Avenue, Trail, Broadcast

Sounds in the wild-- whether in distant fields or urban areas-- are unpredictable and asymmetrical.

A listener does not commit these soundscapes to memory, as may be done with a popular song or favorite musical work.  For the most part, music is created with the intent of imprinting memory, appealing to mnemonic devices both auditory and verbal in ways that are essentially artificial, with improvisational forms presenting the most variations within a musical arrangement.

While artificial, transformation ambient music is designed to create sonic atmospheres in ways similar to those that occur in the wild, or in conformity with sounds as they simply happen while moving through various environments.  Not meant to be committed to memory, yet appealing to the inner ear, they remain fresh and retain interest over time, enhancing settings and states of mind as well.

Perceptions in Obscurity

Accepting the "given" in regard to music, all the elements of understanding fall into place.

The listener then enjoys certain types of music, dislikes others, or is neutral in point of view regarding them. There is nothing to think about; either it provides subjective pleasure or it does not, whether it is a masterwork filled with passion and spiritual intensity or it merely has a good beat and you can dance to it.

The detached observer takes a different perspective, recognizes the various aspects of music for the effects they produce, considers their myriad forms and patterns, and notes the variables and extremes in dynamics, sophistication, technique, presentation and instrumentation that define the genres and appeal to both the popular and refined tastes and sensibilities.

Set aside the given of  "musical appreciation" along with the fashions, the attendant subcultures, the platitudes of "show business", and it becomes certain there is much more to the art of sound than adherence to cultural norms and well-worn styles.  Freed from form and formula, sounds and tones, in pattern and combination, can enhance consciousness and elevate experience in ways far beyond those to which listeners are accustomed.

To listen and to hear is prescience.

Sensation and Thought

Within and without consciousness, perceptual imagery takes objective and subjective forms.

See and hear, remember and imagine, and as artist, sculptor, dancer, writer, composer, communicator, express by giving form and being to experience.

Not Hearing, Not Listening, Not Music

Fragments of music pass through consciousness throughout the waking hours.

Sometimes these fragments linger after encountering a piece of music, and other times they simply arise spontaneously out of memory.

Consider whether this is a positive or negative effect, whether it is a pleasant diversion or a distraction, a disturbance of concentration, focus, and consciousness generally.  Certainly it is a common effect, and not abnormal in its commonality, but neither is it necessarily desirable.

An interesting secondary effect of the peculiar transformation ambient compositions discussed here is that the listener does not experience these "ear-worm" auditory perceptions while listening to them. They apparently disappear immediately, as if unhooked or detached from the listener's awareness, and the compositions do not take this form later, after listening.

It is a different way of encountering musical sounds altogether, reflecting prolonged efforts in the way of experimentation, contemplative discipline and aesthetic observation.

Currents

Genre music develops according to parameters of composition and style.

Currents of air and water move according to volume, density, gravity, the diverse shapes of topography and other influences like temperature or human intervention.

Release sounds from common form and formula to develop and aurally transform in similar ways.

Artifice Corresponding to the Natural

Generative music is the result of programming alone, whereas transformation sound design is manipulated by the composer for aesthetic purposes.

Creative work that is a product of inquiry, speculation, observation and exploration ultimately reflects, in its development, the sensibility of the artist.

As to the Black Mountain School project there is a conscious effort to shape and produce tone-poem environments that emerge and evolve as sounds do in the wild, as it were, or as tonal forms evoking movements and settings regarded in terms of peculiar, non-musical perceptions.

Examples would include such things as wind in trees, traffic noises, birds and insects, as well as patterns describing any type of natural or social activity. Other events-- like changes in the quality of light, architectural structures and textures, meteorological effects and states of mind-- are treated as aural possibilities as well.

Fundamentally, it is a search for different ways of listening and hearing that emerges in these compositions.

One Moment

Observe, and consider the real.

Respond, and give account.

Reaction, Response

The design of sound environments takes into account reasoning as well as emotion.

Both attitudes, the feeling and the thinking, reflect the consciousness of the listener, and both passive and conscious listening engagement take place in such environments.

The intention of the composition is to accommodate the full spectrum of auditory attention throughout, emphasizing interest with sound elements like tone and contrast while minimizing those such as rhythm and melody that tend to dominate concentration and focus.

Distinctions

Distinctive compositions bear the impress of the author or composer's vision.

The musician focuses on displays of technique and style; the composer, on self-expression and emotional relevance; the speculative artist or theorist, upon ideas and concepts related to sound, its effects and its revelations in regard to reason and the human experience.

Each perspective reflects a kind of quest.  The first is for acclaim or glory, the second for personal and aesthetic satisfaction, and the third seeks mystery, whether out of intellectual curiosity, a metaphysical turn of mind, a desire for expanding and understanding consciousness, or something else altogether, but beyond the mundane and emotionally subjective.

Flux and Passage

Change over time is gradual.

In contrast to sudden, dramatic events, the course of things appears static, but this is an illusion.

Sweeping changes come to pass in ways that seem undetectable except to the perceptive observer; in sound design, such effects contribute to an aesthetically pleasing listening experience and, often, to a more relaxed and alert state of mind in the listener.

Encounter, Response

Impression, followed by processes of envisioning, resulting in representations reflecting reality and the imagination.  Such is one concept of art among many.

So cycles of creativity continue, constantly revised, completed, restored, and renewed.  One artist gains perspective in regarding the work of another, and another painting, poem, or musical piece follows.

Ultimately, fully evolved and internalized, the artistic vision moves beyond the traditional into the personal, shaping and shaped by experience itself.

Variations in Pattern

Throughout the human and natural environments find designs, repetitions, change and development.

The myriad choices of tones, lines, spaces and clusters of notes and patterns combined in sketch music and transformation ambient music are reflective of such designs as those observed in sediment deposits and erosion, roads and trails, cloud formations and the movements of crowds or flocks of birds, to suggest a few obvious examples.

Sounds arranged and produced in this manner have very little to do with popular music-- but everything to do with sensory impressions of the good and the beautiful.

Projection, Perspective

The fusion of reality and the imagination is essential to the composer's art.

Begin with the personal-- setting, surroundings, cultural history.  Question the possibilities; hear their sounds, and bind them together into the real.

Critical Perceptivity

The way of the artist at once embraces and transcends.

All elements of culture are interrelated and exert forces upon each other over the meandering course of generations.  Life is fleeting; human consciousness, awake and dreaming, remains mysterious; art is the tangible evidence of possibilities, whether seen clearly or glimpsed in shadows.

In experience, draw close.  In creation, elevate.

Consciousness, Perception, Questions

Not everything can be viewed, understood, or heard subjectively.

Yet the totally objective, like Reason itself, has final limits.

The way of the artist is to choose.

Other Sounds, Other Views

Speculation about the cultural future, though interesting for what it is, has limits based on linear viewpoints.

Such perspectives grasp at darkness, projecting the present.  There is no knowing any number of potential developments, as history consistently demonstrates.

The way of the artist creates the future by bringing it into the present.

Obscure Sense

Sounds in time may be perceived as moving in a linear fashion.

Sound compositions may also be designed in such a manner as to suggest a musical continuum.

Linear listening reflects attachment to rhythm, beat, and melody as they develop from beginning to end, while music designed to ebb and flow without direction elicits temporal detachment in hearing and listening.

Sublimity

Sound designs of simplicity and clarity grace the atmosphere of a setting, and the listener enjoys a sense of vitality, presence of mind, and composure.

Black Mountain School paints the air with sound.

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Around, Within, Between

Regard the idea of negative space in sonic terms.  Initially, one might consider it to be silence, but it is more than that, and of greater subtlety.

Consider negative space to be a matter of perceived distances and surrounding areas within which notes are clustered or scattered, for instance, or of the differences in shading between various timbres.  These shifting areas of negative space are as valuable as the aural "objects of focus" themselves.

Viewed in this manner, tones and lines as objects of focus are of equal-- or greater-- importance to composition when compared to the more commonplace components of music, to wit, rhythm, beat, melody and harmony.

Changing Patterns

Music, with its rhythmic and melodic formulas, is a constant.

As a cultural and social force, it is held harmless, given no thought beyond entertainment and profit, and reflects the impulses and patterns at play in human affairs.

The sounds of life can be more than this.  A moment's pause, and fireflies in a dark grove beneath a sky burning with stars, rain striking the face while passing along a crowded avenue, or a hand filled with nothing greater than sand on a lake shore evokes mystery without end.

Find the sounds of these moments and embrace them.  They are formless forms, beyond the limits of time.