Identity, Image, and Audacity

Typically, diversion and dance come to mind when discussing the purposes of music.

Further consideration suggests the use of music in ceremony and ritual, and for artistic expression of emotion and ideas. Enhancement of concentration and meditative focus, refinement of perception and the reinforcement of contemplative states of mind and being, however, are of far greater importance to those who practice these ways of engagement with reality through expansion of consciousness.

Certainly this is the position of one who composes works in sound to such ends as these.

Material to Abstract

Sensory awareness confined to a limited palette grows dim and weakens.

For the artist as composer and listener there must be expansion of both experience and imagination.

The temporal, the mediocre, and the mundane do not represent alternatives, but the end of culture.

Range II

The integrity of the artist cannot abide by the status quo.

Established limits do not exist to be exploited for personal gain, but to be challenged by visions beyond their scope.

Open, Close, Open

Emerge into the real.

Express the good; act with right reason.  Do this in defiance of culture, and at personal cost.

Understand and come to grips with what is then revealed.

As Forge Demands Fire

Much is made, in contemporary terms, of the concept of progress.

But progress implies improvement.

Show me this improvement.  Reveal it, that I may believe it.

Otherwise it is only a word to obscure the consolidation of power of the status quo.  This much is plainly evident, everywhere, at all times.  Look and see directly.  Listen, and hear.

Resistance III

Neither oppression nor repression of the arts ever reach an end.

Whether imposed by historical traditions or through contemporary cultural imperatives, subjection to collectivist thinking in academic and political circles will always plague artists no less than historians and all those who strive for true representations of reality. The purpose is simple: to eliminate utterly the power and value of the individual.

And the artist is nothing if not an autonomous free agent.  Nothing more than a lackey, a bootlicker.

Evidence of this is plain and clear.  It is not hidden from sight; one need only look at it directly.

There is no end to it.  Yet even if there is no winning, there can be no surrender, or all-- and this means all that is essential to cultural reality itself-- is lost.

Miasma

Expression has meaning when it is fundamentally sound and well-reasoned.

A culture and society that conflates "revolution" and "art" will have neither.

Aural Tints and Reflections

Find sounds of light, of passing distances, of turning winds.

This is the sonic dynamic, representing the ebb and flow of life.

Invisible

Mass media directs mass mentality in every form.

This direction implies that attention is driven towards certain things and away from others. It is as true regarding the arts, especially those related to music, as it is for politics, culture, and everything else.

Hence, independent thought, and the independent artist, are equally essential to life, and rarely seen.

Spells

Those familiar with the cyclic nature of reality understand impermanence, gain, and loss.

History lends itself to foresight, science to progress, and the arts, to enlightenment, even more so than the philosophical perspectives with their degrees of specificity.  It is the individual whose senses are opened through artistic expression, and the individual who must grapple with the implications of the artistic work.

Setting and Psyche

Contemplative space is itself an artistic accomplishment, whether created or discovered.

Noise renders even the most comfortable and visually beautiful place squalid, burdened by intellectual and spiritual neglect.  Everyone has endured this, and it is far too common.

Composer and listener share common bonds, and first among them are goals of elevated experience.

Integrity of Potential

The arts survive.

Decline is a fact of culture.  Ideas originate, prevail, and find their final forms. The arts never reach a state of finality.  To be continually filled and continually emptied out is the nature of expression.

Culture Paradox

Observe the "information society".  Find knowledge ubiquitous, literacy merely functional.

When this plethora of information leads to the assumption that the possession of an internal fund of knowledge is unnecessary, the error is one of profound consequence. Consider only the implications of failed, archaic, totalitarian ideas impressed upon art, politics, and the social order because their outward appearances give the uninformed the specious impression of "novelty". Yet this is of very little moment in comparison to the mass abdication of critical reason it presupposes.

Thus the essential nature of the contemplative, and of atmospheric sound art to enhance reflection.

Wax, Wane

Attainment of intellectual expression is a goal and focus of art.  It is noble, and desirable.

This is because of lasting impact, the shaping of future events, and what might be called the transmission of cultural progress through evolving ideas.

As a perspective this is easily lost upon society, and the momentum of reason difficult to gain.

Observe, Then Question

At no time in human history has music so absolutely saturated culture.

Thus it is taken for granted, devalued, viewed as a "given", without consideration for the labor of the trained musician or the intellectual rigor demanded of the composer, arranger, and songwriter, who are themselves considered marginal figures.

Progress of Being

Experience aesthetic meaning and perception is altered; life is changed.

Aesthetic meaning leads inevitably to a sense of awe.  Art, as representation of reality, evokes this.

All else called "art", regardless of form or scale, is mere cultural propaganda.  Nothing more.

Rhapsody

Overcome the boundaries of definition.

The alternative already exists: perpetuate the same thing in different forms and nothing more.

It is necessary to move beyond a synthesis of styles and influences and into imagination itself, there to order sound in new terms that may be refined, clarified, and expressed through replicable concepts.

The Artificial and the Reflective

To perceive the aural environment, listen without the presence of music.

The contrast with the musical environment, or with "environmental" music, is instantly apparent.

Sound imagery may be constructed in an aesthetic way without the stylistic elements that commonly define music, and in doing so the composer creates a more authentic reflection or representation of the "atmospheric" environment.  But make no mistake: such sound art is no more created randomly than actual environmental patterns are random in nature.  There must be cause and effect processes that the composer may influence and replicate in compositional terms; these techniques and methods are the unique intellectual property of any composer working in these peculiar experimental modes.

Perception is revelation.

Spaces, Tones, Movements

I am interested in aesthetic combinations of sound events.

The elements, theories, and techniques common to what is generally understood to be music, even in their most "primitive" forms, are far superior in their complexities and sophistication to the sound art I envision, design, and produce using entirely different concepts and methods.

These compositions are not about creating such things as songs, but rather perceptions, in the form of of settings, atmospheres, and contemplative states of mind enhanced by sounds.

At Liberty

These are... interesting times, as the Chinese curse puts it.

Art is not everything, and certainly it is not the only thing.

But one who does not recognize its potential, its power, and its capacity to accelerate or inhibit change both personal and cultural is, to be generous, rather foolish, and most likely, easily led.

Now and Everywhere

Ars longa, vita brevis.

Hippocrates continues the observation, finding "opportunity fleeting, experiment dangerous, judgment difficult".

So the arts demand action, and the delineation and representation of experience,  There is no time for considerations regarding gain and loss.  There is only the time that remains.

Unless and Until

The mind does not process environments in their entirety.  It limits, filters, and focuses.

The individual who is cognizant of the extent to which culture influences awareness and intensity of interest has a broader range of perceptivity, and thus choice, than one who is not knowledgeable in such matters.  This is the essential understanding that the arts can manipulate as well as illuminate.

Cloud-Hidden

At the nadir of cultural decline lies ignorance and apathy and self-absorbed complacency.

Since neither art, nor its understanding, are effortless, intellectual curiosity cannot be neglected by those who would gain the broader, deeper perspectives on life the arts reveal.

This is a critical contemporary issue, and its most odious aspects are intentionally reinforced by the elite institutions and mass media under the guise of "populist" egalitarianism.  Since these conditions are, in point of fact, the direct results of social engineering aimed at producing an anemic, totalitarian, collectivist mentality, the resolution of this cultural crisis is far from certain.

In any event, the work of the artist moves forward, openly or underground.

The Mob Falls Silent

The artist is agent of change, the artistic work a reflection of cultural dynamics.

Speak of the modern and reference more than two hundred years of progress.  Observe the clamor and obsessions of the contemporary and the dim fantasies of the past two weeks, months, or hours glare in and out of focus.

Facing subjection to immediacy, the tyranny of contemporary whims, pseudo-intellectual fads, and academic political correctness, the modern artist will never yield.

Post 1500.

Subtleties at the Edge

Cultures, societies, and entire civilizations endure loss.

History and art remain to delineate degrees of perceptivity that once were within reach of those willing to do the work necessary to attain them.  None difficult, they are simply not effortless.

Existential concepts, Zen, mysticism, aesthetic elevation, Stoic equanimity, and direct awareness of objective reality are among these ways of being and living in the world.

History records and describes, art directs the mind and will.  Both sustain, and sometimes restore.

The artist as composer observes the world, hears the possibilities, and works to reveal.

Sonic Setting

Perception of sound registers far more than "music".

Yet cultural norms would have it that only "music" is the creative apex of sound composition. This is absurd on its face, as is the idea that "experimental" music must lead to meaningless noise.

Sense the beauty of sounds as they evolve without interference in all surroundings, whether urban or pastoral, and take this aesthetic into the context of artistic expression, for example, sculpture, collage, cubist perspective, or impressionism. Let "music" exist according to it's elements and techniques, but listen beyond into uncharted areas of imagination. There lies the future.

The Adventurous Journey

Limits present themselves.

It is never necessary to seek them.  It is always necessary to transcend them.

Listen ahead.

Past Immediate Perception

It is possible, I believe, to listen ahead.

The inner ear may perceive with foreknowledge of what is to come, and the composer can develop means by which to act according to such understanding.  This may have an impact on style, sound production, delineation of arrangements, selection of tonal qualities, and so forth.

It is common knowledge that large numbers of intelligent listeners have no interest at all in the state of contemporary music, for the simple reason that it represents unimaginative creative exploitation of well-trod territories. The music industry will not pander to independent thinkers, who must discover the possibilities on their own.

Four Minute Mile

One may be competitive in life, and ambitious.

As an artist, nonetheless, one challenges oneself, and oneself only. Anything else is nothing more than the appearance of a thing that has no reality in the truth of expression.

Fire, Impact

Culture changes, whereas human nature is predictable.

But cultural arts have the potential to alter ideas, attitudes, and perceptions, even to the extent of ennobling the individual.

Some artists consider these facts in terms of profound responsibilities; others give no consideration.

Museum Muse

A key to the expansion of experience is perceptivity.

Consider a reality without Warhol, Dali, Picasso, Frank Zappa, the Velvet Underground, John Cage, William Burroughs, Norman Mailer and others of merit and vision across the cultural spectrum.

And, in fine, this is reality.

Trial and Departure from Error

Observe culture at it most frenetic, overwrought, and predictable.

This is the end result of constant subjection to immediacy, or attachment to contrived "issues" and specious appearances everywhere glaring as distractions of the moment now.

Patience refines gesture. The reality of permanent things is in the abstract. Such things as love and honor cannot be placed in a brightly decorated container and sold at what price the market will bear.

It is a matter of prolonged critical thought and contemplation to gain insight into elevated experience and meaning.

Such experiences do not happen randomly or suddenly, and the arts that reflect them offer both challenges and satisfactions far beyond the temporal and mundane.

Extinction of Ideas

Without thought there is only the necessity to conform. And it is a necessity, a survival skill.

This need never be, as with thought comes foresight, yet when the human condition trends toward vanity, self-obsession, and complacency, it is an ever-present danger. Thus the connection between the ancient and modern Stoic, the Zen archer, and the 21st century avant-garde artist and composer.

All must strike the same target in darkness.

Above the Hollow

Human skill sets exist that are neither intellectual nor physical.

These non-cognitive, perceptual abilities involve persistence of engagement, acquisition of aesthetic perspectives, and experiential recognition of objective reality in contrast to cultural narratives or "mere appearances".  They are also essential to what is commonly recognized as an individual's work ethic, whether in scholarly, artistic, athletic or business pursuits.

Development of such capacities enhances awareness and perception, and expands consciousness as well, but interest in these things is rare in any age or cultural setting.

Foresight and the Unforeseen

Culture is predictable to the extent that prevailing attitudes tend to conformity.

This is the tyranny of mass mentality that demands of the artist subservience to a single perspective and its every element and aspect.

But the artist brings wind, light, and thunder, filling mere chaos with the unexpected stillness of satori and epiphany.

Overwrite Antiquity

Forgotten events are in motion.

The composer will do well to capture their forces, origins, tones and dynamic movements.

Their essential natures may be lost to contemporary understanding, but not to the modern listener, who feels their impulses in the unformed sounds of imagination.

Media Fog

Artists of integrity are never less than honest brokers of cultural information.

Artistic communication is often shadow-play, nevertheless, yet artists direct the attention to the places where they dwell, either toward light or darkness.

This understanding is the responsibility of the audience-- but it is not always present.

What is Called

Methodologies of music represent ways of controlling sound.

Yet there are other forms, other models. Every environment is a listening environment, whether music-- or control-- is present or not.

Echoes Fade, Anticipation Forms

Listen toward the silence.

The artist as composer expects time past, remembers time future, and expresses in time present.

Force of Memory

Note the collective mentality of cultural groups who demand their biases be reinforced by art.

Control of media and the public debate leads only to more control, and consolidation of power in the hands of fewer, more totalitarian, agents of the status quo.  Imagine scenarios in which "art" must be approved by the state or (other controlling forces) because specific ideas and content are acceptable, and no others.  But it is not necessary to imagine, and one need only observe these forces at work.

Time, Place, Identity Unknown

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Alt / Experiment II

Not music, but a panorama of sounds, dynamic in movement and tonal qualities.

As sounds evolve in a state of dreaming, without planning and interference, so they may be understood and brought into reality through perceptivity and imagination,

These are expressions beyond the composer's ego.  Rather, they are expressions of phenomena.

Simulacrum, or State Otherwise

Popular innovations are few.

For commercial purposes, and particularly in terms of musical forms, the rule is imitation, and thus works and performances are relegated to genre.  In the arts, this is indefensible.

There is no breathing room in such narrow confines. Survival is one thing, and commercial viability is another. But to create, really innovate on an individualistic, heightened level of awareness, one must break away altogether, even if no form exists in which to function.

Such forms, which are as yet unimagined, must be made real.

Wild Cry, Left at Great Distance

It is misleading to suggest culture is in a state of decline.

Popular culture is perpetually in a state of decline, based, as it is, upon the notion of "living only for the moment".  Forward-thinking is anathema in such conditions, which are always characterized by absurd emotionalism, squandered passion, insipid vainglory, and the stale idea that some ill-defined, nebulous "we" are "all in this together".

I am interested in art produced by individuals, for individuals.  In composition, it is always my goal to expand, not limit, and elevate consciousness.

This, at all times, defines my perspective on the modern world.

Order of Progress

The way of the artist is that of the individualistic gesture.

Of course this is existential rebellion, in opposition to the common, the mundane, and the self- righteously complacent everywhere manifest in contemporary culture at all times.

Who will think, rather than be told, will reach beyond the surface of appearances.  For the artist as composer, this is the critical choice between music that now exists and sounds that must instead be brought into being.

Intent and Obscurity

One does not simply demand an audience.  That is absurd.

For the artist as composer, the listener and audience are interested in the works, and certainly not in the bleating of the self-styled public artiste, for whom the world is a stage and pretensions to a sort of special genius are the order of every day.

One would think there is little time for such nonsense, yet, in fact, the stage is always set for the hosts of competing entertainers to enter what can be generously called a contest for popularity. Here, all the financial rewards and associated glamour of "show-business" and the like take special precedence.

But this is not art, of course, and those who see art as a higher calling can only regard such attitudes with disdain and contempt.  And these are the people for whom the artist is compelled to work, that is to say, like-minded individuals.  Thus the artist understands this audience will be reached in ways that are unrelated to clamor, fanfare, and extravagance, and that further, in cultural terms, this audience is the largest, most diverse, and most supportive of all.

Clairaudience and Reason II

The truly simple is often difficult to grasp.

Similarly, complexity will not mislead perception if fundamentals are understood.

Forge and Will

The artist may be moved by an inner voice, or directed by others.

Therefore, events may determine outcomes, and outcomes may, indeed, determine events.

Reasoning Music

The aesthetic environment is by nature a "thinking" environment.

Responses to the vicissitudes of life according to the art of reason are simply superior to frenetic, emotional reactions to the ways of the world.  The art of sound is not simply meant to fill a void.

As composer, I bring sounds together as representations of the physical, aural nature of the world with the purpose of revealing both the dynamics of atmospheres and those of the imagination.

Cycles, Vibrations, Fasces

Listeners display curiosity, flexibility, self-possession, and respect for the arts and artists.

Consumers want conformity, particularly in thought and action, with little cost or consequence.

Any cursory survey of popular music immediately reveals well-defined contrasts between the genuinely creative work and the fabricated reflection of popular opinion.  There are myriad implications.  And they are not worth my time, listener, or yours.