Observation, Observer, Reflection

Images invite sensations.

Landscapes and seasons; cities and their environs, villages; countrysides, harbors, hills and deserts; the first frost, bonfire on a riverbank, college common as darkness falls. 

Conception of idea, restraint of emotion, intensity of perception, manipulation of media, realization and presentation. 

Tapestry

The fragrance of rain becomes an abstract memory in the dry season.

Our sojourn appears at times to have resplendent clarity, then a glance in another direction renders it stark and bleak until light breaks again. 

The perceptions reveal the shapes and sounds, textures and colors of the fabric of existence; the mind and emotions interpret them with the cultural instruments they learn to use.

Yet the imagination conceives things that seem impossible until they are experienced.

Romance and Reality

The idea that life can be, or should be, art, is self-evidently problematic.

It can be an appealing concept, and echoes historical perspectives of every sort.  Some will atttibute the idea to the Beats, to the Black Mountain College, to Walter Pater and the Aesthetic Movement, or to any number of schools of thought reaching back to the Renaissance, and beyond that, to the Epicureans.

Given its rich history and broad scope, it is nonetheless an intensely subjective perspective, and difficult to reconcile with the vicissitudes of life.  It is one of many aspects of a vision of existence, sometimes fitting, sometimes untenable.

Nor should it be confused with the art of living well, and with fullness of purpose, regardless of circumstance or external challenges.

What is undeniable is that an artistic and creative point of view may realize the products of the imagination in concrete form, and in doing so establish a foundation for realities yet to come.

To Hear and to Listen

Much goes unnoticed.  Listening consciousness does not cease, but will be passive if not engaged.

That which is unusual or striking meets the ear.  We arrive on the scene at the moment bells ring; a fragment of conversation is humorous, interesting, or alarming; a curious piece of music, at first unfamiliar, drifts across the lakefront and with a sudden surge of emotional energy we recognize the song, followed by a host of connected images and associations.  The psyche is engaged, we are attentive to developments within and without, and we participate in the art of listening.

Synthesis

The ambient composer or listener may become preternaturally sensitive to the sounds of the surrounding world.

The drone of an idling car; bird call; light fall of rain; Doppler effect of passing truck with radio, briefly casting the aural shadow of an undefinable musical instrument; light hammering of minor construction work suddenly becoming multiplied in broad and deep echoes across a hundred yards of open field; refrain of crickets and cicadas downhill toward a distant riverbank.

Art and Consciousness

Aristotle considered art to be a representation of reality.  In broad terms this is clearly so.

Some view art as a vehicle for emotions or ideas; some as a means for expression of universal, idiosyncratic, or transgressive viewpoints.  Some may see the various arts-- painting, photography, film, music, architecture, performance media, and so forth-- for their cultural potential in persuading an audience to act or think in certain ways, or as mediums to be exploited for profit.  All these are legitimate positions recognized by critics and artists themselves.

Art may also be an approach to the phenomena of existence, a way to perceive the appearances of things and create representations of these observations. 

In this sense, art questions and assesses the validity of perceptions, then generates viewpoints of reality, as opposed to expressing those already in the mind of the artist.  By such means the artist and those who engage with the art may enhance their perspectives in ways beyond the narrowly limited and mundane, to gain certain degrees of insight-- and foresight-- as well as aesthetic pleasure.

Convergence

Consider the phenomena of existence, the sights, sounds, mingled impressions, historic and human elements and connections of interrelated events.

Music, noise, sounds of the street, voices, insects, animals and machines.  Clocks striking and shouting children, weather conditions, the stirring of air.  Travelers passing overhead.  Ring tones.  Birds and the fluttering of wings.  Back to music, footsteps, automobiles passing.  Wind in the ears.  Breath.

Vibrations, at times, that are perceived yet cannot be identified.

They are all the sounds of a journey.

Tone Poems

The idea of programmatic music, so called because it creates aural impressions of  "real world" concrete and conceptual phenomena, lends itself particularly to the "transformation" and "sketch" ambient forms.

Well known symphonic tone poems by Debussy, Sibelius, Richard Strauss-- and, of course, Gershwin's An American In Paris-- were composed to evoke images of times and places, ideas, events, legends and the like, and certainly represent some of the finest examples of program music.

Works such as Sonic Seasonings by Wendy Carlos, for example, and other ambient creations such as these, might properly be considered extensions of the "tone poem" concept, though developed in entirely different ways with different intents and purposes, and having more in common with impressionistic and other artistic styles than with classical music.

Sound and Relationships

Ceremony and ritual are forms and symbolic acts of community.

Musical expressions of all types imply this shared sense of association; some reflect common sentiments and fashions, others indicate similar interests in such things as the cultural arts, politics, spiritual beliefs, and so on, as distinguish particular audiences.

A notable attribute of ambient music is its quality of providing both interesting listening and contributing to an environment for activities both personal, like reading, and social, such as conversation. 

It is not designed to be the sole focus of interest in a given situation, and may, in fact, complement that focus, whatever it may be.

Vision and Sound II

Juxtaposition of sound elements in collage.

What the eye and experience may intimate, imagination and manipulation of tone, pattern, and movement may realize.

Speculative Music

The names "transformation ambient" and "sketch music" are meant to fit the peculiar sound designs they describe.

It is music that is neither minimalistic nor verging upon static in terms of its content and progress over time.  Rather, as ambient collage or fabrication, it brings varied sounds into contact as they might be heard-- or overheard-- in changing conditions, and in locales both public and "organic" in nature.

It represents, rather than imitates, the development of sound perceived in the course of human movement through imagined environmental spaces. 

Aural Memory

Symmetry and geometry suggest different sounds filling interior and exterior spaces.

Depth, volume, the sense of distance and spatial proximity, the qualities that reflect and absorb sounds in natural environments and in areas defined by human design and structure all impart shades and subtleties of tone color to diverse sounds. Various effects and instrument settings may be used to enhance, approximate, or manipulate these characteristics in a studio scenario. 

Accordingly, the experience of the listener is apt to incorporate personal recollections of the sound features of various environments in context with those generated by the musical pieces themselves.

The "sketch" of a transformation ambient piece is thus completed, in varying degrees, by the listener.

Art and Sound Design

Impressionism is suggestive of perceptions of the external world; abstract expressionism is often representative of the inner workings of the mind of the artist.

Conceptually, ambient music can be designed as work programmed to be produced in a completely artificial way, with almost no input from the artist, or it can be created by fabricating sounds in the manner of painting an aural canvas, upon which the artist renders his ideas, emotions, and intentions.

There are few limits for the listener as well as the artist.

Hawk and Hummingbird

Through a window, shadows of leafy branches swaying in a breeze are cast on the wall.

What comes to our attention is shaped by openness, awareness, subjective attitudes, and the things we carry in our minds; among them are responsibilities, emotional connections, pressures, and desires.

Perception may be refined by conscious attention to subtlety, which is both art and science, as the professions demanding insight and predictive analysis demonstrate.  Such perceptivity graces one's view of life as well, bringing with it the pleasures and satisfactions of foresight and choices well made, along with a greater sense of aesthetic beauty and the complexities of the phenomena of existence.

Wind in trees and the angle of late summer sunlight.

Transmission III

Boundaries of time and space are meaningless in the transmission of culture.

Artists complete works that can become part of anyone's experience, and thus may become suggestive of ideas that lead to the creation of new artistic endeavors in the present day and in the future.

Works of art carry the seeds of works to come.  They germinate in the minds of artists, and may be given form in any medium.  A painting may inspire another painting, a piece of music, a sculpture, a poem or novel, or an architectural design.

The creative arts become interrelated in the expansion of the forces of history, uniting such visions as those of cave painters, theoretical physicists, cubists, and jazz musicians.  So it is for ambient music, with its broad synthesis of artistic forms and ideas.

Earth and Water, Fire and Air

Elements of sketch music include representations of sounds within environments, some completely natural and others reflecting social settings with their equally unique panoramic and intimate aspects.

Both environments, the one entirely natural and the other predominately human, are subject to common phenomena, such things that effect sounds as atmospheric conditions, geographic features, variations in light and darkness, echoes, reflections, concentrations and dispersals of sound waves, and, most particularly, change over time.

These are not content-specific sounds, and so do not necessarily dominate thought, awareness, and perception.  As sound collage, such music (or non-music, if you prefer) is designed to respect the consciousness and activities of listeners and to enhance the surroundings with clarity and subtlety.

Inviting the Moon

Consider reading only books or watching only movies that are constructed around variations of the same plot.

Much music merely drives, in general terms, from point A to point B, repeats, changes pattern, returns to point A and B, and ends by repeating point B. Classic songs and imaginative, complex musical pieces are created with standard patterns and typical forms in which verses, choruses, and so forth are combined to best effect, and much that is atypical and avant-garde can be rooted in such forms.

Give thought to a vision of music that emerges, radiates, flows, shades and illuminates, drifts and surges, fills and occupies spaces, revolves, expands, unfolds and transforms sounds into atmospheres.

The sun is one source of light, the moon, another.

Pop

The ubiquity of pop music means easy accessibility; listeners will tend to hear it more often than other styles.  Listeners become receptive to an emotional connectivity associated with content and patterns of sound common to pop music genres. 

Whether in ballad, rock, or dance, these common patterns are built around repetitive rhythms and refrains, and are made cohesive with instrumentation anchored to bass guitar and percussion.  Listeners come to enjoy this frame of reference in the music they prefer; it is imprinted, to whatever extent, as a subtext in the listener's consciousness. 

Music that does not fit this paradigm, with its rhythm, instrumentation, tempo, and "hooks", is not as accessible. We can observe also the cultural conditioning that effects some listeners in their choices as they identify with certain musical styles, often to the exclusion of others.  The same set of expectations for what defines "music" is in play; classical music and jazz, for example, along with country music and blues, share the aforementioned elements in varying degrees.

While these elements, those of instrumentation, repetition, and rhythmic pulsation may be utilized in the creation of ambient music, they are not essential to it.  Yet the nature of the ambient style, which complements moods and atmospheres and times of day given to activities unburdened by stress and frenetic pace, can be enjoyed by anyone who experiences it in such a context.  In form and function, it is not unlike a kind of audio impressionism, expressionism, or pop art.

Vision and Sound

A perception of the atmosphere of an environment is the result of the setting, its contents and surroundings.

Certainly atmospheres are imprinted with the human touch, contributing to emotional states of being associated with various settings.    The imprint of Frank Lloyd Wright reflects the architect of the Fallingwater house in ways subtle as well as extravagant.  The flow, rush, and fall of the stream there generates rich and nuanced sounds, a kind of natural music.

Our own surroundings reflect attitude and mood as well, and our own choices in music form a part of the setting that has greater importance than we might think.  The touch of the creative musical artist goes far to enhance those atmospheres in which we may feel exhilarated or at ease.

Sketch Music

All environments resonate with the sounds of activity.

Indoors and outdoors, sounds may be perceived to accumulate into a whole comprised of gradual but constant changes in pattern, dynamics, tone and movement.  To "sketch" such events and their transformative elements by selecting representative sounds and combining tones, repetitions and progress over time creates a form of ambience that parallels the sounds of active environments. 

A walk in the woods or down winding streets, across a park or through a public mall, up stairways, down corridors, into subway stations or out in the weather, whatever it may be, fog, noonday sun, wind on the beach-- such things form the framework of the sketch music, and the transformation of sounds reflects movement through time. 

Thank you to Mitchel Harbin for suggesting the descriptive term "sketch music" as applying to these types of transformation ambient pieces.