Nous Alpha – the collaboration between producers Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Grizzly Bear, Can, Erasure) and Christopher Bono (Bardo, Ghost Against Ghost, NOUS) -  present their second album “A Walk in the Woods”

Buy vinyl here: https://oursilentcanvasstore.org/products/nous-alpha-a-walk-in-the-woods

More info here: https://www.oursilentcanvas.org/nousalphawalkwoods

Nous Alpha - A Walk in the Woods

Top Norwegian dance music players create remixed versions of album tracks for Gabbarein Remixed. Including Niximusic’s Nils Olav, Alex Møklebust of Norway’s rock bands Seigmen & Zeromancer, influential techno producer Mental Overdrive aka Per Martinsen, electronic duo Trulz & Robin, and Norwegian producer Peter Greenwood aka dj Peter Pan. 

Gabbarein Remixed was curated by singer Cecilie Hafstad, who came up in Norway’s 90s underground music scene. Having managed and booked the notorious Oslo house club Skansen, Cecilie’s past and present meet on this release, where top Norwegian producers lend their chops to create versions of Gabbarein tracks for the dancefloors across Norway and beyond. On this EP, she got her good old DJ friends and her ex-husband Alex to collaborate and give their versions and expressions of Gabbarein's songs.  "It has always been a dream of mine to bring together my favorite DJs and producers to put their stamp on my music. I am incredibly grateful and super proud of this collab, it means so much to me to have this team from the old days with me on my journey with Gabbarein”

Gabbarein Remixed

Composer Christopher Bono’s major new ambient-orchestral album BARDO will be released on the Our Silent Canvas label on July 15, 2014. The 60-minute, full-album work is a surreal musical drama narrating the journey of “The Fool” (a character derived from the ancient Tarot system), which illustrates the character’s cycle from despair and darkness, through the afterlife, transcendence, and finally rebirth. The album will have digital distribution through Naxos, and will be available on CD and special edition vinyl through Our Silent Canvas (www.oursilentcanvas.org). 
BARDO (which is the Tibetan word for “transitional state” or “portal”) was produced by Christopher Bono; the orchestral sessions were co-produced with Grammy Award-winner Adam Abeshouse. The album was mixed by Bono in collaboration with Grammy Award-winning engineer Silas Brown and mastered by Scott Hull at Masterdisk. The phenomenal young conductor Teddy Abrams (currently assistant conductor to Leonard Slatkin with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra) led an orchestra comprising members of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic at legendary Dvorák Hall. Additional ambient instruments and guitars were recorded at The Great Togetherness Hall at Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s Blue Cliff Monestary, with percussion and vocals recorded at Bono’s Apollo 37 studio, both in upstate New York. 
BARDO was originally a site-specific work commissioned by Sympho Concerts and was premiered to a capacity crowd at the iconic Ann Hamilton Tower in Geyserville, CA in June 2012. Performers and audience members were immersed in the sonic experience by being positioned along the length of the entire structure on double-helix interior staircases. This vertical plane was taken into consideration for the compositional process and was later translated onto a horizontal level for the larger orchestral recording. The work has a vivid and exciting future as a modern dance multimedia production currently being scheduled in Florida and New York. 
Complementing the album will be a 20-30 minute documentary directed by Ilú Media and a series of inspired illustrations by Christopher Bono’s close collaborator, DZO Olivier. DZO Olivier has created six remarkably vibrant and detailed images narrating the core story of BARDO, which have been woven into a beautiful package for the CD and limited edition vinyl. 

The narrative of BARDO was inspired by four fields of reference: The Tarot System, The Tibetan Book Of The Dead, sound healing/esoteric sound theories, and sacred geometry. The first movement, “Bardo I: Enter the Mystic,” marks the genesis of the psycho-spiritual journey of the Tarot System’s Fool. It begins from a place of isolated desperation, and this initial darkness culminates in “Bardo II: The End of the Oligarchs” with the destruction of the archetypal Tower, representing the social and psychological constructs of man. 
The second half of the album chronicles the “in-between” experience as described in the ancient Tibetan Book of the Dead. In “Bardo III: Enter The Void” the music guides the Fool through a series of difficult psychological experiences leading to a liberated state, where a wondrous, spinning tunnel of visual and sonic phenomenon inspires ascension. From a place of infinite possibility, “Bardo IV: Clouds Blooming at the Thought of Union” moves the Fool through what the Tibetans call the Sidpa Bardo, or the Bardo of transmigration. In this final Bardo, the Fool arrives at the door to his next embodied life, where he fulfills the karmic destiny created by the loving embrace of his future parents. Each movement is preluded by ambient portals that act as passageways to the varying environments of each movement.



Christopher Bono-BARDO [ALBUM PREVIEW]

Gabbarein is Norwegian singer Cecilie Hafstad and American producer-composer Christopher Bono.

'Ra Rising Sun' is accompanied by a sensually-captivating music video produced and directed by Ragnarok Film in Trondheim, Norway. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5zELrQVAXM

The album is built on emotive improvised vocals framed by sensitive, sparse textures and arrangements and a variety of instrumentation including synths, mandolin, kalimba, guitars, flute, violin, mixed percussion, and local nature samples. Most of the tracks have a calming and transcendent aura, while some channel an ancient Scandinavian intensity through pounding rhythms and indigenous melodies.  As a whole, Gabbarein is a moving and powerful listening experience that transports audiences to the sublime Arctic setting of Norway’s Northern Territory, where the mystical appearance of a White Reindeer served as a spiritual guide during the recording process.

"Ra Rising Sun" sonically captures the awe-inducing landscapes and emotional depths realized during Gabbarein's one-of-a-kind Arctic Circle recording sessions. It is now available on all major streaming platforms, listen here: http://fanlink.to/rarisingsun

Gabbarein's self-titled, full-length debut is scheduled for release on May 3, 2024, via digital and limited 2LP, featuring full project notes, recording session photos and a vinyl etching.  Pre-order at www.oursilentcanvasstore.org

More info at: http://oursilentcanvas.org/gabbarein

©2024 Our Silent Canvas

Gabbarein

Ra Rising Sun

Pre Order 2LP

Christopher Bono-BARDO-04 "The Dawning Space Of Azure Light" [PREVIEW] (1:00)

Christopher Bono-BARDO-02 Rise Tower, Arise! [PREVIEW] (0:57)

Christopher Bono-BARDO-01 Bardo I: "Enter The Mystic" [PREVIEW](1:57)

Christopher Bono-BARDO-05 Bardo III:"Enter The Void" [PREVIEW] (2:34)

Christopher Bono-BARDO-03 Bardo II: "The End Of The Oligarchs" [PREVIEW] (2:20)

Composer Christopher Bono describes his choral works Unity and The Unexcelled Mantra as contemplating the search for a modern form of spirituality. He
says, “Both works explore a path to transcendence or ‘true being’ through union with the cosmos – The Unexcelled Mantra from
a Mahayana Buddhist point of view and Unity from the Western philosophical tradition of Plato.”
Unity is based on some of the musical and philosophical concepts of Plato's Republic. The chosen text was taken from a section
of the Republic in which Plato discusses the power of mathematics, but Bono immediately saw it could also be viewed as a
metaphor for the phenomenon of meditation: “What is absolute unity? / This is the way, / In which the study of One / has the
power / of drawing and converting the Mind / to the contemplation / of True Being.”
Bono says, “This multi-dimensional observation was a key inspiration for me when writing the work, both considering the
mathematical qualities of music and the esoteric concepts of achieving union with the All.” In addition, Bono experimented with
the power Plato claimed existed in the Dorian and Phrygian modes. According to Plato, the Dorian would “fittingly imitate the
utterances and accents of a brave man who is engaged in warfare,” while the Phrygian was suitable “for a man engaged in works
of peace.”

https://www.oursilentcanvas.org

©2014 Our Silent Canvas

Christopher Bono - Unity

ghostagainstghost.com

BACKSTORY

While in the midst of completing production on the upcoming Ghost Against Ghost concept album, Oia, Ghost Against Ghost front man Christopher Bono was unexpectedly struck by a close, personal tragedy in the spring of 2014 forcing him back into the writing studio to process this new trauma through music.

Over the following months, Christopher reflected on the confusion and internal conflict that results when the life we knew and accepted as true and stable is ripped apart by disturbing revelations of a shocking betrayal and a pandora’s box of dark, misaligned secrets.

How is it that we manage meaning, purpose and sanity when we’re blown back and forth between polarized but mutual, co-existent emotional states such as love and hate, right and wrong, innocence and guilt?

How is it that simultaneously, unconditional love could be met by ultimate and unspeakable betrayal, and undeterred selflessness by blatant selfishness?

Is there a space of resolution where our primal-animal instincts find peace with our ancient desire for moral resolution?

At what point does a broken psyche move beyond the threshold of possible reconciliation? Is it possible, or worthwhile, to transcend this point and forgive beyond all limits?

How does “love” meet betrayal, at what point does the clinging to the concept of “love’” constitute self-abuse?

Where does one turn when you realize the majority of your life’s story and memories were built upon layers upon layers of falsehoods, that the ones you trusted most turned against you long ago?

It was in this nightmarish, paradoxical web of unanswerable questions that the roots of the Still Love album drew life. To dig further into the heart of the experience, Christopher based the lyrical point of view from that of the female victim.

_______

The “still love EP” is the first EP in a series that will make up Ghost Against Ghost’s first large scale, hour long conceptual album. Though still firmly believing in the full, cohesive album experience, Ghost Against Ghost realized and understood that the large scale media is harder to comprehend and digest in the current digital era.

Therefore, this first album is being released in movement-like fragments, in order to encourage focus on the individual sound worlds and themes of each section of the full record. Then, when the final full length is released on vinyl along with the last few missingpieces, the whole vision will be processed.

This first EP from this series, “still love”, was conceived as one continuous, 17 minute work or movement. However, in order to present it to listeners accustomed to differing listening environments, the EP presents the full ‘movement’ as one continuous track as well as several partial tracks so specific points in the piece can be played on demand.

Ghost Against Ghost will release two more EPsfollowing “still love” over the next 4 months, leading up to the hour long epic full length featuring the final unreleased pieces as well as the previously released EPs on special edition vinyl, accompanied by a tour.

still love (instrumental)

still love, Pt. 3 (Radio Edit)

still love (Complete)

Ghost Against Ghost-Unarm EP
Release Date: January 22, 2016

Pre-Order on Artist Site:
http://ghostagainstghost.com

Ghost Against Ghost offer the second EP in their dark-romantic conceptual series with the thunderous opus, Unarm. 

The Unarm EP focuses on the transformation of dark/negative energy into a positive/life-giving energy by referencing and reflecting on the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Tonglen, in which the practitioner envisions taking on a thick black cloud of smoke consisting of the pain and suffering of a concentrated other, and exhaling a stream of golden light that saturates the body and mind of the recipient with peace, wisdom and resolution. 

The first track entitled, “Your Secret Ocean” is a dense web of swelling modular synths and otherworldly electronic noises over waves of electric bass that places the listener in a strange, unresolved landscape, navigating an inexplicable swim through a conflicted and confused human consciousness. 


The ambient, shoegaze world of the title track “Unarm”, showcases Bono’s complex and varied dream-like production. Bono’s operatic post-rock writing utilizes dense walls of guitars, ambient synths, and washed out vocals along with the diverse talents of two drummers. Jason Molina (Dead Heart Bloom, Longwave) provides the downtempo rock groove for the first half and Thomas Pridgen (Mars Volta, Trash Talk, Suicidal Tendencies) enters 6 minutes into the 8.5 minute track to lay down driving, colossal beats that carry through to the heavy climactic ending. 

With the Unarm EP, Ghost Against Ghost continues to showcase their unique combination of monolithic, dynamic post-rock, but here expanding further into melodic experimentalism along the lines of Peter Gabriel’s and Brian Eno’s early solo work, building to heavy climaxes reminiscent of Spiritualized and Muse. Unarm is the third release for Ghost Against Against and is slated for release January 22, 2016 via Our Silent Canvas.

__

written, arranged and produced by Christopher Bono
Mixed by Christopher Bono
Mastered by Greg Calbi
Recorded at Our Silent Canvas’ Apollo 37 Studios
--
Christopher Bono- Vocals, synths, bass, guitars, piano, programming, mixing, engineer
Thomas Pridgen- Drums
Jason Molina- Drums
Anthony Molina-Engineer
Jeremy Kinney- assistant engineer, editing
--
Lyrics

Come on, 
Unarm yourself.
And break through your frozen doors.

Come on, 
Unarm yourself,
and let your consciousness unfurl.

You’re running through,
A hell of halls,
Where every bliss hides a deep abyss.

Looking deep a lantern may come to shine.
The way out emits from the center of your mind.

Please unarm, we’re suffering.
The night has spoken.
The dark exists to liberate you.

And come on and transform,
Breathing in the black sins,
While breathing out the golden wind.

A symptom of sad, layered laws,
A heart closed, dull, dead.
Within your gaze the red revealed.

But in the black I still feel a halo,
Relax and let your Soul return.

And sail through the lonely,
And unarm to pass through the gate,
Now celebrate the Holy,
Surrender to this self-less state.
 

Calbi V2 MB 3 -5 Thres -.1 True Peak

Ghost Against Ghost- Unarm

Checkpoint Charlie, Pt. 1 "Contact"

Tsyphur Zalan - The Spectacle is the Theatre of the Sublime
©2016 Our Silent Canvas

Tsyphur Zalan,  the experimental/electronic side project of Ghost Against Ghost frontman and composer Christopher Bono, premieres a hypnotizing new single entitled "The Spectacle is the Theater of the Sublime” via Echoes and Dust.

It’s hard to pinpoint where Bono gets his influences from. One can definitely hear moments of various genres including Trap (electronic), Industrial, and Black Metal in "The Spectacle is the Theater of the Sublime”;However, for a prolific composer who is known for his orchestral music, choral music and arty-progressive post rock, it’s no surprise to hear him experimenting with new, fringe genres and writing. For anyone interested in hearing a young composer using new production techniques and to explore new sound worlds, both light and dark, “Spectacle” does not disappoint.

Check out Sink. the debut release from Tsyphur Zalan:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sink./id1050269182

Check out the film for "Dobryy Vechir" by Tobias Stretch (Radiohead, August Burns Red) that was debuted by Vice's The Creators Project:

http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/tsyphur-zalan-tobias-stretch-music-video

Written, Produced, Arranged and Performed by Christopher Bono


The Spectacle Is The Theatre Of The Sublime

Tsyphur Zalan- The Spectacle Is The Theatre Of The Sublime

SUPPORT THE ARTISTS BY PURCHASING THEIR MUSIC!

ARTIST SITE:
http://bit.ly/26PA8Jq
BANDCAMP:
https://oursilentcanvas.bandcamp.com/album/resume

©2016 Our Silent Canvas

Ghost Against Ghost is fronted by composer and producer Christopher Bono, with musical contributions by guitarist Anthony Molina (Mercury Rev) and drummer Thomas Pridgen (Mars Volta, Trash Talk) and various other musicians. 

Resume is the third release in Ghost Against Ghost’s dark-romantic still love conceptual series. This epic 9-minute track begins with vast, sci-fi fields of gothic Vangelis-like distorted synths, moves into a sequence of melodic, down-tempo shoe-gazer verses, and then pushes into a beautiful web of choral voices, weaving Baroque contrapuntal lines around a heavy bass and drum groove. The vocal area gently ends and the music drops into a massive, slow and heavy sound wall over a Black Sabbath inspired groove. From here we end in an uptempo, psycho-circus, disco-electronica section that strangely blends mid-70’s Pink Floyd disco grooves with beautifully wild, classical sounding lines to create a sort of vintage sonic futurism.

With Resume, Bono once again delivers a work that weaves the heavy sound walls of post-rock influences with contemporary classical and electronic influences that uniquely identifies the Ghost Against Ghost sound.

Lyrically, Bono continues the gender reversal  technique of the still love releases where the words are sung from a female perspective and examines the river of difficult emotions that surround a divorce. In Resume, rhetorical questions are continuously asked to the leaving lover about the boundaries of their love, and where perhaps, on a more cosmic level, it may begin again.

Lyrics:

Would you love me,
If we were reborn again?

Would you touch me
Even with future children.

Will you want me
When I decay?

Would you love me
If I was picture perfect?

Would you hold me,
close yet distant?

Will you haunt me?
Cause i am doomed,
To love you.

Would you trust me
If I denied my secrets?
Would you leave me?  
For a weakness?

Could this just be routine? 
And we are born again
Entangled in this dream,
as young americans?
We wake in tiny towns
in 1953,
two post war children bound
to sail a cyclic stream.

Will you love me? 
Cause I resume,
To love you.


©2016 Our Silent Canvas
(ozone 3)

Ghost Against Ghost - Resume

Buy it on Vinyl!
bit.ly/2GkDLQu

www.ghostagainstghost.com
www.oursilentcanvas.org
©2017 Our Silent Canvas

02 Still Love

01 Son Of Cessiphus

Buy it on Vinyl!
http://bit.ly/2Lni0FF

http://allnous.com
http://oursilentcanvas.org

"A half-airy, half-aggressive interdisciplinary happening organized by the young and enterprising composer Christopher Bono, who brought together a wise, postcategory, electric and acoustic 12-person crew."  -- New York Times

"You couldn't pigeonhole it into one genre if you tried -- it goes from eerie David Lynchian soundscapes to Eastern melodies to avant-garde jazz drum freakouts to a million other places, all while remaining strangely accessible." -- Brooklyn Vegan

Nous is an experimental music project with a fluctuating group of artists exploring ritual and spontaneity within music. The debut album features multi-instrumentalists Christopher Bono (keyboards/electronics/percussion/vocals), Greg Fox (drums/percussion/electronics), Thor Harris (drums/percussion), Shahzad Ismaily (electronics/guitar/bass) and Grey Mcmurray (guitar), with special guests.

Woodstock, NY label Our Silent Canvas is preparing to release the first of 3 albums culled from sessions the group recorded in an intensive 7-day immersion at legendary Dreamland Studios with 
producer Kevin McMahon (Swans, Titus Andronicus, Real Estate).

Each recording, and performance will center around a different focal concept, always seeking alternative ways of creating art. The name Nous was chosen for its double meaning. 'Nous' in the French language is the plural personal pronoun in the first person, meaning 'we' or 'us'. However, within the philosophical tradition it is a word, sometimes equated to intellect or intelligence, used to describe the faculty of the human mind which is described in classical philosophy as necessary for understanding what is true or real, similar in meaning to intuition.

In the eastern tradition, the sanskrit equivalent is Buddhi, which denotes an aspect of mind that is higher than the rational mind and that is attracted to Brahman (i.e., to "Truth" (sat) or "Reality"(dharma)). Discriminative in nature, Buddhi/Nous is that which is able to discern truth (satya) from
falsehood and thereby able to make wisdom possible. Inspired by this definition, the Nous project looks to build communal musical relationships that collectively work to find new ways of creating art
that bypasses the small, fearful, egotistical mind and encourages the connection of those involved to reach a higher level of consciousness, providing a creative field/space where intuitive, unexpected and unexplained results can occur.

Nous band members on this recording:
~ Christopher Bono (Composer, Ghost Against Ghost)  www.christopherbono.com
~ Greg Fox (Guardian Alien, Zs, Ben Frost, ex-Liturgy) 
~ Shahzad Ismaily (Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, Bonnie Prince Billy)
~ Thor Harris (Swans, Angels of Light, Amanda Palmer, Shearwater)
~ Grey Mcmurray (itsnotyouitsme, So Percussion, Tyondai Braxton) 

Special guests:
~ Clarice Jensen (Cello, ACME: American Contemporary Music Ensemble, yMusic, Ra Ra Riot
~ Caleb Burhans (Composer, itsnotyouitsme, ACME) 
~ Laura Lutzke (Violin, ACME)
~ Alex Sopp (Flutes, ACME, yMusic)
~ Imago (Cello, Vocals, Múm)
~ Laraaji & Arji (Zither, Ambient Sounds)
~ Akil Davis and Loud Sol Productions

©2018 Our Silent Canvas

09. Beneath

08. The Un-Led

06. Shumisah

03. This Winter Can Not Last

02. Kabay

www.oursilentcanvas.org
www.soundcloud.com/nousalpha
© 2020 Our Silent Canvas

Nous Alpha - Blackwater

www.oursilentcanvas.org
www.soundcloud.com/nousalpha
© 2021 Our Silent Canvas

Nous Alpha - Fox Hollow

THIRD SINGLE FROM FORTHCOMING ALBUM
"A Walk in the Woods"

Buy Black or Ltd Ed Green Splatter Vinyl here:
https://oursilentcanvasstore.org/collections/frontpage/products/nous-alpha-a-walk-in-the-woods

More info about the project here:
https://www.oursilentcanvas.org/nousalphawalkwoods

www.oursilentcanvas.org
www.soundcloud.com/nousalpha
© 2021 Our Silent Canvas

Nous Alpha - Golden Lemon

First single from "A Walk in the Woods", out May 7, 2021
https://www.oursilentcanvas.org/nousalphawalkwoods

Pre-order the ltd ed Green Splatter or standard Black vinyl here:
https://oursilentcanvasstore.org/products/nous-alpha-a-walk-in-the-woods

www.oursilentcanvas.org
© 2021 Our Silent Canvas

Nous Alpha - Fibonacci Failure

Nous Alpha - Important Moments

from CIRCLE OF CELEBRATION, the new album from NOUS with Laraaji and Arji OceAnanda,

More info at https://www.oursilentcanvas.org/nouslaraaji

Listen everywhere https://fanlink.to/nouscircle

©2021 Our Silent Canvas

NOUS, Laraaji & Arji OceAnanda "Giving Praise"

Circle of Celebration

Ascending

NOUS, Laraaji & Arji OceAnanda - Ascending

from the album CIRCLE OF CELEBRATION by NOUS, Laraaji and Arji OceAnanda

https://www.oursilentcanvas.org/nouslaraaji

©2021 Our Silent Canvas

Floating

NOUS, Laraaji and Arji OceAnanda - Floating

NOUS, Laraaji & Arji OceAnanda - Through The Veil

Hari Ram

NOUS, Laraaji and Arji OceAnanda - Hari Ram

Ceremonial

NOUS, Laraaji and Arji OceAnanda - Ceremonial

Non-Profit record label for experimental electronic, avant-pop, contemporary classical, post-rock, hypnotic, psychedelic, weird and other extreme and beautiful sounds.

Our Silent Canvas

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