Fabrication and the Mind's Eye

Assemble various elements from any number of ideas and sources, craft and refine toward an indeterminate outcome ultimately given final form.

The artist's concept of the piece determines the framework and limits of the composition; the goals are dynamic developments in the process of creating a total effect.

Matters of individuality and originality will be apparent as aspects of the work, these being consequences of independent thought.

Before the authentic creative act, vision demands insight.

Contrasts

Form, function, depth, content, value, purpose, permanence.

To its listeners, ambient music is an open book, yet it is not a common musical phenomena in the sense that other genres are; that is to say, it is not introduced to young people as an essential element of musical culture, it does not saturate the airwaves, and one typically discovers or takes notice of it for oneself.

With time, it enters consciousness in the way of a new language, changing one's perception of sounds and imbuing them with myriad degrees of emotional significance, heightening awareness and stimulating the imagination.

This is no slight power.

Strange Pastorals

The pastoral ideal involves removing the complicated imagination of the urban dweller to the pleasant settings of rural life and an aesthetic of simplicity in the embrace of nature and human relationships.

This is utter escapist fantasy, of course, and has been so since Egyptian scribes wrote poetry in this style, assuming the narrative voices of unsophisticated, charming people to speak of romance and leisure in small villages along the Nile.  The shepherd in the fields represents the archetype of such a life: therefore the intimate association with the style.  "New Age" music often relates to pastoral settings and is meant to aid or induce relaxation, meditation, the alleviation of stress, and so on.

In contrast, the song "Grantchester Meadows" by Roger Waters reflects a more direct perception of such a landscape-- and soundscape-- as do numerous works by Pink Floyd from around the time it was written.  It is this directness that distinguishes works reflecting the ambient mode from the generic pastoral style, as listening to a track like "Dunwich Beach, Autumn, 1960" by Brian Eno aptly demonstrates.

Nor is this direct, impressionistic experience of aural atmospheres limited to environments outside the urban; cities and their architectural layouts offer as many interesting and aesthetically appealing settings as fields, mountains and deserts, and imaginary landscapes, though likely more abstract, are equally fitting for treatment in the ambient manner.

The links between a transformational ambient work or sketch-- and even a purely generative one-- to the pastoral are tenuous, but notable.  The contrast is not between the complex and the simple, or the urban and the rural, but between the perceptually mundane and the elevated.  And there is no shepherd, unless it is the composer who facilitates the journey.

To the extent that the Black Mountain School albums reflect such considerations and ideas, they are successful in concept and design for listening.

Sonic Field

Acuity of perception and thought rebels against obstruction and distraction.

Visual, auditory, and intellectual limits are not necessarily abhorrent in themselves, but clarity is desirable in any case as providing conditions in which such limits might be extended.  Obstruction and distraction, in cases of  blurred vision, loudness masking quiet sounds, or emotional tension overcoming thought, for example, frustrate the capacity to fully concentrate and focus on such things as complex situations and concepts. 

The design of ambient sounds to fill an environment for contemplative experience is more than a matter of volume and distance between sound source and listener; there must be tonality of a nature conducive to equable sensibility and contrasting movements, shades, tints, and textures of sound to create an atmosphere that is intrinsically interesting and has the potential to transform perceptions.

Listening Beyond the Present

Consider the time prior to the existence of recorded sound.

Music was originally reproduced by instrumental performance, conforming to the symbolic written language of musical notation, as interpreted by musical groups or soloists.  Variations reflecting the diverse interpretations characteristic of different orchestras and conductors were to be expected, and these are are indeed notable in modern recordings.

Recorded audio reproduces the same performance every time, providing the interested listener opportunities to increase familiarity with the work and pursue an awareness of various aspects of the musical recording in greater detail. 

On the other hand, the more limited the style or content of the work, the more saturated the listener becomes with continued listening, and, as with pop music in particular, the greater the disposability of the sound and style, even given listeners' emotional attachments to various popular genres over several generations.

The richer the content of a recording, the greater the rewards of repeated listening.

Altered Presences

Light and sound change perpetually and subtly over the course of time.

To a very young child, the immobile beam of a streetlight is starkly different from the daylight, or the lighting of home at night, because it is fixed, and not seemingly omnipresent.  The environment of the child's neighborhood is unchanged, but rendered mysterious by the depth of shadows and the stir of moths in the clear shafts of light that cast a pool of brightness down upon the sidewalk. 

Like moonlight on the ocean, there is a plainly visible source, but the the effects created in the atmosphere-- and the imagination--  are strikingly different from those of the day.

This is the appeal of ambient lighting, of pleasing sounds encountered unexpectedly in the natural world and in the human spheres of influence, and of the tone poem or stylized ambient music composition.  These things afford a change in atmosphere, a different perspective, and altered perceptions.

Fusion

Underground  minimalism.

These musical efforts have their origins in underground rock dating back to the late 1970's through the early '90's, when small music clubs proliferated in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.  Magazines like Trouser Press, Matter, and the New Music Express gave some coverage to the scene, and ultimately some bands were esteemed by music critics and grew to be popular and successful in the mainstream.  My musical interests tended toward the experimental and improvisational, as reflected in the aforementioned journals' comparisons of recordings by groups I worked with to the Doors and the Velvet Underground.  Such press coverage was minimal; the groups were insignificant, except that they provided a great deal of experience in performing and recording, expanding my awareness of both cultural and technical ideas and processes.

As to nostalgia, that would be absurd.  I do recall one evening after a long rehearsal, relaxing and listening to an album titled Evening Star by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, and becoming aware, with sudden certainty, that this music was, in terms of heightening intellectual and emotional awareness, far superior to anything possible with rock, jazz/fusion or otherwise, and that beside it rock and roll was, at best, boring. 

That moment made all that is under consideration here possible.

Survival

Commonplace events and objects generate sounds that go unnoticed, their subtlety lost to perception.

Heightened awareness of sounds such as these may have been more common in the distant past, but this faculty is by no means lost in the modern world. 

The exercise of this ability through contemplative listening can be a creative and aesthetic process as well as a connection to instinctive knowledge and the depth of understanding it obtains.

Light and the Absence of Light

Opportunity to think.  Freedom to be more fully aware.  The arts offer these things, and more, or they may be misused or subverted, through ignorance or by intention, to deny them.

Totalitarian propaganda comes to mind first, then mindless frivolity and escapism, humorless ideological passions, and the mediocre satisfactions of vicarious emotional experience, all made the more speciously attractive under the aegis of "art".

Undeniably, these are representations of one thing or another.  Do they speak to the soul, the higher aspirations of the heart and mind, or to simple and direct perceptions of reality? 

One makes choices regarding such matters.  Or one does not, and follows.

Times, Places, Sounds and Forces

There are various goals in these audio works, with specific strategies and tactics to attain them.

Sounds to fill spaces, to complement environments and activities, to enhance thought, study, reading, creativity-- writing and drawing or painting, for example-- and for listening, as works complete in themselves, are among the desired outcomes when experimenting with tones and textures, designing sound structures and patterns, and otherwise fabricating or composing these pieces. 

The listener-- or participant, if you will-- should engage with the works to any extent that is pleasing and useful.  It may be a different way of listening, one most familiar to aficionados of ambient music, but it is, in fact, innate, given the various levels of attention accorded to sounds and music throughout the average day.

These transformative sketches in sound are made in consideration of the idea that music is an application of force, and that such forces should be fitting in regard to circumstances, activities, situations, and sensibilities.

Beyond the Unfamiliar

The reader, tolerant of these observations and perhaps finding certain directives to myself informative on occasion, knows fully what is meant by mainstream music and cultural arts of that nature. 

Certainly many people, like fish in water, take no notice of being immersed in it, and this is no criticism, but a neutral and objective point.  The mainstream is a cultural constant and one is everywhere aware of it, including its manifestations as alternatives to itself.

Live performances and recording sessions in the pop and rock milieu offer much in the way of creativity of the mainstream sort, but aside from the improvisational aspects of the former and the experimental opportunities of the latter there is a necessary element of predictability that is tedious and ultimately stultifying. 

The show must go on, coupled with give the people what they want and that sort of thing, holds interest for those who find it fulfilling, of course.  On the other hand, it is the motivation to create and explore that must take precedence for some, curiosity and the desire to know and learn being the dominate forces of their temperament.

Thus we move away from the cultural expectations.  The distance increases between us and the mainstream and its associated perspectives, on into the future, and as far as our journey will allow. 

Stir of Vibrations

Consider music experienced in the course of the day.

Multiple sources.  Multiple situations.  Alone, in domestic, work-related, and social settings.  Through television and radio, in advertising, by personal selection on digital devices.  For multiple reasons.  In complete form and in fragments.  By choice or not.  Given full attention, barely noticed, interrupted, or ignored.

No one considers it unusual; it is unprecedented in human history. 

Upon reflection, literally at the end of the day, it may be observed to have produced effects at the time, or none at all.  The individual would be the one to determine this, and to recall what those effects, if any, were, and whether or not they were desirable. 

To propose and design forms of a musical nature intended to make atmospheres and activities cohesive is to create a paradigm of auditory art that establishes an aesthetic relationship between sounds, ideas, emotions, environments and actions in ways contrary to the effects of transitory and fragmentary musical events. 

Instantaneous

Communications via resources that render them immediate result in untoward cultural effects.

Answers to difficult questions are expected to be reflexive, and, rather than being fully assessed with respect to facts, the replies are merely expected to conform to popular prejudices, and thus they are accepted or rejected as nothing more. 

Ideas and issues that have provoked debate for centuries, treated in this manner, will not be resolved.  Even concepts that are demonstrably wrong and absurd, clearly based on false premises or fatally flawed and transparently biased "research" continue to be given serious consideration long after they have outlived their relevance.   Ironically, the rapidity of communication that should speed their ultimate demise contributes to their longevity.

In forbearing to mention the many long-endured, obviously wrong and obsolete notions here, the point is to give consideration to the fact that a thoughtful approach to problem-solving, to conceptual creativity, and to the virtue of patience in the evolution of an artistic vision is not an error of judgement, and regardless of cultural norms and expectations, it is an asset to the artist and to the thinking person.  The coercion to think otherwise must be resisted, with intellectual authority and the strength of moral reason.

Dance

In general terms, entertainment is meant to provide diversion or escape, and to garner applause and acclaim.

Art is created to yield effects.

Convergence II

To trace the progress of music through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is to observe developments in artistic vision and technology and the rise and decline of familiar musical genres.

Common elements of these developments are the movement from the simple to the complex (and back again), the merging of styles, the standardization of commercial products and, in contrast to the latter, experimentation and risk in the pursuit of change.

Question, reflect, challenge, envision, and bring into being.

Perception, Reason, Nuance

The past lies in the future, the present in both; nothing appears out of thin air.

Life in a frenetic atmosphere is often represented as a cultural ideal, as a life of excitement or a state of affairs in which one is continually engaged in a series of passionate extremes in work and at play.  One sees particular historical periods as well as virtually all contemporary life portrayed in this manner, that is to say, in a romanticized and absurd way. 

Consider, only briefly, the kinds of music associated with such situations.  It is predictable, unchanging, propelled by the same instruments according to the same formulas, and geared to dominate, if not to overwhelm, the attention of the listener.  In other words, enjoyable as it may be from time to time, as a constant in the course of everyday activities, it becomes nothing special, bland and finally boring.

Other ways of listening and composing have developed separately over time, not as reactions against the time-worn flavors of popular music, but according to different points of view about art, and life.

Simplicity, Complexity, Reality and the Imagination

Sensory experience is a means of making connections.

The fundamental nature of seeing and hearing directs the observer, consciously or intuitively, toward an intellectual and emotional grasp of the nature of things and their innumerable relationships.  The creative or artistic impulse engages and orders these relationships into a statement, in one form or another, about what these relationships might possibly mean.

Light strikes the eye and the vision of an artist confronts perception; vibrations strike the ear and we share and respond to the sounds of a composer, or the words of a speaker.  As an artist brings a statement within our awareness, we bring experiences of our own to art.  If moved to do so, we reflect upon what these connections we have made say about the world and ourselves. 

Free Expression

There are no longer stark divisions between the fine arts and the popular arts.  Such distinctions are matters of individual discrimination and taste. 

Individuals who are less likely to be bound by cultural limits are by nature more receptive to imaginative works of art that appeal to their intellectual and emotional dispositions. Their tastes in films, music, and literary works reflect their own interests, rather than those of a narrow range of common experience that was once much more prevalent than it is now.
 
This is not to say that an age demographic is in play, but, in point of fact, to state the opposite. Works of aesthetic virtue are more accessible to a more diverse audience than ever.

Fashions and styles that once dominated cultural conditions (and cultural conditioning) no longer have a lock on the collective consciousness. 

This affords freedom of expression in ways as yet not fully realized.

Delineations

Imagery communicates sensory impressions, especially in their absence, in an appeal to one's fund of experience.

The imagined sounds of times and spaces, shapes and colors, physical gestures, textures, shadows and lights-- and so on in myriad diversity-- when combined in speculative sketches, bring to an environment an artistic portrayal of shifting perceptions.

A room takes on aspects of an aural action painting, an open field of impressions; the imagination of the listener contributes unique perspectives of meaning and detail.

Words free of predictable limits rise in the directions of poetry, and sounds released from mundane musical structures flow out into poems born of tones and permutations.

Imagined Musics

Forms suggest their elements in other forms.  Environments propose visual and auditory imagery.

Given creative consideration, a synthesis of elements comes into being-- sounds, instruments, voices, scenarios for performance or composition-- tones, moods, atmospheres-- impressions, spatial designs, proportions and textures, dynamics-- and a concept develops of musical forms evolving over a course of time. 

Spaces created, filled, emptied, reconfigured, all illuminated with sounds, challenge ideas of what music is and what it may become.