Week 13 4/2/17

Culture unravels, then reforms.

Thus culture reflects a specious novelty, and appears to be something it is not, being expressive of ancient impulses that change very little, if at all.

Nonetheless, one may look ahead, with great difficulty, in the direction of expressions that do not yet exist.  Otherwise they will never come into being.

Ambimusica.com

Obscure Terrain  by Black Mountain School

Delmarva (Excerpt)  by Black Mountain School

The Voice of Time in Gold  by Ghost Radio Orchestra

© The Crucibulum Media Recording Label; Crucibulum Publishing (ASCAP) All Rights Reserved.

Comments?  Questions?  mediaworks@ambimusica.com 

Week 12 3/26/17

Finished work demonstrates mastery of knowledge, judgement, and skill of execution.

Conceptual sound composition demands process and production equal to the artist's vision.

Ambimusica.com

Week 11 3/19/17

Creative freedom cannot be conferred, or earned.  It must be seized.

Like every choice, the creative act implies risk, reward, and consequences. This demands grace, if the end result is to possess meaning.  

Ambimusica.com

Obscure Terrain  by Black Mountain School

Delmarva (Excerpt)  by Black Mountain School

The Voice of Time in Gold  by Ghost Radio Orchestra

© Crucibulum Publishing (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved. 
Compatible with iPod®, iTunes, Windows Media Player and other MP3 players.

Note from Crucibulum Media: 

All Black Mountain School and Ghost Radio Orchestra Albums may now be ordered directly from the publisher.

© The Crucibulum Media Recording Label; Crucibulum Publishing (ASCAP) All Rights Reserved.

Comments?  Questions?  mediaworks@ambimusica.com 

Week 10 3/12/17

Progress is an awakening to possibilities.

Situational awareness is the discernment of the right moment to actively create.

Ambimusica.com

Obscure Terrain  by Black Mountain School

Delmarva (Excerpt)  by Black Mountain School

The Voice of Time in Gold  by Ghost Radio Orchestra

© Crucibulum Publishing (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved. 
Compatible with iPod®, iTunes, Windows Media Player and other MP3 players.

Note from Crucibulum Media: 

All Black Mountain School and Ghost Radio Orchestra Albums may now be ordered directly from the publisher.

© The Crucibulum Media Recording Label; Crucibulum Publishing (ASCAP) All Rights Reserved.

Comments?  Questions?  mediaworks@ambimusica.com 

Week 9 3/5/17

Some actions are within the power and will of the artist, while others are not.

The power of well-reasoned human perception cannot be overestimated.  Clarity of awareness is light in darkness.

Ambimusica.com

Week 8 2/26/17

All that is free requires the strength to dream.

That which will be elevated begins with foundations, these being concrete and abstract, ancient and immediate.  Prepared for anything, one acts upon what is possible.

Ambimusica.com

Week 7 2/19/17

The artist must open the perceptions of the audience.

Any restoration of cultural expression demands individual freedom of thought.  Opposition to collective oppression and the lockstep regimentation of ideological conformity is essential.

Ambimusica.com

Week 6 2/11/17

The "cosmopolitan" fails to grasp the freedom others cannot take for granted.

If freedom of expression is to exist, even that which is offensive must be tolerated.

Ambimusica.com

Week 5 2/4/17

Look ahead.

Imagine the possibility of free expression, and realize the artist is a minority of one.

Ambimusica.com

Week 4 1/28/17

Objectivity demands effort.  False narratives are effortless.

Refine the essential insight that distinguishes between appearances and the real and thus know what is possible, what may be realized, and what is nothing more than gibberish.

Ambimusica.com

Week 3 1/21/17

Now listen, and hear.

What first appears to be the poison may, in reality, be the cure.

The continuing dearth in cultural expression and innovation is no fault of the artist.

The artist has not failed culture.  Culture has failed the artist.  In music, film, mixed media of all kinds, literature, and the arts as a whole, political ideologies have usurped the means by which individual artists convey their works, corrupting this "delivery system" by eliminating all voices except those that conform to collectivist perspectives and repressing their work in the cultural milieu. Of course this is unacceptable.  It is an affront to humanity.

Ultimately supplanting the advancement of cultural vision altogether, this insidious, infantile, "utopian totalitarianism", everywhere visible, is enforced by a false narrative of "public acclaim" maintained by academia, multinational corporations, and a sycophantic mass media.

Government funding of the arts is one tool by which this odious scenario has been perpetuated for decades. Should the opportunity to end this practice become possible, think twice before reflexively condemning it, as you may have been unwittingly conditioned to do. Ending government subsidies for the arts may not take the boot off the neck of the artist, but, as a beginning, it will lessen the weight.

Ambimusica.com

Week 2 1/14/17

It is not enough to think against the grain.

One must think, and act, beyond the horizon.

Ambimusica.com

Week 1 1/7/17

The composer must do more than listen, and must hear potential.

In critical terms creative and perceptual, to listen, and to hear must equate to vision.

Ambimusica.com

Post Two Thousand

The first Ambimusica post was made June 29, 2011.

"Experimental" musical methods that can not be replicated are, by nature, failures.  Successful methods, on the other hand, are meant to be applied and developed in finished works.

And so the work continues.

For the time being, the Ambimusica blog will be updated weekly, rather than daily.

Ambimusica.com

Preconceptions

One must distinguish between appearance and reality.  This cannot be overstated.

It is possible to listen without understanding, and to understand without listening.

Ambimusica.com

In Stillness and In Motion

The virtue and force of every sublime sound elevates consciousness.

The sounds of life are music, to those who will listen, and hear.

Ambimusica.com

Aural Synthesis

It is possible to manipulate sound as a creative individual would the various art media.

One might suggest, in a simplistic way, that it is possible to create a sound composition in the manner of an Impressionist, or in any form related to methods utilized in visual arts. This obviously demands a working knowledge of art, stylistic methods, and the production of sound.  Yet, unlike the classical Tone Poem, such compositions need not be dependent upon most elements of music, particularly the "popular" elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and so forth. Nor is it necessary that these pieces be Minimalist in nature or adhere to any type of Ambient style.

I choose to compose representations of sounds as they occur "in the wild", using an aural palette.

Ambimusica.com

The Divergent Ear

Music "as we know it" serves myriad purposes.

Among these purposes are entertainment, diversion, emotional reinforcement, dance, and aesthetic pleasure, that is to say, listening enjoyment, whether by simple or refined appreciation of the art of music and the technical skill with which it is composed, arranged, and performed.

I count myself among those privileged to have attended performances by an astonishing array of artists in virtually every musical genre; in a number of cases I have worked and performed with these artists, who I admire and respect to this day, and they all, to one degree or another, have impacted my own work.

Yet I hear differently, and what I hear, and work to express, is not "music as we know it".

Ambimusica.com

Resolution for a Problematic Music

Observe a surfeit of information yielding little in the way of what might be called enlightenment.

One proceeds with awareness and intent, not subject to the idea that "such and such a thing has been done before".  As these notes demonstrate, there are ways and means to look beyond "the given".

Needed is a conclusive synthesis and assessment of these concepts, falling, as they do, outside common musical limits, that illuminates the resulting form of aesthetic sound art, its purposes, methods, and effects.

Ambimusica.com

Vision and Risk

With authentic change, unexpected opportunities arise.

Those capable of expressing these cultural phenomena will be the first to recognize and realize them.

Ambimusica.com