Generic Feeling

Music is often used to enhance emotional states, to minor effect.

Of greater significance is the potential of sound in sustaining contemplative perception.

Idea and Impact

The objective of a work of art is realization of expression.

Yet the aesthetic beauty of a work is also a goal, and not an afterthought.

Expansion and Opposition

Speculative sound composition establishes a mean and proposes extremes.

Sophistication, once gained, develops in the direction of simplicity. Out of simplicity, the creative synthesis moves toward complexity.  Juxtaposed, the extremes may come into balance, there to be sustained in a long-form work that challenges ideas of the "musical" and the "atmospheric".

Process and Progress

Technology provides exceptional creative opportunities.

For the artist, composer, and speculative thinker, coming to terms with the numerous technical aspects of media entails establishing limits as well as exceeding them, particularly when aspects of technology afford far more than is necessary to realize specific concepts and create desired effects.

The outcomes technology may produce must not come into being at the expense of imagination.

Attitude of Listening and Inquiry

The good and the beautiful are self-evident.

Music is recognized according to culturally defined terms, then personal experience engenders preferences, whether narrow and biased or broad and general.

The skeptical mind, capable of considering the traditional and historical with incisive acumen, rarely seeks to question the contemporary, whether its representations are abstruse or dull and mundane.

And thus the same patterns continue to repeat, until vision, listening, and being progress beyond what is merely given to be common understanding.

The artist cannot presume, but must take action.

Fulfilling Expectations

Generic music is easily identified.

The appeal of the various genres lies in predictability.

Since technology has rendered music a disposable commodity, there is nothing to be gained by satisfying the demands of an audience that has everything.

The composer, therefore, is motivated by art, perception, belief, and the aesthetic act.  Nothing more?

Nothing more.

Commission

The Black Mountain School project creates sound environments.

These sound environments are designed to complement diverse settings by replicating the paradigms of spontaneously occurring aural phenomena, both "natural" and "man-made".  As such, these works are not predicated upon concepts that are traditionally "musical", but rather upon the perceptual qualities of active listening and passive hearing.  Such perspectives are associated with apprehension of tones, patterns, and myriad variations of sonic impressions, some based upon aesthetic constructs of the visual arts.

Peculiar methods and techniques necessary to compose sonic atmospheres of this nature originate solely with the Black Mountain School project and continue to be developed in our studio.  While the listener may detect a host of artistic influences, these are unavoidably displaced in the course of the work by the intent and goals of the compositions and recordings.  In objective terms, the discriminating listener will find no other "experimental" or "mainstream" productions that are analogous to the work of Black Mountain School.

Were it otherwise the case, the project would have no purpose, and no raison d'être.

Vibration, Perception

Like words, sounds possess meanings.

Tones, in particular, convey qualities that impress themselves upon the senses.  These impressions evoke both personal and universal associations, thus cultural and individual responses vary from the predictable to the uniquely inspired.

There is no permanence.  The future establishes itself, whether in accord with mediocre expectations or in terms of sudden, unpredictable visions.

The Existential Reality

Either music must be, or it will not.

No reasons are needed, and no expectations are possible.

Sound as Mirror

As culture is reflected in the arts, so is consciousness.

Regard the contents and emotional conditioning of the mind in the context of social order and disorder.

Now listen-- give attention to the various surroundings in which one finds oneself.

The artist and composer have singular and personal visions that are not always congruent with the public imagination, and for this fact, given the perceptions and attitudes that dominate the ubiquitous media and the commercial marketplace, one might well be grateful.

Shapes of Reality

Imagination conceives representations of the real and the unreal.

Given form in artistic media, these sights and sounds define, and at times determine, frames of reference regarding life and its myriad possibilities in cultural terms of greater-- and lesser-- value to others.

There is nothing interesting about the absurd, the repulsive, and the excessive.  I am interested in bringing into being works of atmosphere and aural imagery that illuminate reality, with all its danger, risk, fear, hope and beauty, according to perspectives that open the mind and spirit through the gates of the inner ear.

Creative Impulse

Nothing is conceived of nothing.

Reality, culture and the evidence of the senses provide the raw materials necessary to engage and come to terms with life's mystery.  Grasped, manipulated, and combined, they emerge out of consciousness in new forms to the extent the mind and imagination allow.  This is the synthesis of idea and vision out of which emerges expression of every type, whether in the arts or the sciences.

All else is simply information, leading to nothing, in and of itself.  And nothing happens without imagination, inventiveness, innovation, and individuality.

Setting and Soul

Arrive at the understanding of balance.

Equilibrium and moderation clear the mind, enhance emotional well-being, and elevate the spirit. This sense of symmetry will be reflected in artistic representations that convey clarity of perception as well as aesthetic principles that lend completeness to the work, whether it be a visual or musical piece.

In the Modern Mode

The modern remains long after the contemporary fades.

To conflate the modern and the contemporary is a minor error, but an error nonetheless.

Works that are a hundred years old (and older) have neither been equaled nor surpassed, and sounds of the present moment may have little impact now, only to gain in value over the course of cultural change-- while time obliterates others.

One need not know, and need only create.

Waking, Dreaming II

The conscious and unconscious mind perceive according to their respective sensations.

Awake, sensory perceptions are interpreted through the mind's filter of knowledge and experience.  In the altered states of awareness, particularly when dreaming, the mind presents symbols of uncanny meaning to the inner experience of being.

These are visions the modern artist represents with sounds as well as through visual forms.

Gemlike Flame

The aesthetic desire is that for the perfection of the moment.

These are observations, transient and fleeting, of a kind of beatific vision, a realization of vast, perceptually comprehensible beauty and meaning, at the far edges of reason and beyond.

Intimations of this reality are continuously emerging, coalescing, and dispersing, and the artist seeks to express them in every medium.  In partaking of their representations, a listener or audience gains insight into depths of experience not usually within the general range of awareness that are, given the vicissitudes of modern life, difficult to sustain without the development of a contemplative temperament.

Yet, once experienced, these visions and sounds may spark the inclination toward a finer, more intense perspective and a more sustained expansion of consciousness, leading to personal, and ultimately cultural, attainments of lasting value.

Wind in the Ear

There exists a totality of sound that is perceived only in limited, speculative ways.

Photograph and sound recording device capture impermanence.  What is done is done.  Understand the effect subjectively and the virtue of the cause may come to light.

Listen in the lower degree to begin to hear in the higher.  Word, image, rhythm, the distortions of memory and emotional connectivity fall away.  Immersion in tones and the hidden language of tone qualities with their potential juxtapositions follows.  Song becomes sound; sound becomes vibratory being and the shackles of time and space become inconsequential.  There is no longer "music", this contrivance, but elevated experience.

One does not ask approval to create any more than one seeks permission to live.

Silesia

Every environmental setting possesses unique ambience and mood.

One need not look beyond one's own familiar environs to grasp the unique character of a place, even in terms of different times of the day.  Variations may be profound, and these afford the composer singular sounds and associated events for contemplative reflection and artistic expression.

Treasures to be illuminated, the myriad aural images, both subtle and startling, to be discovered in diverse places, serve as reminders of each individual's distinctive perceptions and perspectives.

These are the spirits of time and place that contribute to the essences of geographic reality and the human experience, regardless of their historic backgrounds or personal connections.  If these prove distractions, set them aside, and engage the extraordinary qualities of atmosphere in the fullness of their presence.

To Listen, To Be

Human character is revealed in various ways, among them word, deed, bearing and attitude.

Contrary to most popular received wisdom on this subject, consciousness and identity are profoundly shaped by arts and culture.  Nature and nurture play separate roles, as do politics, economics, and the forces of history in the human condition, yet the personal and individual are directly influenced by the arts in their myriad forms. To pretend otherwise is delusion.

Yet one listens, but does not hear; one absorbs, but does not deliberate, one chooses, but remains in the dark about the possibilities.  Even so, to consciously gain awareness beyond such limits, states, and circumstances is to move from the shadows into the light.  And it was ever thus.

When the purpose of art is a contemplative one, the higher its ideals, the more beautiful its sounds and visions, and the greater the meaning to be found in its representations, the stronger, deeper and wider the growth of personal, cultural, and spiritual experience will become.

Superfluity

Meaning is enhanced by stylization and degraded by exaggeration.

Generic music runs its course and becomes devalued, the perceived similarity of all of it rendering it meaningless to the casual listener more interested in nodding to rhythm than contemplating the poetic lyric or the well-executed improvisation.  The accessibility of recordings, in terms of sheer numbers, is absurd; it would be impossible to listen to more than a fraction of them in a lifetime.

Thus the composer, by virtue of imagination as well as existential necessity, must create works that are sui generis.

Complement, Totality

Merge thought and sound.

Such an experience suggests not linear movement through time, but expansion of being.

Sangfroid

The natural state of things is neither random nor chaotic.

Cultural disorder is always reflected in music, but this is a contrived appearance. The true disorder of noise, confusion, disturbance, agitation, and illness is found in the unquiet mind, and represented by stylized musical compositions and performances that speak to diverse levels of individual alienation and social unrest.

While this may be interesting, for what it is, it is rarely necessary or desirable, even when it rises, as a footnote to history, to the level of art.

What is essential is clarity and balance in the face of reality, whether it rises in tranquility or through a fierce act of will, and the creative courage to realize these virtues in works of vigorous, well-reasoned expression.

Mobility

Constant movement perpetuates the illusion of freedom.

Most music will further augment this appearance.  But it is no more than this, an appearance only, at times a delusion, thoroughly subjective and emotionally vapid.

The world is not still, and continues apace, forces in motion traveling inexorably toward their respective outcomes.  This is the realm of the real, and the establishment of one's correspondence to it, whether in accord or estranged, is a matter of reason and will, or deficits thereof.

Clarity arrives with illumination or disillusion, brought about through accident or by contemplation and reflection. Consider sound works created to engage thought and preserve equanimity as meditations on the journey of life.

Auditory Engagement

As an active process, listening identifies and analyzes; as a passive process, hearing perceives as one is otherwise engaged in other activities.

With this understanding, sounds may be designed for entirely different purposes than those typical of most musical compositions, and for more interesting and creative pursuits than relaxation and simple diversion.

Atemporal Music

Out of radio and recording technology emerged the three to four minute popular song.

Even so, modern innovations in technology and musical artistry extended the length of recorded works, highlighting the subtleties of composition and expression evident, by the mid to late nineteen fifties, in albums such as Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue.

Now, for composer and listener, time is of far less consequence, and the aesthetic of creative listening anticipates sound works reflecting the nature of these profound changes in both audio recording and the experience of music.

Rise

Ideas must be expressed, concepts realized, and works of art created.

One may have no expectation for remuneration, or appreciation for efforts of any kind.

There are no incentives for creation beyond the need to reach for something, anything, greater than the given mediocrity.

But art will be.

Technique, Style, Impression

The works of an artist stand as manifestations of that artist's will.

Consider sound compositions devoted to the realization of environmental conditions in terms of emergence, dynamic flux, and dispersal.  Such works will reflect deliberation and action as well as individuality of perception and expression, yet they will remain impersonal by design.

The listener will be immersed in atmospheres that have led the composer to vanish from the scene.

Quietude

The natural order of things reflects tranquility.

Just as naturally, cycles of intense activity, storms, and violence shatter the stillness, but afterwards, the clarity of the undisturbed flow of life returns.  Within this flow and these cycles lies the sense of musica universalis, for those who listen, and hear.

Boundaries, Distortions

Media constructs processes of continuous manipulation.

Perceptions may be altered, truth divided in terms of fact and plausible fictions, reason narrowed, subverted, or both, and attention drawn to presentations of spectacle that have no basis in reality.

But let us look beyond the sensational, the superficial, and the absurd.  There is far more to life, music, and art than these hollow appearances.

Crossing the Mind

Contemplation may be considered an art of observation and reflection, while meditation is generally practiced as immersion in the inner consciousness.

Both engage states of mind and being that transcend self-absorbed existence, attachments to material possessions and consumer culture.  In doing so they contribute to the development of spiritual values and refinement of perception.  Each elevates the intellect, enhances emotional moderation and fortifies sensory acuity.

For speculative music and sound art to complement these virtues, composer and listener will do well to envision and realize their forms accordingly.

Download  Prescience:Excerpt 1

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Fusion and Individuation

Experience is a continuum overflowing with words, imagery, and sounds.

The unconscious, in perceiving, adapting, and transforming, shapes the content of dreams and the faculty of imagination in myriad ways, contributing to realization of what Socrates and Plato called self-knowledge, and thus to illuminating reason and expression.

This leads to a quest for listener and composer alike, that of seeking the musica universalis, or "music of the spheres", outside the reach of the mediocre and the mad.

Heed, Harken

Attention, as a function of attitude, places value on specific things.

To see and hear contemplatively is to give attention to the fullness of experience.  The senses inform, but cannot value; this is a function of will.  Art may reflect and represent, but only the mind and spirit realize meaning.

Download  Prescience:Excerpt 2

© Crucibulum Publishing (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved. 
Compatible with iPod®, iTunes, Windows Media Player and other MP3 players.

 

Realization Through Sound

Atmospheres created artificially range from the minimalistic to the extravagant.

But I am interested in speculative arrangements, and speculation involves genuine possibilities, not absurdities or fantasy settings. There is much more happening in the world perceived by the senses and the mind than it is always possible to apprehend.

Spirits of Place II

Sound environments reveal and establish tone, mood, and situation.

The composer's attitude may be apparent, but it is not of primary interest to the listener.  Nor should it be.  It is the set of conditions the listener experiences through sound that suggests the richness of the composition.

Ear, Brain, Sound, Being

Failure to experience and develop the contemplative spirit is, in point of fact, debilitating.

Contemplation and reflection nurture the imagination, clarify ideas and emotional states, reinforce analytic thought and strengthen independent will.

For music to lend its force to such essential conditions of consciousness, it must be composed and produced in ways that focus on the arrangement of those elements of sound that contribute most to immersive, atmospheric environments, within which the mind is as liberated as the physical body can be while dancing or engaged in athletic activity.

Dynamism

The shadow absorbs in stillness, the fire illuminates in motion.

Certainly there must be impetus to create.  But there must be vision and the application of reason, will, and force.

Murmur and Thunder

Observe simplicity expressed in ways grand and ethereal.

The greatest of things are of the most direct and uncomplicated clarity.

Appearances As They Are

Expression, ranging from the legitimate and real to the specious and fraudulent, makes and leaves impressions on the senses, mind, and emotions.

Just as judgement is false if not based upon facts, so the sound of the authentic experience must have a foundation in the genuine, that is to say, in viable settings or environments, rather than in contrived and spurious ones.

The Searching Ear

Stillness is external and internal, in the nature of living atmosphere and of being.

Observant, listening and hearing impressions great and minute, ordering and analyzing the mundane, the fantastic, and the curious: perceive surroundings, shades of meaning, and attitudes of mind.

Timeflow

What is heard:  the essentials for human functioning, then the media.

What is missed:  the subtle, the environmental, the aesthetically pleasing, the elevated, the uncanny; virtually anything outside the realm of the self-centered.

Fusion

In rich combinations of sound, separate elements sustain their distinctive qualities in relation to each other.

This occurs within the naturally developing atmosphere of any setting, without interference, according to probabilities and happenstance.  The composer, following this model, initiates a blending of tones, patterns, and the like, contributing such modifications as enhance the aesthetic properties of the work.

From my perspective, the less the designer intervenes, the more the "organic" atmospheric qualities of the ambient composition are enhanced.

Personal Culture

There exists what might be called a common narrative, that is to say, a culture of the events of the moment.

Within this cultural narrative are social, political and academic forces, influential in the development of arts and entertainments directed toward establishing and manipulating the public's, and especially the student's, ideas and attitudes.  This is the established milieu of various types of artists.

There also exists, outside these boundaries, an entire universe of experience and expression.

Fire and Frost

One may convey the infinite through understatement.

What can be seen and heard and understood are infinitesimally small in relation to the vastness of reality, and every expression captures but a moment's breath.

The Scent of Water

The most subtle of sounds enhances the most rarefied degrees of perceptivity.

The small things matter, revealing meaning, reviving memory, and elevating imagination.

Context, Meaning, Aural Impressions

Sonic images, like the visual, are symbolic of emotions, ideas, and the spiritual.

Properly understood, listening and hearing convey the vision of the composer, directly and through implication, to the experience of the listener.

Artificial Creativity

To dismiss the artist and deny tradition is the end of culture.

Advanced technology does not endow one with vision and imagination, but with ways and means, for individuality is indispensable, and works of greatness, the achievements of free will and moral reason, come from no other source, as history proves time and again.