Monday, May 30, 2016

In Gratitude


To Make Your Contribution Visit:

Their Mission: To transport America’s Veterans to Washington, DC to visit those memorials dedicated to honor the service and sacrifices of themselves and their friends. Your donation matters.



Sunday, May 29, 2016

Exercise VI

Clear the mind, to the greatest extent possible, of subjective thought and emotion.


Concentrate solely upon sensory perception, and sustain this focus. Consciously see, listen, attend to the atmosphere in every way, including the subtleties of scent and temperature, flavor and what may be called undefined experience.  Whenever possible, choose to engage this exercise.

Reflect upon the nature of these events, and, as warranted, make notes for later consideration, particularly as the writing may clarify or elaborate upon the aesthetic and creative perspective.


Saturday, May 28, 2016

Not For Now

Attend to the sound of the far distance.


Know what few now living will experience.  Listen, and hear.

Emerging Figures  by Black Mountain School

Friday, May 27, 2016

Seeming

Some cultural losses cannot be replaced.


In consequence, cultures change; remote Time Past and Time Future are no longer recognizable.


Thursday, May 26, 2016

Tabula Rasa to Total Effect II

Perspectives constantly evolve.


Nonetheless, a single perspective cannot be imposed upon reality, and there are such things as objective facts.  As a means of expression, the arts can promote specious and absurd ideas and viewpoints as easily as do other process of communication, and, in point of fact, have their own traditions for doing so.  One clean slate is as inconsequential as another, and the forces of history continue to have effects, with or without their being acknowledged by anyone in particular.


Wednesday, May 25, 2016

A "Single Shadow" Theory

Disingenuous, facile arguments to the contrary, music can have far reaching impact and influence.


When this is not the case, other, "more serious" issues have superseded basic cultural values at the expense of both individuality and community.  These issues always have the appearance of profound crises, and they always have a totalitarian source and origin, as the historical record of such times reveals.  But, for good or ill, one may only convey such things clearly through implication, thus art.


Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Far Ranges

Exceptional cultural developments, once grasped, elevate entire societies.


Not being understood, such developments are encountered only in whispers, scattered like seeds.

In either case, the work is no less essential, while the artist is of no more profound importance, and pretense is no less absurd.


Monday, May 23, 2016

Aesthetics

Every type of art illuminates, but cognizance of meaning is not effortless. Nor should it be.


Failure to grasp the abstract nature of ideas and the inability to sense the realities of the human condition are the consequences of individual and social errors for which civilization bears little, if any, responsibility.  The state of ignorance is one of worthlessness, and it was ever thus.


Sunday, May 22, 2016

Exercise V

Conceive as does the sculptor, who "releases" the work within the stone block.


Listen, and hear, the sound composition within the sonic environment and in the mind, by perceiving in both active and passive perspectives, which is to say, consciously and objectively on the one hand, and subjectively on the other, observing perceptual, emotional coloration.  Using the most effective instrumentation*, recreate the conditions and experience.

* My preference is the Korg Wavestation synthesizer, for its subtlety and range of aural expressiveness.


Saturday, May 21, 2016

Search and Discover

Observe appearances, recognize realities behind them.


It is the uncanny that is at once familiar and yet strange, alien, and unknown.


Friday, May 20, 2016

Remote, Immediate

Dissipated force of what has been does not become more, and is lost.


Loss of this nature is complete, and permanent. One understands that such things, people, and events impacted reality and culture in ways no longer evident, and that they are increasingly becoming entirely obscure.  At a certain point it will be as if they had never existed.

The artist who creates to evoke the uncanny seeks outcomes at a far remove from such scenarios.


Thursday, May 19, 2016

If Purpose, So Meaning

Stylization reflects aesthetic sense.


As manner and gesture reflect tone and attitude, the artistic representation references tradition and nature according to artist intent. Impressions are thus altered as they become expressions.


Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Simplicity, Upon Reflection

Art offers perspective; propaganda indoctrinates.



Inability to form and sustain coherent thought, or to follow another's line of reasoning through a sequence of ideas, defines a state of mindlessness.

This is neither a "natural" state nor an "unselfconsciousness" one, though it is often so described by those who take advantage of it to manipulate people to various ends, criminal, social, and political.


Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Word Falling

Perception conveys what words obscure.


Above, one does not see the fountain if the attention is directed elsewhere, yet it is nonetheless real. Until it is seen, it is beyond awareness,  Once seen, it remains in mind and experience.

Language, particularly that which is highly "controlled" through cultural or political coercion, limits understanding to certain select elements of approved jargon and verbal cues, ultimately limiting the capacity to think independently.  This is, in point of fact, the goal of such constraints.

Visual and sound arts direct experience beyond the merely material and physical.  Abstract concepts and metaphysical fundamentals do not cease to exist simply because one will not acknowledge their being and reality.

There are essential expressions that will not be reduced to propaganda or subjugated to temporal power.


Monday, May 16, 2016

Rule and Order

Foundation yields meaning.


One incapable of sustained, rational thought cannot comprehend how any artist conceives, works, and expresses.  This is a perpetual issue within the arts themselves.

It is the scenario in which is found the soi-disant charlatan, capable only of  poor imitation, and unfit for the responsibility required of any chosen role.  Such a malign character imposes a huge, particularly repellent burden upon the arts, seeking nothing more than self-aggrandizement while spoiling the repute of any expressive field with meaningless, pretentious absurdities.  Destined for failure, most produce nothing, others go unheeded, while some small numbers benefit, in the way of predators and parasites, from the arbitrary distribution of government funding.

The solution remains what it has always been: rational thought, decisive action, and intolerance not only for fraud and corruption, but for the conditions which make it possible for them to thrive.


Sunday, May 15, 2016

Exercise IV

Listen, and hear, while analyzing detail.


Consciously describe the specifics of each sound in an environment.  Determine each source, and identify the qualities of each element, clarifying objective comprehension of such things as tone, color, and pattern. Take account of subjective responses and relevant aesthetic perspectives.

Mentally delineate the sonic structures and juxtapositions that the imagination suggests.  Apply these experiences to the work of composing and recording representative expressions.


Saturday, May 14, 2016

Friday, May 13, 2016

Fail, Represent

Loss of culture overwhelms any form of technological connectivity.


Ignorance of such a profound nature renders abstract inquiry impossible, not because of the literal extinction of abstract ideas, but because of the loss of the cultural vocabulary needed to articulate them.


Thursday, May 12, 2016

Gesture Forward

Reflect, consider critically, and act.


To do less is thoughtless, reflexive reaction, neither creative nor vital.


Wednesday, May 11, 2016

If, Then, Yet--

Physical sound media is being rapidly and purposely manipulated toward total extinction.


My pieces are created with due consideration given to the eighty minute formats, but are designed to be heard as segments of a single, unified work and listening process that informs the listener's internal and external experience of sound. Certainly this is compatible with the streaming media model, and time constraints are of no concern. At issue is not the process of creation, but that of its reproduction, out of which matters of intellectual property and artists' rights are at stake, along with the existential value of the art of sound.

It is not necessary to be degreed in behavioral sciences to comprehend the object of rendering all physical formats obsolete, as that is the outcome of making music ubiquitously accessible without the need of manufacture and distribution outside the digital domain.  And if, as is clearly the case, it is presumed that the music consumer is indifferent to the source, origin, and concrete existence of the "product", the artist as a free human being is a nonessential factor, even an obstacle, to the process. All that is needed is any subject who will acquiesce to manipulation of image for absolute control of the commodity to established and made permanent, and this scenario is already in place.

Consider all that has come before, understanding that very little, if any of it, will ever again exist.


Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Impress, Artifact, and the Windblown

Even realism is a stylized reflection.


The realism I strive for in my compositions and recordings is perceptual in nature, that is to say, it reflects how environments develop their impressions upon the listener within one's aural field.

The total effect is neither music nor directly perceived atmosphere, but the former structured as the enhancement of the latter's subtle forms, patterns, and movements.


Monday, May 09, 2016

Orwellian Generic Pop

Observe the diversion of all cultural currents into endless deserts of existential meaninglessness.


The choice is one of freedom of thought and action predicated upon individual responsibility or the subjection to superficially benign absolute power with its dubious comforts, ultimately resulting in the universal eradication of all essential liberties.


Sunday, May 08, 2016

Exercise III

Compare original work with works of the masters in the field.


Similarities imply fundamentals; contrasting elements represent individual perspective. The former demonstrates competence, cultural literacy, and temperament, while the latter reflects expressive intent, personal experience, critical acumen, and stylistic gesture as influence yields to originality.


Saturday, May 07, 2016

Friday, May 06, 2016

Strange Tales

There are those who suggest self-expression is not a "right" and should be "controlled".


In one direction, horses are hauling manure; in the other, they are being bred for war.


Thursday, May 05, 2016

Order and Flux

Observe the elimination of culture, and its replacement with ideologies.


Certainly this is never desirable, yet it is nonetheless within the rise and fall, the ebb and flow, as it were, of all things.


Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Patience, Repetition, Discovery, Sound

Perspective alters aesthetic.


Aesthetic alters perspective.  But the final understanding is personal.  Listen, and hear.


Tuesday, May 03, 2016

Foreseen, Unexpected

Engagement with change reveals innumerable potentials.



Therein lie choices, amid the impossibilities.


Monday, May 02, 2016

Unspeakable

The most direct expression often results from wide-ranging, complex and subtle understanding.


But there is a progressive globalist agenda everywhere in effect, most transparently in academics and the media, that obviates cultural expression which does not serve its purposes.

Thus the apparent void from which the arts have been excised.


Sunday, May 01, 2016

Force Majeure

Necessity illuminates objective facts that will not be subsumed under ideology or narrative.


Reality, rightly understood, yields to both reason and the imagination, to the sciences and the arts.


Saturday, April 30, 2016

History and Impulse

Improvisation, atonality, minimalism.


These are means to creative perspectives, nothing more.  Audience and composer have perspectives of their own.  Other forces are in motion.


Friday, April 29, 2016

Conditions

Culture, character, and temperament impact artistic works.


This extends to audience expectations as well. The extent to which the artist allows these various pressures to be exerted upon the work is not always a matter of conscious choice, but it can be.

This is not to say that everything can be reduced to a matter of individuality, originality, and the ability to discern nuanced expression, but these are no less qualities of authentic significance, and as such they are not to be merely cast aside in the name of conformity to the social and cultural trends of the moment.


Thursday, April 28, 2016

Duration

Immersed in cultural settings, many, including large populations, refuse to reason altogether.


The impermanent contemporary norms are neither questioned nor challenged; the sole real need of one and all so subjected is to conform.  In such a benighted state one cannot even comprehend the previous sentence, and the very idea of becoming engaged by an authentic experience of art or the critical perception of challenging music is ludicrous.

The artist who is not cognizant of these facts is doing no more than wasting time.

Only the individual is capable of realizing the gravity of the situation through objective observation, and only then is it possible to take the difficult steps necessary to remove oneself from these chains.


Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Craft, and Drive

Perspectives are innumerable.


Every point of view is, to some extent, flawed.  This is, regardless, the value of objectivity, and also of imperfection.


Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Clear

Complicate or simplify art, to any purpose whatsoever.


In either case art remains unchanged.  Perspective alone is altered.


Monday, April 25, 2016

Interest, Apathy, Darkness, and Light

This is an era of prolonged cultural void, lacking in intellectual and artistic vision.


The virtue of the empty vessel is that it may be filled.


Sunday, April 24, 2016

Exercise II

Find patterns, tones, colors and dynamic forms in apparently unconnected events.


Translate these into representative artistic expressions utilizing sounds or the artist's palette.


Saturday, April 23, 2016

Phantom Time

Give regard to arts unbound by time and place.


These are universal visions and sounds. When these are altogether absent from contemporary culture, there is only trouble, dissolution, and waste.  But one sees, one continues forward.


Friday, April 22, 2016

Curious, If True II

"So lacking in moral reason are they, that art is mere decoration and nature offers nothing more than occasions for self-indulgence."



Certainly no one would desire to agree with such an assessment.  Observation, nonetheless, lends difficulty to the act of devising argument to the contrary.


Thursday, April 21, 2016

Dispatch from Afar

Where there is subtlety, transfix the attention.


What remains of the idea of the sublime depends upon such awareness, lifted by imagination.


Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Aesthetic Perspective

Art is not life, but life engaged with art sustains strength and resilience of attitude.


Art, and most certainly, to my mind, the art of sound, elevates awareness. It ultimately intensifies perception, reinforces critical reason, and reveals the reality behind the appearances of things that offers insights into the human condition.

Art spurs creative consciousness, and suggests the ways and means by which one may move beyond the shallow and mundane spectacle that falsely represents what life has to offer. This brings about a state of being capable of grasping what is, one that makes it possible to bring about what can be.


Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Survivals

It has become necessary to think beyond present-day experience in every cultural context.


At issue is the suppression of free expression and individual effort, and the dawning idea that the multicultural climate is being used as a tool to eliminate the existence of any common culture in order to consolidate ideological control of social and economic systems. It is against any and all such abominable developments that one has a duty to rebel, first as a free human being, and beyond this responsibility as any sort of visionary artist.


Monday, April 18, 2016

Transformation

Consciousness, perception, thought, action.


Give form to thought, shape to significance, sense to sound.


Sunday, April 17, 2016

Exercise I

Visualize sound.


Reverse the process, by combining sounds suggestive of the visual.

Note: abstract, static visuals suggest sonic possibilities that may differ from direct perception of environmental atmospheres. This reflects the sensibilities of any artist, to one degree or another.


Saturday, April 16, 2016

Follow Instructions

The basis of art as propaganda lies in direction toward conformity to type.


Predictability in the context of a museum is no less tedious, produced for and producing unthinking acceptance and bellicose ignorance in the service of inflexible repression-- in all its stale glory.


Friday, April 15, 2016

Perceived Atmospheres

Let silence speak.


Discover that there is no real silence, but only the silencing of expression.


Thursday, April 14, 2016

Black & White

Generally speaking, it is not difficult to take perspectives that allow enduring clarity and wide latitude of thought.


The so-called "black and white" viewpoint, denounced by its detractors as "narrow-minded" and "absolutist" is neither intellectually nugatory nor intolerant, rightly understood.  Fundamentally, an attitude that takes absolute ideals into account must acknowledge the dynamic nature of reality in order to be viable, and open to the increase of wisdom, that is to say, to expanding critical analysis and judgement.

Reality is no "sealed system", and its nature is a continuum of change.  One can speak and think with a great deal of certainty, while comprehending fully the fact that it is always possible to know more, and modify assessments accordingly.  Conversely, it is also necessary to understand that the dynamic in reasoning between poles, those "grey areas" between the black and white, is constantly shifting as well, making it clear that their ultimate disposition is in one direction or the other, reality being an ongoing affair not conforming to a static set of expectations.  One cannot simply expect reason, or the lack of it, to negate the truth of cause and effect.  Neither should one be subject to impermanent and biased whims simply to conform to social, political, academic, or artistic norms, regardless of the settings and circumstances in which they occur.

Simply put, it is a mistake, as Cicero stated, "to attempt to force others to believe as we do", and "to believe that success is made by crushing others".  It is possible, indeed, be right, regardless of any and all arguments to the contrary, no matter how cleverly or "passionately" they are proposed against objective evidence and experience.


Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Find the Future

To retrieve cultural vigor and autonomy it will be necessary to reject certain bad ideas.


Bad ideas are many, and they dominate cultural discourse.  Most revolve around failed visions of a Utopian nature that do not exist and cannot be willed into existence.

Speak against these and social, academic, and political forces unite with condemnation generally reserved for blasphemers and ex-communicants in ancient times.  These demand silence, and will tolerate nothing less than absolute conformity.

But there is no "we".  There is only freedom, and those opposed to it.


Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Balance, Rise, Decline

Find the mysteries of reality. Perceive within them.


What is viewed as an unknowable future inevitably becomes ancient history.


Monday, April 11, 2016

Opposing Forces

Recognize the dominant forces in play throughout cultural settings.


These are forces of control, and particularly in terms of discourse, intellectual judgement, and the arts.  All such spurious "authorities" are media driven, and are owed no loyalty or subjection as mere appearances of reality, shallow and unjustifiable.

As such there is no rebellion beyond individual choice, as a matter of personal integrity.

Made once, it is the choice of liberation, and it is permanent.