Wavelengths

Listening yields meaning.

This is not to propose that such meaning is always apparent, even to the listener. It may be necessary to adopt a more objective perspective to ascertain the numerous possible meanings a sound, piece of music, or pattern of sounds suggests.

What is certain is that some compositions (and recordings) will have sustained, timeless value, while others are dated to particular settings and events, and still others are silly, frivolous, and disposable.

Then there are the ultimate sounds, the archetypes-- the storm surge, mountain wind, desert night and urban cacophony-- the screams and whispers at the origins of all that may be heard and expressed.

Natural Touch

Consider the natural environment as a template for sonic art, or, if you will, expression of musical form.

Given that the intended outcomes are at the fringes of music, it is nonetheless expression that reflects, modifies, expands upon, and explores auditory events as they occur in the natural world through the prism of the composer's percipience and aesthetic perspective.

Fancy and Gravity

Poetic thought, regardless of its forms of expression, creates juxtaposition and contrast.

Reader, viewer, and listener may interpret according to their best lights, yet the expression remains, over time, sharpened by conceptual understanding yet obscured by shades of cultural change.

Where to Begin

Sparks fly and may be traced to their origins.

Musicians create patterns.  What is rather more interesting is to discover patterns, particularly in the order of things in which no patterns appear to exist at all.

These are images in sound of the living world, those that set the inner ear of listener and composer ablaze with recognition.

Aware

The arts of sound convey emotions, ideas, and spiritual states of being.

The artist projects and objectifies experience as expression and as a learning process, extending and confirming knowledge while establishing perspectives at a distance from the boundaries of time and space.

AM / FM

Changes in atmosphere may be observed continually.

This requires a contemplative approach, one honed by the practice of distinguishing perceptual subtleties. In recorded sound, it is the difference between hearing a finely delineated composition through compatible audio equipment and the same recording through "earbuds"-- it is a matter of choice and discrimination on the part of listener, composer, and producer.

Dreamtime

Sounds reach consciousness through the senses and resonate in memory.

Accordingly, the listener responds, the composer creates, and the evolution of aural imagery unfolds in ways both concrete and ethereal.

Point of the Spear

Science can not reproduce all phenomena, nor replicate consciousness.  It cannot be free of human error, and it can be misused and misinterpreted for non-scientific ends.

Still, science can be an art, and a means to exploration of ideas and concepts impossible to reach otherwise; I, like numerous artists, am indebted to scientific method and study for the capabilities and inspirations technology provides.  Imagination expands with technology, as does science, mutatis mutandis, with imagination.  There is often a great deal of confusion related to the experimental in music and sound, simply because such works are, in many cases, ill-defined and the result of  so-called "spontaneous" events.  While these certainly have their place, for works to be the outcome of experimental processes, they must be considered in the abstract, that is to say, in the postulation of theories, and follow procedures designed to be replicated in order to attain desirable outcomes.

It cannot be overly stressed that this sense of a fundamentally scientific approach is at work in every Black Mountain School composition and recording. These are works created by intent, not accident.

Clairaudience and Reason

Consciousness, and certainly human consciousness, is, according to contemporary evidence and understanding, a rarity in the known universe.

As artist and composer, I hear things that are not present to the ear, sense their objective reality, and bring these atmospheric, auditory images into being through electronic media in ways that were not possible as recently as twenty years ago.  These are works of the inner ear, to be communicated as such to the listener, offering peculiar perspectives in hearing and listening that may contribute to balanced states of mind as well as encouraging clarity of percipience.

Out of the Vasty Deep

Rustle of leaves.  Unfamiliar cries of a strange, wild creature.

Walking out, experience vestigial perceptions of sound imagery impressed upon forgotten ancestors.

Unrevealed Waves

Pause, and listen consciously.

One may take the greatest of care, yet still sense that much goes unobserved. Increasing awareness, one gains comprehension of consciousness and the world.

Therefore, whenever possible, the composer clarifies, interprets, and explicates the imagined through representations of the real.

Breakdown: A Simple Analysis

Social norms and expectations limit perceptivity, particularly in terms of sound and music.

Immured within these limits, the listener becomes accustomed to the various generic forms found at all times and places within the music media, and rarely ventures outside the ordinary frames of reference.

Both composer and discriminating listener understand the importance and value of aesthetic forms beyond the commonplace, and thus it is incumbent upon the composer to bring the unexpected into being in ways that not only "break the mold", but are also capable of altering perceptions in ways that are both beautiful and desirable for all those who would take time to listen.

Continuity

Perceptions and responses to sound fluctuate according to innumerable conditions.

Consciousness and attitude change with perspective.  Observe conditions, become aware of details, give thought to cultural, social, historical, and personal orientation to life and seek insight in the ideas that come to mind.  Understanding the effects and purposes of sound and music becomes of greater moment, yet much of it may lose value and the emotional intensity accorded to it.

Listener and composer know intuitively that there is much that remains unknown and unrealized.

Simultaneity II

Classicism and the Modern do not always converge, but neither are they mutually exclusive.

Narrow thinking produces limited and foolish expression, absurdly demeaning the genuinely elevated as belonging only to time past.  All perspectives take place within myriad frames of reference, and the arts of sound embrace clarity and aesthetic purpose in communicating the gestures of life, from the grand and sweeping to the minute and ephemeral.

This is human character and expression, thrusting aside the burden of temporal considerations.

Edge of Memory

Attend to the phenomena of existence.

Look for the impression that does not reveal itself directly.  Listen for those sounds that reach the uncanny depths of imagination.  Hear the incompleteness of time past becoming manifest in time future, while in the moment now.

Timeslips

When concentrating on perceptual events there are variations in temporal awareness that do not always escape notice.

Mere moments may hold the attention with a profound and lasting impact, or hours pass "in the blink of an eye", yet it is not the qualities of time that change, but the intensity of consciousness.

Such effects as these are among many the composer seeks to evoke within the listener through subtle, uplifting immersion in auditory imagery imbued with the atmospheric elements of sound art.

Territories

Culture may sometimes be viewed in artistic terms as a nexus of memory, history, events in progress, and projections.

From such a vantage point both personal and impersonal forces are at play in the organization and execution of artistic pieces, regardless of form.  I think in terms of applying various elements of visual presentations to soundworks, and I am cognizant of the development of electronic technology in the course of the past half-century through both literature and criticism of the subject as well as by direct experience. While this leads me to listen and compose outside the constraints of what might be called the fine arts as well as those that reflect the popular imagination, it nonetheless demands adherence to those peculiar ideas, theories, and methods that result in desirable artistic outcomes, and therefore working within limits of my own design.

In Studio

At a distance from popular culture and popular opinion, it is possible to engage life's experience differently.

State of being is different, unburdened by subjection to immediacy, the sense of connection to those ideas, cultural events, and social expectations outside the scope of the spiritual faculties of the artist and composer.

When reason and free will determine perspective, narrow focus on the sensational and ephemeral appears as it is, absurd.  Beyond this is the direction of clarity, where the adventure of exploration begins.

Working

Currently in Phoenix.

In Transit

Currently in Sedona.