04. Reflective Cognition

I think the collaborative project by Zach Frizzell (zakè) and Damien Duque (City Of Dawn) first saw the light of day back in 2020 when these two ambient artists got together to release Wander on Frizzell's own Zakè Drone Recordings. The duo have also released music as Frizzell & Duque, appearing on these pages numerous times in the last few years, including the addition of Ossa, for the album I picked as one of the best of the year. Last year, Jonas Munk, aka Manual, picked up Agape for his Azure Vista Records, and I have subsequently highlighted the album in my Music For Bending Light And Stopping Time for Best of 2022. All of these opening words, with a brief journey through history, are only here to demonstrate how excited I am about their follow-up release on Azure (co-distributed by Frizzell's Past Inside The Present imprint for the US friends and followers). The title track, "Ash", which I am premiering for you today, is a perfect example of the unhurried, unfurling, and unpretentious ambience that blankets the senses when you need these sounds most. "Their focus offers up the steady ebb and flow of sound, cultivating a profound sense of meditative stasis and explorations of high-fidelity sound." This is the type of slow-evolving minimal music that you want to turn all the way up in volume so that each frequency permeates, saturates, and eradicates all the wrinkles and spikes in your jittery mind. Lovely textures on this one, folks, carefully curated by the mastering touch of James Bernard.

"The music the two create together reflects the expansive landscapes of their native Texas and Indiana. Slowly unfolding melodies that seem to rise like the sun from a Texas horizon and drones that resonate like leaves in an endless Indiana woodland. It's a sound that's both beautiful and slightly haunting – a sound that encompasses the listener and demands attention. This is music to get lost in."

TRACK PREMIERE : zakè & City of Dawn - Ash

A Weather Internal

Open Land

'Open Land' - A Weather Internal - [Fluid Audio, 2023]

Forest Edge

'Forest Edge' - A Weather Internal - [Fluid Audio, 2023]

As I mature and fine-tune my musical journey, I seem to gravitate more and more towards the contemporary classical genre. Why is that, and do you feel the same? I think, for me, it’s all about the connection. I want to feel emotion expressed from the composer’s soul through instruments attached to human hands. They feel like an extension of articulations flowing into sound. I also think that electronic music has that capability as well [I’ve recently acquired the Osmose from Expressive E, and let me tell you – it’s entirely something else]. And then, there is, of course, the blend of both where certain frequencies [especially the low end] can’t be generated entirely by organic means. Or when dense atmospheres and textures cloud the landscape with a gorgeous dew. This is how I feel about the latest album from the Melbourne-based composer Callum Mintzis, who first appeared on these pages a few years ago when I premiered his collaboration with Pat Jaffe in the video for V. Murmur. Mintzis is also collaborating with Tilman Robinson, who co-produced this latest album [and yes, I hear a bit of his conjuring touch]. The album is titled "And the Wind was my Dear Friend, Once Again", and across its seven pieces, Mintzis explores the mysteries of life through many philosophical questions posed alongside the release, but it is the music itself that will make you reach deep inside your own existence for the answers you will find.

And the Wind was my Dear Friend, Once Again

TRACK PREMIERE : Callum Mintzis - Once Again

Fades IX

HAIKU MUSIC CHALLENGE

Naviarhaiku 560

daybreak!
the tempest interred
in snow

Inoue Shiro (1742-1812) was a doctor and poet from Nagoya.

Haiku by Inoue Shiro

Picture by Mihika
 
Submission deadline: 2nd October 2024

To find out more and participate, visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge/

Keep Hidden

Keep Hidden (naviarhaiku560)

Watch the accompanying video at https://youtu.be/BDxDMfbIGlU ... Exploring the wonderful Weevil X R_Ware Noise Field Oscillator in Cherry Audio's Voltage Modular ... Great fun! 😁

Through a world of sound
the only filter I have
my discerning ear
 
Jason Richardson is a Leeton-based musician and poet who’s collaborated with Naviar many times over the last few years: in 2014 his music was part of the sound installation we made for the State of Origin exhibition in London. In 2017, Jason and Marco from Naviar curated together the exhibition Crossing Streams in Narrandera. In 2021, Marco interviewed Jason as part of our series of online events, Naviar Virtual. You can listen to that interview on Naviar’s YouTube channel.

Haiku by Jason Richardson: https://showcasejase.blogspot.com

To find out more and participate, visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge/

visuals (YouTube)

halF discerninG [naviarhaiku562]

Smog

About winning the lotto in my dream last night and I bought 2 lotto tickets the morning.  

Lotto Dream Terrorzine C3 Mind Melt

Seven is a concept album based around the theory of the cosmic and esoteric evolution of the planet, musically depicting the the seven races and their existence on seven continents, past, present and yet to come.

Composed, performed, produced and recorded by Paul Landry
Album cover design and photography Paul Landry 
© 2018 Paul Landry & Aeon Records
℗ 2028 Ditto Music LTD


The Coming Race

Winter Lights - Jani R. and Kevin Paczesny(Original Mix)

Vesna

"L’album è una ricerca volta alla comprensione del linguaggio degli ambienti e degli oggetti che ci circondano e dei quali probabilmente conosciamo solo la facciata esterna."

Carlo Giustini "Manifestazioni" will be out on 28/9/2018 on Cassette, 7" Vinyl Dubplate and Digital.

“A manifestation is an object that clearly shows or embodies something abstract or theoretical” 

These are five untamed field recordings captured between the desolate streets of suburban Treviso in late June 2018. 
Five explorations of the secret language whispered by its houses and by the slow and mysterious movements of its inhabitants exhausted by the summer heat. 

Matter owns a hidden language, a dusty and ancient one. 
Sound is matter. 

Matter is a tactile manifestation of something that is higher, or at least something that lives hidden among the cracks of our everyday life. 

Something vast, which is capable of moving matter and space. 
Something speaking in codes. 

The movements captured in this work are sometimes brusque, sometimes more tired and dragged. 

These are five declarations of love towards a more real world of truth, a world that is hidden but that somehow manifests itself continuously through the familiar sound of objects and everyday life. 

All five recordings are first single takes, recorded on worn out tape rolls found here and there. 

All recordings captured with a rusty Phillips portable tape recorder and a contact mic.

Buy Cassette/Vinyl

extract. Carlo Giustini - Il Vicino (Si Muove) | "Manifestazioni" Album | Lᴏɴᴛᴀɴᴏ Series

Stream or Buy

Floating Dreams

Aeternum
https://axen.bandcamp.com/album/aeternum

Aeternum 

Aeternum I

Fields

Dance like you're an animal that's living in an ecosystem and you will be living the truth. Move your body to the music__more technically, contract and relax the muscles in time with the beat and you'll be dancing. Ignore the nay-sayers that believe in nothing that can be proven whilst disbelieving that which science has proven (beyond a reasonable \ informed persons doubt). Feel the bones as you move to the vibration of the music. Understand that certain sounds, environments, social situations, will increase adrenaline that may increase the beat of your heart.  

Be wise, many are lost in the music. Educate, but, some won't learn how to listen. Nurture being humble especially when dealing with the arrogant. Humans specifically, are nothing special  (i.e., believing we are greater than nature is nothing but hubris, & that ignorance is causing environmental neglect) 

There is an objective reality that can be known (understood at some level or another). We do live and breath on a planet that's orbiting a star (the Sun) How would you infer that fact in some music? Song? (lyrics) or, for example, a sound that tried to represent the 'massiveness' of the planet that we live on? Or for example, if we could hear the sound of one hydrogen atom, what would it sound like? What is a cold or hot sound? a hard or soft sound? A high or low sound? A red or blue sound? We can detect \ see the differences in frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum between the colour red and blue. We can hear the difference in frequency (pitch) between a "C" & an "D" note. Music is somewhat subjective (mind). However, sound is objective. Vision is somewhat subjective. However, light is objective. 

I've been a passionate music listener for many years. Over thirty years ago whilst under the influence of cannabis (if you choose to, use, e.g., vape, cannabis sparingly. i.e., ask, is this helping my well-being?), I had such an 'out of the ordinary' experience whilst listening to music, that ever since that event, I’ve believed that music is the answer, the solution, to many of societies' woes. Thirty years later my understanding of the effect of music, and sound in general, on human behaviour, is more of a science than a mere faith (belief) For example, sound in general is “out there” (changes in air pressure). Sound is an objective, a physical, quality (objective reality). However, music is in our minds (but, it’s properties are now electro-chemical). Music is subjective in that music is what our brains perceive under certain circumstances (timing, pitch [AKA frequency], etc.) Whilst humans do show a preference for different genres of music, what we perceive as musical are sounds that have certain qualities, and the dominant musical quality is timing. Or to be more precise, a repeating quality that we can recognise, and typically, sense some pleasure in for it to be experienced as musical’. Why are we able to recognise the difference in pitch? An “A” note from a “C” note? Why are we able to recognise the the difference between green and red? The why is due to our evolved physiology. It was, it is, evolutionary beneficial to be able to recognise the colour of ripe fruit, for example. To recognise the difference between a friendly or angry sound (human or non human animal). Fundamentally, our ability to perceive and appreciate music is an evolutionary adaptation. Furthermore, humans are “wired” to be social animals. Music can bring us together. 

I understand that music can change cultures, and that cultures do need to change (will change radically, one way or another)__especially in regards to taking far more care of the environment, and one another. In one sense, apathy or neglect  for the environment, for nature, is simply due to a lack of awareness (consciousness). Time waits for no person. The environment won’t wait for us to recognise, to learn, that we need to sustain it (to sustain ourselves) Therefore, the solution is to raise awareness about the environment. For example, to provide excess to the form of education so that people develop the comprehension, the understanding about what clouds are (water vapour) and how clouds form. That understanding, in of itself, is a step towards understanding that we live in an ecosystem (that’s a good place to start)

Many of the people I’ve met, including family members that I’ve known since I was a child, don’t understand that they’re animals living in an ecosystem. In fact, out of all the myriads of animals that exist on planet Earth, only a percentage of humans understand themselves enough to understand that they're animals. Whilst studies using mirrors suggest that our closet "cousins" chimpanzees have a sense of self, it would be guess work, in other words I doubt it very much, to think that chimps know that they're chimps. The term chimpanzee, is a human construct. We know that chimps are our closest living relatives because we can study anatomy and genetics, etc. We know that humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor that lived millions of years ago because of fossil records and genetics. That common ancestors lineage diverged into what later evolved to be today's chimpanzees and humans. Although, during that time, millions of years, many human looking animals, AKA the hominid “family”, went extinct. Why did, for example, Neanderthals go extinct? The answer is, we don't know! (there are a few scientific ideas, but no conclusive evidence to why. E.g., the Neanderthals didn’t leave any written records)

The lack of awareness of objective reality that some humans express as ignorance & or arrogance, or rather can’t express as intelligence, is because of a lack of a type of intelligence, and false beliefs, misinformation in general, that has and is preventing people from accommodating fact based information. Rhetorically, how can people care about that which they don't understand? Fortunately, developing a general scientific literacy increases a persons general level of intelligence. But, there is the rub, a sort of 'catch 22'. You can only become aware just how much a general scientific literacy will increase your general understanding, once you've reached a point in which you have developed a certain level of scientific literacy. In simple terms, you have to develop the intelligence to have the intelligence to comprehend that you are an animal living on a planet (in an ecosystem). That is profound. You live on a Planet that’s orbiting a star! (wow!) The only way to develop that type of informed intelligence is by learning the science. The chemistry, the biology, the ecology, for example. 

That does not mean you need to have a science degree, for example. A general scientific literacy is a general understanding of the fundamental sciences such as chemistry and physics. That awareness can be developed via the many ways that there are to learn, to be informed, of science. People learn in different ways. I for one, enjoy listening to a science podcast whilst out walking. Or for example, reading up on how clouds form, then going outside and using that knowledge to appreciate clouds (to perceive clouds or the “sun” for what they are. e.g., water vapour & a giant gaseous object)

Sure, generally, science isn't as "simple" as learning your “A,B,C’s” (not that that is "simple") because science studies objective and subjective reality. However, like learning anything, even learning how to ride a bicycle, eventually, it becomes like 'second nature'. Humans are nature, Humans are animals. Humans do have an effect on the environment & one another (psychology). And, humans need the environment in order to sustain their societies. Polluting nature is the sign of ignorance. The cause is often a combination of greed & ignorance. 

Basically, any ideas, any ideology, any faith, that infers, that believes, that perceives that humans are NOT part of the planets natural systems, the Earths ecosystem, is not only wrong, it's harmful. However, in some ways humans are a special species. More specifically, as well as our human 'type' of intelligence, we're also highly social animals. We can cooperate to 'save the planet', (the best of our nature), or we can compete, which often brings out the worst in us, and degrade the planet's natural systems (including climate change)

If people don't take that first step towards becoming scientifically literate, they will never know what it is that they're missing out on (a more informed perception of reality). So, and this goes out to a general audience, do yourself & your society a favour and begin the journey of learning about objective reality. A good place to start because it’s a fundamental science, is by reading or listening to a book about chemistry, because, just about everything is chemicals (e.g., molecules that consist of the fundamental elements such as carbon and hydrogen) 

Furthermore, even understanding only the basics of neuroscience for example, will mean that music producers can make even better “brain” music (brains are electro-chemical in nature), 

To quote "We believe in the power of music to promote the cultural change needed to create a better future"  https://www.musicdeclares.net/gb/

🔗 https://www.youtube.com/@Drax-official-ldn

Fades IX

Drax

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