Recent drifts in reading and listening brought me to a new tuning of the guitar based vaguely on the Raag Madhuwanti. This resulted in an 11 track album. These are not derivations so much as deviations or wanderings and I was reminded by some brain active inside my brain about the Situationalist concept of the dérive (French: [de.ʁiv], "drift") is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, in which participants stop focusing on their everyday relations to their social environment. Developed by members of the Letterist International, it was first publicly theorized in Guy Debord's "Theory of the Dérive" (1956). Debord defines the dérive as "a mode of experimental behaviour linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. That's what most of music is, I think, if "urban" can also be stretched to mean ecological community.

Madhuwanti Dérive #3

This excerpt featuring the dawn singing of a Golden Whistler is from the last few minutes of the longer recording https://soundcloud.com/hearingbeings/2025-09-13-ngarkat-dawn-early-spring.

The recording was made with a mid-side rig utilising an omnidirectional mid microphone.

Recorded respectfully on the land of the Ngargad (Ngarket) people.
___________________
Track photo credit: Australian Golden Whistler (Pachycephala pectoralis ssp. fuliginosa), https://www.inaturalist.org/people/anthonypaul.

2025.09.13 Golden Whistler. Ngarkat Dawn. Early Spring.

In Sanskrit, ‘Prakanda’ is the trunk of a tree, from its root to its branches. Additionally, it can mean ‘excellent’, ‘prominent’, ‘superior’ and ‘transcendent’.

I explored ideas about trees by listening to various artists’ recordings using contact microphones inside the trees. I also spent hours walking in ancient woodlands, listening and observing them. But I couldn’t find what I wanted until, by accident, I discovered the most beautiful images of tree-rings. They reminded me of the surface of a desert, the ocean, the patterns of water; the references might be endless. 

Each tree-ring has its own structure, form and appearance and they became my main source of inspiration. In the music I have mapped these images into many sonic patterns, the music’s structure based on independent melodic lines, each with its own time, pitch, timbre and articulation.

Video artist - Lukas Miceika 

The work was commissioned by the Lithuanian Association LATGA, by Music Authors Fund in 2025.

The piece was premiered by ensemble Kwartludium (Poland): Dagna Sadkowska (violin), Piotr Nowicki (piano), Michal Gorczynski (bass clarinet), and Pawel Nowicki (percussion) at International Contemporary Music festival Gaida, on 26th October, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2025.

Prakanda

Marco Lucchi : piano and electric tanpura

aeolian meditation

Eryk Nowacki; sitar; Jeff Gburek: acoustic guitar. After two years of being unable to meet, we are back at the crossroads. Photo of sculpture by Albert Gyorgy

Buy via Bandcamp!

Novembryonic Journey 151 mix, 2025

Final hour of Kuckuck for Mutant with Felde!

Kuckuck for Mutant w. Felde [11.11.25]

A deep dive into the hypnotic, fuzzy distortions of Bantu sonic cosmology, including Luba drums (mukupele) & xylophones (madimba) and Bazombo electrified likembé (thumb piano) music.

The Luba and other ethnic groups in the region play drums and xylophones made of tuned wooden bars supported on a frame, with calabash gourds attached underneath as resonators. The mirlitons (buzzing membranes) inside the gourds add a characteristic nasal buzz to the sound. The mirliton is created by drilling a small hole in the side of each calabash and inserting a short hollow tube or rod. Inside this tube, a thin, translucent film, harvested from the egg sac (or "nest") of the ntanda nkumbidi spider, is affixed. This spider silk membrane vibrates when the bars are struck, producing the buzzing effect. The electrified likembé is a modern variation of the same aesthetic. Buzzing timbres are used to enhance and accentuate the rhythms, create "ghost melodies" and disguise or distort sounds to embody otherworldly presences during rituals, masquerades, or funerals.


THE BUZZ IN BANTU SONIC COSMOLOGY

A.J. KAUFMANN - "Sun Rising, Dawn Tripping" (2013).

Muntii Rodnei & Shout Out

Guitar, voices, swarmandal, synth by Jeff Gburek Lyrics by Jeff Gburek too.
Come up from the gutter
Cheer your sisters and brothers
Try to feel some other
Vibe of better weather
Ain't it a shame
We've got to pray
To take all this pain away
Come up from the gutter
Don't wallow in the mire
Just hear the sacred choir
In the sky
Find the song of earth
Feel the seed of earth
Find the sacred earth
Inside



Wistful Dayglow

listeners will find here the most recent edge of my research as well as album samples and one-offs from the last 10 years of my solo work, from official, upcoming releases, unreleased oddities, works in-progress, & experiments, all music by jeff gburek and collaborators, as noted. support directly via paypal: jeff.gburek@gmail.com or buy albums via https://jeffgburekprojects.bandcamp.com/

Muntii Rodnei & Shout Out

Jeff Gburek

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