Aya Janam Din Tumhara

Dancing on the stillness of a lake, ripples rise and fall in tune with the Divine symphony. Bhavanjali is the soul singing its song; laughing and crying, but dancing nevertheless. Even as its melody rises and falls, there is an underlying serenity, a dynamic stillness. Its spirit takes one into a state of joyful meditation.


Bhavanjali 10

Background and poem text: https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/01/01/adrienne-rich-reads-what-kind-of-times-are-these/

Recorded for PBS's "Poetry Everywhere" program: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/

BACKGROUND / POEM TEXT

Adrienne Rich reads "What Kind of Times Are These"

Depicted is a picture of a picture of the RCA MKii synthesizer at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center from an exhibit "Sounding Circuits: Audible Histories" shown at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. These were early days in the history of electronic music. "Summer Breeze" tries to capture some of that innocence (some folks may even hear a little Laurie Spiegel in this) before it all turned into a mad rave.
This is a case study on the virtues of very light modulation - the piece is based on the sound of Plait's chord mode, with the morph feature lightly set in motion by a 1.6 volt waveform from a Zadar envelope generator which scans a  wavetable very subtly

A World Beyond

Summer Breeze

Pre-order here:
http://felte.bandcamp.com/album/billow-observatory
http://boomkat.com/vinyl/601376-billow-observatory-billow-observatory

Buy Now

Billow Observatory - Slow Billows

@OnBeing host Krista Tippett reads at the third annual Universe in Verse — a charitable celebration of science through poetry, hosted by Maria Popova at Pioneer Works (April 24, 2019). Poem text and context: https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/01/02/krista-tippett-howard-nemerov-universe-in-verse/

More highlights from The Universe in Verse: https://www.brainpickings.org/tag/the-universe-in-verse/

POEM TEXT / CONTEXT

The Universe in Verse: Krista Tippett Reads "Figures of Thought" by Howard Nemerov

Cool Afternoon

Listen / Purchase: https://lnk.to/wrfsolidum

Solidum, is an album of unexpected stillness and negative space from William Ryan Fritch, a composer most known for his lush, dense arrangements that teem with a raw kinetic sense of energy.

Typical Fritch records are chock-full of hyper-textural sound, where mechanical noise and small idiosyncrasies of each instrument become an integral part of the music’s character. By contrast, Solidum uses a colder and more rounded sound palette that relies on PZM and boundary mics to capture the upright piano, cello, violin, and harp bowed with rosined fishing line and blend them with digital piano and A Roland JX-3p. This gives the muted acoustics an unnatural smoothness and a pitchy quaver that makes the listener question what is synthesized and what is not. The creative impetus was to see what sense of emotionality and sincerity could be achieved without relying on Fritch’s familiar aesthetic of tactile and vulnerable sounds.

The title Solidum comes from the Latin phrase “in Solidum,” meaning “for the whole.” It’s a mentality that must somehow prevail, at a time when there is less of a sense of closeness than there has been at any point in recent memory.
 
Many works of art have been made amidst this pandemic and it’s been fascinating seeing how artists have translated the experiences of heightened uncertainty, loneliness and longing for connection. Solidum is Fritch’s one search for connection and deepened empathy in a world where touch and closeness has been so cruelly taken away from our means of showing love.

Solidum

Movement IX

William Ryan Fritch - Movement IX (from Solidum)

"Moonflowers" is an exploration of repetition and organic sounds. Fragments of delicate melody and harmony are decayed and obscured over time. Emotions frozen in the present. Flower and expand in the silhouette of the full moon.

https://dronarivm.lnk.to/Moonflowers

Buy CS / DL

07 Moonflower

Born and raised in Damascus, Maya is a virtuoso of the qanun, the Arabic zither. “When I was approached to take part in Walking Home,” she says, “the first thing that came to my mind was walking in nature, and the different lines of thought and feelings that stream through me. 

"Because of that, there are different voices in this piece, all of which the qanun performs. I know a lot of people are going through a lot of grief at the moment, and I wanted this music to give them a whisper of hope”. 

Walking Home is a series of sound journeys specially created during lockdown to be listened to on headphones whilst walking, for BBC Arts and Arts Council England’s Culture in Quarantine programme. Composed by Maya Youssef Mixed and mastered by Calum Malcolm

The Universe in Verse: Krista Tippett Reads "Figures of Thought" by Howard Nemerov

brainpicker

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