Art is Dead

Again and again, observe the instances in which the cultural norms are thrust upon the individual.

Not everything called by the name art is art in fact and being.

Where there is no more individual expression, but only that approved and allowed by collective forces intent upon "controlling" culture, art is indeed dead.  And it must, as a power, as an abstract, aesthetic ideal, and as a principle, be resurrected.

To Hear Oneself Think

Static may be loud, but it changes little.

A culture overwhelmed and burdened by noise is incapable of change; it stagnates, and decays. The same is true of individual experience.

These works are dedicated to combat the impress of negative forces against individual freedom.

Listening, Advancement

Understanding sound beyond music, composition advances.

Set aside concerns with time and space, meter, rhythm, and melody: perceive the unfolding of reality. 

Agency

Observe the predictability of collective action and expression.

Consider instead the singular dynamic of the personal, individual perspective in action. Here may be found focused and sustained creative progress, in opposition to brief obsessions consumed by one crisis after another, none of which are ever resolved.

Wandering Imagination

Travel to an environment in which there is no noise, only the sounds of life.

The atmosphere casts a spell. This is enchantment in the ancient sense, a contemplative state.

And this is the perceptual sense of being we strive to evoke in these Black Mountain School works.

Aside

Observe the extent of contemporary conditioning on the human psyche.

Led to believe there are few, if any, "new" ideas beyond those established as being of extreme significance in the cultural surroundings, audiences of entertainment and the arts are bereft of contemporary voices, ideas, and productions that impel and inspire social awareness beyond the status quo.  This is an untenable scenario.

Free people will not long tolerate such conditions.

Sound Expression

Many make "statements". Few of these are of any moment.

It is a short step from poetry to philosophy; from there, the sound of being is all encompassing.

Bones

Word is expressed in symbol, and through sound.

But the ultimate expression of word is being, represented through the arts of poetry and sound.

Transcend. Elevate.

Rise.

Axis

Civilization is predicated upon the transmission of culture.

The rise and fall of the way of nature is reflected in the Boethian wheel. Neither east nor west, the center also surrounds.  In this manner art emerges in the composition of sound.

To understand this is to listen, and hear, with the inner ear.

Elemental, Abstract, Infinite in Aspect

The contemporary produces popular culture.

But it is the modern. properly understood, without the biases against tradition that first identified its nature, that produces the wider culture, sustaining the abstract values and the permanent things in the course of progress.

Immerse, Sustain

Song forms call to mind emotional states of various durations.

Songs may produce intense bursts of short-term feeling, at best, and little, if any, perceptual change.

In contrast, a sense of expanded, contemplative awareness is the natural outcome of an absorption in extended, atmospheric works, purposely composed to create totality of effect, as opposed to transient diversion.

Place

Consider the internal environment as well as the external one.

Find the balance.  Compose with the sounds of imagination that reflect and represent direct experience and the contemplative attitude of mind that evokes perceptivity of this nature.

Make Real

Become aware.

Put others first.  Ignore the whine of self-importance. Then it is possible to concentrate on perceptual awareness, refine sensory experience, and gain clarity in active thought. Here is the fund of creativity, of works yet to be composed, of sound art.

Dissolve, Converge

The composer must imagine, as the listener must.

Imagine sound coalescing into a different order, unlike music yet beyond the mundane.

Sonic Color

Enclosed by a medical device. Blue light tubes seen through yellow plastic goggles.

The machine runs for seventeen minutes with a bright, fluctuating drone, a long sequence of cycles in slight variance; metal machine music for Van Gogh sunflowers.  From down the hallway and through four walls, scattered across time, the ghostly flourish of beat saxophones.

Stranger Things

Focus concentration on the visual image by listening, and hearing.

This, too, is perception, experience, creativity, and, in a larger sense, the projection of aesthetic ideas sans subjectivity.  That which is distant, that which was silent, is present.

Footsteps on Hardwood Floors

Radio, almost inaudible.

Objects being moved on a counter top. Wind, or air passing through a vent.  Machine noise starts and stops.  Child drops key ring. Unidentifiable low rumble.  Impression of light rain.

In the inner ear, a symphony.

Continuum

Every sound represents an effect; every cause has a source and origin.

The connectivity of every sound is engaged in every auditory perception. While it is not necessary to consider this in terms of mysticism, it is nonetheless interesting to contemplate the furthermost extent of the influence of sounds over the course of time and within the limits of perceptual space.

Realize, Renew

In a living cultural perspective, Time Past is palpable, within experience and imagination.

Whether this is true across the wider social culture is insignificant. With individual vision, the artist sees Time Future within reach, and draws it into light.

Elevate, Decline, Continue

Sound environments reflect the rise and fall of things.

Whether the composer chooses a subjective perspective or simply allows the composition to unfold as it would in the physical world alone is of little consequence, provided the work's total effect is one that reflects aesthetic integrity.