wisdom, absurdity, and the worlds within and without.

Distinction and Separation

All forms ancient and modern unite in the moment now.

To seize this awareness, conceive future meanings, and create forms expressive of time to come is the way of the artist, and the composer must bring these forms to the inner ear of the listener.

Sonic Panoramas

Sound imagery penetrates consciousness, delineating impressions in memory.

Like visual images, these impressions remain, to be contemplated, considered analytically, and ultimately to assert themselves in dreams, ideas, and expressive forms.

Merging

Consciously pause and listen.

The world within may be expressed in terms of the world without. Listen, hear, and bring into being the experience of the inner ear.

There Is No Silence

Conventional listening, being narrowly focused, requires continual stimulation or succumbs to ennui.

Casting aside cultural and personal constraints is not effortless, but the reward is a recognition of a boundless sonic reality of immeasurable variety and interest.

Transmission VII

Sight and sound come to life in the imagination.

Engaged and taken to heart, any media conveys change in perception. See, hear, and listen directly and thoughtfully, with clarity, reason, and individual perspective.

The Future in the Everyday

The aesthetic experience is one of contemplation as well as direct involvement.

The composer or designer of art must balance a sense of detachment with one of engagement.

Art, simply put, must remain close to authentic experience for that experience to expand beyond the merely "given" in life.

Transit

Sensory imagery, and sonic imagery in particular, exist in continual flux, as do nature and the human condition.

As cultural conditions change, the artist and composer may be found in harmony with the prevailing social, intellectual, and emotional attitudes, becoming an exponent of contemporaneous manners and tastes; if this is not the case, and there is no such aesthetic correspondence, works by individualistic artists may be oriented against those expressions in common currency, or outside them altogether.

Change, Stillness, and Movement

What appears still is in subtle motion.

That which seems filled with action is held within stillness.

This is a sonic dynamic as well as being one of nature and human perceptual reality, as all forces move toward their opposites.

Transforming Perception, Sound, and Being

The art of sound design is one of aural gesture.

Sound is the medium, and the air, the atmosphere, is the canvas.

Consciousness and Sonic Environment

Awareness and atmosphere are mutually influential.

What the mind and emotions seek to see and hear, they will find and bring into focus.

As perceptions that continually reinforce states of being, atmospheric sounds as well as music exert their unique sensory effects.

Thought, Feeling, Extension

Ubiquity of information does not necessarily imply stagnation of imagination.

Regardless of the vast range of available fact, speculation, and data, knowledge alone is not thought.

It is human creativity, combined with curiosity, will, and purpose, that brings forth concepts and expresses unique individual experience.

Situation and Scenario

Art creates context outside the ordinary.

With situation, tone, and setting circumscribed for aesthetic perspective and perception, any artistic expression may be placed for greatest enhancement of total effect.  As courtyards and scenic walks are established for such purposes, so may the visual and musical arts find imaginative placements outside the mediocre and mundane.

Vantage Points

Impressions vary widely with setting and attitude.

Bearing this idea in mind, traveling from one region or country to another can afford opportunities to observe aspects of cultural climate and subtleties of atmosphere that go unnoticed by both tourists and natives.

I typically have as many as a dozen works in progress at any given time, and it is most likely that something of the environments I will shortly encounter in Tuscany and Rome will find expression in several of these over the coming weeks, if not in some pieces that are altogether new.

To the Further Side

Perspectives on the transcendental and the sublime in common currency invariably prove to be as superficial as they are reflexive, even among the educated.

This is simply another form of the shallow nescience of scientific materialism everywhere on display, with its concomitant concrete thinking.  That such a viewpoint contributes to attachments, fixations, self-absorption, and a host of anxieties, passions and neuroses far too numerous to detail here is well-documented in the literature of diverse scientific and academic fields-- and it must be noted that it is not the integrity of science that is dubious, but that of those for whom it is the ne plus ultra of human understanding.

In the arts especially this attitude of mind is manifested in bland predictability and sociopolitical displays of doubtful merit, and most particularly those brought forth in the guise of the avant-garde.  

If nothing else, the pursuit of the transcendent and the sublime tends in the direction of detachment from mediocre thinking.  When this quest involves the arts, expressions of music and sound design demonstrate, rarely but lucidly, the potential to engage the moral reason and the senses in ways that surpass the narrow range of the mundane, and ultimately heighten consciousness.

Transference

Listener and composer engage perception and sounds.

This shared experience will involve degrees of convergence and divergence.

Each will bring different experiences, intellectual and emotional associations, and varied aesthetic perspectives to the work, yet both will sense a total effect.  This is the point at which communication is elevated, or fails, as such are the risks of art.

Definition

The concept of music as an arrangement of sounds over time serves its purpose as a simplification.

Contrasting the viewpoint that music is inextricably associated with melody, harmony, and other generally recognized elements of stylistic construction, my perspective is that combinations of sounds may produce meaningful, aesthetic experiences in and of themselves.

Such experiences can be brought into being through sound designs that pleasurably stimulate both active listening and passive hearing, and while these may or may not be considered music, they are no less beautiful, valuable, and elevating to perceptual awareness for being undefined.

Shadings

Art in any field or setting is creative vision.

Art is not static; it ultimately refuses to be defined, and its final destination is always beyond the moment now.

Manner and Methods

Nothing meaningful is effortless.  To devise an original, personal technique is a challenge in any field of endeavor.

Concepts, principles, and the ways and means of bringing these into being are not always apparent, and thus demand development and experimentation fraught with implications of failure that are to be expected.

There are any number of ways, for instance, of manipulating sound as an art medium, but the creation of desired effects- the expansion of atmospheric spaces, a degree of unpredictability similar to that of sounds in a real, natural environment, aesthetically pleasing arrangements of non-linear, yet cohesive, tones, notes, lines and clusters- is contingent upon factors that must be independently advanced and realized.

Such a perspective encompasses the work of a lifetime, demanding patience, persistence, and the long view.

Walk Through a Room

First see the obvious.

Notice how the attention is directed, and for what purpose.  Now perception and will are engaged.

Look where focus is not emphasized.  Take in the small details.  A piece of red thread, paperclip, cobweb; age of the furnishings, textures, stylistic features; regard how these offer a sense of human presence and unseen activity.

Why, then, are these elements present?

Following the same pattern, listen. Hear each sound and its identifying aspects.  Consider intention, reason, the tone and mood of the setting, and how these may be translated and brought into being as musical designs.

Locality

Occasionally I hear the river, and across it, the Westminster chimes of the village clock.

To the southeast, a steam-driven electrical plant drones, and sometimes roars like a waterfall.  Traffic on the surrounding highways is light, growing sparse in early evening.  This is a refuge for birds and wildlife of all kinds, a well-kept habitat.  Above, commercial and military air lanes hum with passing flights while thrush and woodpecker, chickadee, whippoorwill and hawk scatter calls and songs.

It is not these sounds, but the ways in which they rise and fall, emerge, expand, and dissipate in the environment that are of constant interest in structuring atmospheric sound compositions and designs.

Provoke the Mind

Engage unaccustomed sights and sounds.

It is the common viewpoint, rather than the common lot, that stultifies.

While the impressionists and cubists and composers of tone poems observed with human senses, they engaged cultural, scientific, and philosophical ideas regarding light, sound, and relationships of a temporal and spatial nature according to personal and unique perspectives.

Capture

Color the air.

Set aside cultural associations and emotional connotations, experiencing sound as environmental art.

Limits and Expansion

Consciousness of sound, like its effects, depends upon individual perspective.

Cultural and environmental factors place demands upon point of view.

For listener and composer, this implies a choice between the given currency of genre music and styles or sounds that spark individual curiosity.

Experience and Imagine

See and hear with the mind's eye and the inner ear.

The sound of tea roses spilling over a garden wall.  Deserted street in evening mist.  Summer lightning, early starlight, scent of salt water and wood smoke.

Voice says, "Listen..."

Sound as Music, Sound as Art

Sound is an art medium to be manipulated like any other.

Put plainly, this perspective has little to do with the fundamentals of musical composition--  melody, beat, rhythm, harmony, tempo, and so forth.  Rather, the fabrication and juxtaposition of sounds has everything to do with utilizing the principles and elements of art: lines, textures, values, forms, space, and things of this nature, with emphasis given to their relationship to tone.

As such a composer, I remain ambivalent as to whether such works should be considered music, even given their intended aesthetic appeal.  Such debate is of no importance to the listener's inner ear.

Time, Mind, and Ear

Historical perspective engenders foresight.

Hear, listen, apprehend, and approach.

Ambience and Environs

Atmospheres encompass unique variables.

Sound compositions designed to reflect and express the effects of these variables require methods and strategies altogether removed from musical processes in general, being more akin to recording and combining environmental events than arranging instrumental and vocal music.

Yet these are not random processes, but relate to the more expansive and subtle configuration of human perception and the totality of all things.

Confrontation, Contradistinction

The phenomena of existence present themselves, to be perceived and apprehended as real.

Certainly this is clear, yet it does not go without saying because appearances may be misinterpreted, sometimes intentionally, to support one's perspective or world-view, for example.  And nothing good can come of it.

Rather than stoke the fires of temperament, my intentions are to design sound works that may, in fact, subdue emotion; rather than create linear music, I establish aural settings and allow sounds to emerge as they are perceived in everyday life.  Though these pieces are directed and stylized toward enhancement of aesthetic effect, the more contrived and artificial nature of linear music, in contrast, can be distinctly observed and noted by the interested listener.

Reinvention

Tone and mood will not remain static in the rise and fall of things.

Integrity is continuity.

Stylized Points of View

Art presents perspective.

Whether visually, or through sound, movement, poetry or sculpture, representation of perception creates communication, and thereby emotional connotation, ideas, and perceptual feeling may be conveyed beyond the obstacles of distance and time.

Whether simple and direct or sophisticated and finely wrought, the value of experience is given new reality through shared personal expression.

Spirit II

These recordings represent sounds and patterns I hear in surrounding environments as accurately as I can delineate them.  

Between humorless mediocrity and mindless absurdity there are numberless variables, and outside either extreme may be found sincere gravity on the one hand with keen wit on the other.  Within the dynamic between the real and the spurious lies the balancing point of personal perception and artistic representation.

Completeness reveals itself in total effect, in art and in life.