Cut Cubist Paste

Space and time are malleable to the sound artist.

Things are happening there now that have already happened later here.  This is a recording,

Yes, to Fire

The absurd gesture does not exist in nature.

It is only the ego that demands satisfaction at any price, any cost.  Such a representation obtains only in forms of infantile, benighted, human failings.  Reality produces myriad sounds, yet none are absurd.

Contrasting Movements

Simplicity is development toward the opposite of what is expected.

Complexity is the result of a series of choices leading to outcomes beyond expectations altogether.

Course of Flux

In these compositions, sound waves move and are manipulated toward aesthetic ends.

These sonic events reach fruition according to diverse aspects of their natures as well as the specifics of the composer's intent.  As each outcome takes place as a complete element, and contributes to the whole in complexity as a series of interrelated phenomena, it is analogous to the idea that one never crosses the same river twice.

Spatial Perspective

Encounter and absorb real auditory information within real environments.

Turn this process, rather than those associated with musical arrangements, into an organizational prototype for composition of sound.  The result is a tangible atmosphere developing in flux as aural imagery surrounding the percipient, whether listener or composer.

Force, Application, Outcome

As to art, value is not creative impulse, but final expression and its experience.

Between these lie idea, feel, medium, method, and articulation, with their complexities.  Color, sound, shading, contrast, and stylization of elements, whether released or restrained, move always toward a final act of revealing, and this is simple.  It is total effect.

Around, Within

Neglect to listen, and sounds grow dim, sensibilities dull.

Give heed to perceptions of the surroundings, and the inner world expands.

Think, Hear, This Way

Ten, twenty, fifty centuries hence.

The sound of the moment now is yet perceivable.

Incipient Insight

Long-standing interpretations of the idea of advancement in the arts and sciences typically center around existing standards and related innovations.

Limiting the musical imagination to development and refinement of preexisting designs and models results in stultification, that is to say, the typical sounds of the contemporary in the second decade of the twenty-first century.  But these sounds are not congruent with the imagination of the modern.

The modern plunges forward with time past, drawing in time future.  This application of the idea of progress means to bring into being what will, in fact, exist.

Turning, Rising, Reaching

Contemporary culture is little concerned with the contemplative.

Yet the contemporary cultural narrative continually suggests that the life that is lived best is lived "unselfconsciously", and "in the moment".

Regardless, every moment spent in reflection and contemplation is its own reward, and more, freely grants an equanimity and clarity of reason that transcends the merely immediate.

Thus the purpose of all these works by Black Mountain School, and we extend the reader and listener our gratitude.

Consciousness of the Unusual

Informed by technology, consider the social and cultural imagination of the day.

Informed by direct perception, experience, and the wisdom of ages. consider imagination itself.

Continuum and Flux

Sound is meaningless until it approaches and engages perception.

Seize sound. Seize knowledge, history, freedom, experience.  In doing so, seize the art of being.

Neither Art, Nor Life

Shadows, in and of themselves, are not expressions.

One cannot experience reality by viewing it solely in terms of media.  This is a superficial appearance, whether found on the wall of a cave in flickering firelight or in high definition and one hundred feet tall.

Where, Then

Though rich in technology, contemporary culture is hobbled by collective predictability.

From the perspective of the historical Modern, the dearth of imagination, aggravated by the social and political stances against individualistic expression, explains the condition everywhere visible.

The solution, as always, is resistance and assertiveness on the personal level. The artist stands alone.

Esprit

Genius is no more than the creative being of the individual.

In oppressive times, it waits; without opportunity, it makes possibilities; with nothing, it fills the void.

Always it projects questions into the space of the mind where restraints cannot take hold.

Everyone can do these things.  A few will.

Rise II

Consider the impossible.

Otherwise, the ponderous gravity of the mundane cannot be overcome.

The Ethereal and the Unexpected

Superficially, one hears style-- rhythm, percussion, instrumentation-- thus, music.

But, in terms of sound as aural phenomena, this is but an infinitesimal, though delusively ubiquitous, set of elements.  Those who perceive with vigor understand that the value of such things as texture, color, shading of tone, evolution of auditory imagery and nuance of movement, to cite a few obvious examples, vastly exceeds the quality of interest generated by bland repeated patterns (and puerile bombast) common to generic music, even in the widest diversity of its manifestations.

Rather much is made of the idea that "the internet" constitutes a watershed event in human culture and consciousness, and no doubt it is so as a medium of communication.  Consider, instead, the idea of cultural content surpassing that heretofore experienced, to the same degree that the digital domain surpasses that of the dominion of the printing press.

Borrowed Time

Perhaps machines will think for someone, but they will not think for me.

From the simplest to the most sophisticated creative problem, it is the artist who chooses to apply method and means to the solution. Whether the choice is a hands-on approach or one requiring the most conceptually obtuse digitally-facilitated engagement, it is consciousness that perceives, that imagines, and that impels the creative act.

Course of Culture

History and the moment now continually impact time future.

Simply put, the origins of present knowledge are indicators of possibilities. There will always be sound for dance and diversion, yet sound turned toward art is in perpetual flux, out of which comes constant evolution according to any responsive artist's perspective.

Curvature of Sound

Listening is as much an art as composing, sharing the same fundamental goals.

Change is essential in the rise and fall of things. The bright grows dim, the shadows fall back into light. Sounds traverse long distances through time and space to reach the inner ear.  And over this course of change, meanings and understandings are altered until, ultimately, nothing is as it once was.

Within a lifetime, the listener will hear this come to pass. It is perceptible, and irreversible, even now.