Ornament and Illumination

Cast aside all ideas of music.

Consider sounds as elements of an art form that may be taken as purely decorative, yet possessing qualities of exceptional emotional, intellectual, and spiritual value, that, given their impressions upon the listener, might be considered instructive.

Expanding Moment

As events unfold, some are imposed upon the attention and others are arbitrarily ignored.

Intrinsic to these events are sounds in myriad proportions, rhythms other than the commonplace, and a broad spectrum of perceptions that are, for the greatest part, dismissed as having no relevance to the generally accepted narratives of life.

This does not render such events any less real, or any less valuable as an artist's creative resources.

Go By, Strange and Commonplace

Contemporary expectations are predictable, as they reliably call for more of the present sameness.

This is but one reason among many why, in cultural terms, the modern remains at cross-purposes with the contemporary. The modern perspective proceeds apace, speculatively seeking developments that bring the future to bear on the present.  The contemporary viewpoint is in the moment, which is to say, as unenlightened and grasping as history records and reveals in any epoch, with the so-called post-modern as its function of nugatory semantic posturing.  That which is clever is interesting for what it is, but what it is not is meaningful and consequential.

This has everything to do with music and the art of sound.  It is the composer's responsibility to be informed as to whether the work reaches those who listen, and hear, or simply falls upon deaf ears.

Inception

Every composition begins with apparent perception of movement.

Begin in medias res. Allow the movement to reveal time present and time future simultaneously.

Explore Existence, Seek Being

Find the sounds that go unnoticed.

Turn from the given, and toward the unknown.  Listen, and hear.

Night is Black and Sounds Like These

One accustomed to the absurd fails to observe the depth of simplicity.

If a simple visual metaphor representing an idea as plain and unadorned as an uphill climb or a reflection suggesting balance makes no impression, one need not expect a musical or auditory metaphor to be grasped.  Such is the extent to which the artist will continually be challenged.

But if such things were of any moment to any artist, nothing at all would be created.

Sound Like Water

There is an essential balance in art, and especially in the art of sound.

Obviously this is not true of music, per se, in which this balance is continually and intentionally undone, often in violent ways through dynamics, volume, poorly rendered themes, and emotional bombast.

The art of sound, from our perspective, is that of aural imagery, its tones, colors, shading, and phases, its flow and variations, and all those elements that lead to equilibrium of force and feeling.

Cold Eye

Take a critical view, distant from collective thought, emotion, and impulse.

But this places one at a distance from sensationalism and so-called controversy, that is to say, in the realms of reason, restraint, and equanimity, at a far remove from the public imagination and interest, such as it is.

Nonetheless, such things as clarity, integrity, cultural continuity and essential artistic expression demand it.  No small things, these.

Prevailing Atmospheres

The contemporary, for some little time now, is characterized by pointless chaos; what is given, for the most part, to be common culture, is, in fact, detritus.

This is the consequence of error, of a commonly held belief that indiscriminate, unthinking activity is the norm throughout the culture, and that any other attitude is untenable in a random universe. But it is transparent, shallow posturing, promoting and promoted by a sense of passivity and collective self-absorption.  One subject to such attitudes is continually manipulated through propaganda in various forms of information and entertainment.  Simply put, it is the error of ignoring cause and effect.

Like ideas, artistic works do not merely happen spontaneously.  They are conceived, attended to, cultivated, and brought into being through conscious processes as well as creative impulses. To expect otherwise is to be deluded, disappointed, and culturally impoverished.

Think, and do so freely, unimpeded by the mediocre and mundane. Act and create accordingly.

Cut Cubist Paste

Space and time are malleable to the sound artist.

Things are happening there now that have already happened later here.  This is a recording,

Yes, to Fire

The absurd gesture does not exist in nature.

It is only the ego that demands satisfaction at any price, any cost.  Such a representation obtains only in forms of infantile, benighted, human failings.  Reality produces myriad sounds, yet none are absurd.

Contrasting Movements

Simplicity is development toward the opposite of what is expected.

Complexity is the result of a series of choices leading to outcomes beyond expectations altogether.

Course of Flux

In these compositions, sound waves move and are manipulated toward aesthetic ends.

These sonic events reach fruition according to diverse aspects of their natures as well as the specifics of the composer's intent.  As each outcome takes place as a complete element, and contributes to the whole in complexity as a series of interrelated phenomena, it is analogous to the idea that one never crosses the same river twice.

Spatial Perspective

Encounter and absorb real auditory information within real environments.

Turn this process, rather than those associated with musical arrangements, into an organizational prototype for composition of sound.  The result is a tangible atmosphere developing in flux as aural imagery surrounding the percipient, whether listener or composer.

Force, Application, Outcome

As to art, value is not creative impulse, but final expression and its experience.

Between these lie idea, feel, medium, method, and articulation, with their complexities.  Color, sound, shading, contrast, and stylization of elements, whether released or restrained, move always toward a final act of revealing, and this is simple.  It is total effect.

Around, Within

Neglect to listen, and sounds grow dim, sensibilities dull.

Give heed to perceptions of the surroundings, and the inner world expands.

Think, Hear, This Way

Ten, twenty, fifty centuries hence.

The sound of the moment now is yet perceivable.

Incipient Insight

Long-standing interpretations of the idea of advancement in the arts and sciences typically center around existing standards and related innovations.

Limiting the musical imagination to development and refinement of preexisting designs and models results in stultification, that is to say, the typical sounds of the contemporary in the second decade of the twenty-first century.  But these sounds are not congruent with the imagination of the modern.

The modern plunges forward with time past, drawing in time future.  This application of the idea of progress means to bring into being what will, in fact, exist.

Turning, Rising, Reaching

Contemporary culture is little concerned with the contemplative.

Yet the contemporary cultural narrative continually suggests that the life that is lived best is lived "unselfconsciously", and "in the moment".

Regardless, every moment spent in reflection and contemplation is its own reward, and more, freely grants an equanimity and clarity of reason that transcends the merely immediate.

Thus the purpose of all these works by Black Mountain School, and we extend the reader and listener our gratitude.

Consciousness of the Unusual

Informed by technology, consider the social and cultural imagination of the day.

Informed by direct perception, experience, and the wisdom of ages. consider imagination itself.

Continuum and Flux

Sound is meaningless until it approaches and engages perception.

Seize sound. Seize knowledge, history, freedom, experience.  In doing so, seize the art of being.

Neither Art, Nor Life

Shadows, in and of themselves, are not expressions.

One cannot experience reality by viewing it solely in terms of media.  This is a superficial appearance, whether found on the wall of a cave in flickering firelight or in high definition and one hundred feet tall.

Where, Then

Though rich in technology, contemporary culture is hobbled by collective predictability.

From the perspective of the historical Modern, the dearth of imagination, aggravated by the social and political stances against individualistic expression, explains the condition everywhere visible.

The solution, as always, is resistance and assertiveness on the personal level. The artist stands alone.

Esprit

Genius is no more than the creative being of the individual.

In oppressive times, it waits; without opportunity, it makes possibilities; with nothing, it fills the void.

Always it projects questions into the space of the mind where restraints cannot take hold.

Everyone can do these things.  A few will.

Rise II

Consider the impossible.

Otherwise, the ponderous gravity of the mundane cannot be overcome.

The Ethereal and the Unexpected

Superficially, one hears style-- rhythm, percussion, instrumentation-- thus, music.

But, in terms of sound as aural phenomena, this is but an infinitesimal, though delusively ubiquitous, set of elements.  Those who perceive with vigor understand that the value of such things as texture, color, shading of tone, evolution of auditory imagery and nuance of movement, to cite a few obvious examples, vastly exceeds the quality of interest generated by bland repeated patterns (and puerile bombast) common to generic music, even in the widest diversity of its manifestations.

Rather much is made of the idea that "the internet" constitutes a watershed event in human culture and consciousness, and no doubt it is so as a medium of communication.  Consider, instead, the idea of cultural content surpassing that heretofore experienced, to the same degree that the digital domain surpasses that of the dominion of the printing press.

Borrowed Time

Perhaps machines will think for someone, but they will not think for me.

From the simplest to the most sophisticated creative problem, it is the artist who chooses to apply method and means to the solution. Whether the choice is a hands-on approach or one requiring the most conceptually obtuse digitally-facilitated engagement, it is consciousness that perceives, that imagines, and that impels the creative act.

Course of Culture

History and the moment now continually impact time future.

Simply put, the origins of present knowledge are indicators of possibilities. There will always be sound for dance and diversion, yet sound turned toward art is in perpetual flux, out of which comes constant evolution according to any responsive artist's perspective.

Curvature of Sound

Listening is as much an art as composing, sharing the same fundamental goals.

Change is essential in the rise and fall of things. The bright grows dim, the shadows fall back into light. Sounds traverse long distances through time and space to reach the inner ear.  And over this course of change, meanings and understandings are altered until, ultimately, nothing is as it once was.

Within a lifetime, the listener will hear this come to pass. It is perceptible, and irreversible, even now.

Advance, Thrive

Set aside ideas regarding convergent and divergent thinking as distinct but complementary.

This is not to wander in the wilderness, but rather to craft individual perspective. Consciousness exists outside of cultural mechanisms that stubbornly define and divide "Us" and "Them".

Complexity of thought is needlessly burdened by subjection to one diktat or another in pursuit of original integrity of expression, and the artist who is capable of doing so will consciously choose between lifting a uniquely personal torch or shouldering one borne by many.

Clear Acuity

Sound, taken for granted, loses perceptibility, and the edges of consciousness are dulled.

Music becomes trite; voices are no longer laden with implication. Yet, while sensitivity to nuance may be lost, it may also be revived.

What is typically called silence is filled with sound.  Listen through the appearance of silence and the spark of auditory perception illuminates with vibration.  This is hearing with the inner ear.

Dogma and Curiousity

Progress is characterized by the development of extant ideas and methodologies.

This is certainly the case with music. And conversely, there is regression and decline.

Yet some will listen, and hear, sound in different ways altogether, setting alternative ideas in motion that reflect not only peculiar perceptions and sensibilities, but artistic purpose and aesthetic vision.

Something in the Air

Compose according to the ways atmospheres are perceived.

Listen in the presence of time past, attend the unfolding of aural images through the moment now; hear with the inner ear as distance toward time future diminishes.

Distant and Near

Turn an ear toward the simple and beautiful.

Imagine it evolving complexity, through touch that illuminates.

Proper Differences

Find the sounds that represent the atmosphere, and thereby expand the moment now.

Unlike the short bursts of emotion common to musical expression, the extended works engage and enlarge perspective, altering the setting while contributing to thought and reflection.  The so-called "power of music" is, in fact, the force of the listener's response as much as it is that of the artist's intent, and, as energy, it evolves as a matter of course toward greater objectives and purposes.

Source and Loss

The society that presumes to take art for granted will be bereft of all its advantages.

Artists will decline to seek cultural acceptance, the public imagination will stagnate, and critical thinking, along with creative innovation, will exhaust its vitality. This is no prognostication, but a present crisis.

Alt / Experiment

Speculative music postulates "the other".

Conceive sounds brought into forms that engage listening perception as events in motion, as natural aural effects, as phenomena outside the range of standard instrumentation and contrivance.

Trial and Error by Fire

Various proprietary techniques are used in all these compositions, giving them unique character.

The discriminating listener is aware that these recordings are created with peculiar effects as intended outcomes.  There is no "pop sensibility" at work; there are no catchy rhythms or melodies, no "hooks", and none of the commonly anticipated electronic embellishments are to be found. Still, there do exist a number of aesthetic qualities in play that enhance the listener's experience, whether listening attention is active and direct, or passive and otherwise involved in particular activities.

These productions require a high degree of patience and painstaking, meticulous craftsmanship. It is a challenge to conceive designs in sound as well as to develop the means to bring theoretical ideas into reality through experimentation. One work, just completed, has been in progress for over a year.

One might be forgiven for failing to express an unbecoming humility, or lacking interest in "reaching out" for attention, given the intensive nature and critical integrity of these many processes.

Imagination, Technology, Creativity

Technical developments allow compositions and productions to be made with an ease that was heretofore impossible, yet many are simply flat, uninteresting, and puerile.

These are simply appearances of sophistication and craftsmanship, reflecting a low degree of both in their final form and total effect. Excellence will be realized in the mind's eye and the inner ear before it is brought into being, and even so, the technical aspects of creation will lag behind the theories and concepts of the artist.  For example, technology does not, as yet, allow the composer to make use of the reflective surfaces in an environment to extend the depth of a work through the generation of perceived echoes. This can only be accomplished  by dynamic juxtaposition of sounds. through effort and artistry, and by virtue of intent and experience.

Sublime Sense and Inner Ear

A vast majority of people refuse to view themselves as "consumers", and the listener, most assuredly, possesses the range of experience to seek and discover a greater perspective than one merely concrete and material, even from a very early age.  This is the direction of sublimity of perception.

To speak of the sublime is, on the surface, to be transported to the rarefied atmosphere of nineteenth century aesthetic philosophy and Walter Pater's "gem-like flame" of ecstatic consciousness. But these are entirely legitimate concepts, fully formed, that anyone may comprehend and realize with complete presence of mind and emotional vitality. That they are indeed transcendent and impersonal states of awareness, and that they find representation in finely rendered artistic expressions is not in question.

It is a curiosity of the contemporary age that these aesthetic states of consciousness are so rarely given the consideration they warrant as existential phenomena alone.  They direct and refine the attention toward expanding levels of elevated awareness; in terms of art, and particularly art of a musical nature, they convey profound insights into the dynamics of being, reality, and the human condition worthy of more thoughtful examination in the context of modern culture.

Enter the Contemplative

These compositions are conducive to thinking, and further, to the setting aside of thought.

Of course this is different from overwhelming thought with volume, rhythm, and so forth, as holds with music meant to compel generalized, physical ecstatic states.  It is no shocking revelation that elevated forms produce perceptions of a higher order than those that induce frenzy, and that restraint, even elegance, in delineation may yield intensity of awareness of a divergent nature.

Every culture understands the value of introspective solitude, and conditions in which it is impossible to be alone with one's thoughts, whether due to social or psychological dysfunction, are unworthy of free and enlightened people.  These compositions are produced to bring about settings and situations in which the listener, by choice, may ruminate and reflect, even to the extent that thoughts may be set aside in the clarity of contemplative consciousness.  There is a time for dance, and a time for stillness.

Wake the Dead

What foolishness, to deny history.

Sounds ringing in the ears were born in reeds and wind, blood and thunder. In the artist's tradition, who we are is who we were.  There is no definition, no leave of authority, no stamp of approval or opprobrium in time present that endows or renews the life of an artist, but only this: the primal gesture of expression, brought forth in time out of mind, to be cast always into futurity.

Sound and Time

Sounds need not simply suggest forward movement from beginning to end.

The structure of musical form contributes to it's appearance of sounds moving through linear time. Structure differently.  Suggest radiation, ebb and flow, expansion and contraction simultaneously, in juxtaposition.  Create an ouroboros of sound imagery, of movement turning in upon itself.  This, too, is but an appearance, yet it is one that reveals a contradistinction in perception of aesthetic beauty.

Opposing Forces

Progress is more than expansion of the status quo.

Progress in any form involves change.  It is inevitable. Whether in the arts and sciences, politics, social and religious contexts, or within culture generally, there are those who seek meaningful change, and those who desire only superficial alterations to existing forms and conditions.

Promoveo, promovi, promotum.

Tonal Flux

Sounds may be ordered according to a central tone, but need not be predictable.

One-dimensional predictability is contrary to the reality of sound and its perception.

To narrow the function of hearing to a single attitude of mind is to deny the sense itself.  The witless anarchy of chaotic noise is superior to bland, insipid sounds, but far more to be desired is the release of the mind from dull expectations- stultifying beats and rhythms- through immersion in unobstructed flow of aesthetic design.

Stoa

The artist, like the Stoic of old, manipulates perspective.

It should not be beyond comprehension that reality is not a function of the ego, nor that perceptions themselves exist to inform consciousness for more elevated purposes than self-absorbed expression.

These are points of essential knowledge, in firm opposition to inimical delusion. In terms of the arts, they lend themselves to the formulation of viewpoints established to highlight the differences between mere appearances and the real.  I say formulation in acknowledgement of the challenge that sensory impressions and their interpretations can and do present, objectivity being at times in short supply.

The composer experiences life, and is interested in sound as form and media in representing events, ideas, emotional connectivity, and frameworks for the apprehension of the world. This is one for whom the effects of music are not enough.  There must be insights.  There must be meanings.

Place and Process

Neither listener nor composer simply accepts things as they are, with no further possibilities.

If there is no room for the unconventional, there is no room for progress, or, for that matter, reality.

Aural Field

It is the listener, not the composer, who chooses the time and place to experience recorded works.

Therefore the burden is on the composer to produce the finest works possible, those made to enliven and elevate consciousness in any setting the listener may prefer.

The Receptive and the Cultivated

The reality of sound is vibration in motion.

The reality of listening is that of perceptions informing consciousness.

Because the mind is immersed in personal experience, influenced subjectively by emotion, and also directed by innumerable aspects of culture to value sounds arranged in recognized musical structures, the listener is challenged by expressions that immediately impress as peculiar and out of the ordinary.

Thus it is clear that the mysterious nature of the beautiful demands a sense of integrity and aesthetic purpose in both composer and listener.

Expansion, Contraction

The spontaneous gesture, if genuine, opens and releases expression, and communicates it in an effortless manner.

If, in fact, the spontaneity is false, and a mere expression of impulse, it denies, rather than asserts, vital urgency, and obscures the clarity it intends to convey.

In music, originating more often than not in self-styled avant-garde circles, the result is vacuous, a transparent artifice, and an inconsequential distraction that diminishes the work.

The impromptu gesture in sound will impress the listener as being free, and moreover, in accord with the consciously developed elements of a work, being equally, fundamentally, meaningful.