Our Silent Canvas Records

This is Christopher Bono

CHRISTOPHER BONO-Invocations ©2012

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-06 Endless Doors To Endless Wombs  [PREVIEW] (0:51)

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

Bardo I: “Enter the Mystic” (11:09)
An open ominous drone appears upon the horizon, introducing a new surreal drama. Out of this nebulous tone a dark cluster emerges insinuating a frightful hue (1:15). We hear for the first time, the raining succession of two intervals of the sixth sounding in the violins and cellos, known in many ancient traditions as the

“Mystic Interval”(1:55).
A series of grounded, heavy, thick chords strikes us and we are led into Bardo I, an earthly portal of desire and attachment. (2:48) Beginning from a place of shame and confusion, the “Fool” commences his spiritual journey. He yearns to find an insight of peace through liberation from the powerful gravitational pull of his negative perceptions. The swirl of these serpentine, self-destructive emotional states fluctuate between gradual swells of inspired yearning, empowered by nostalgic memory and the inherent struggle to transcend the abyssal trap of
these destructive mental formations.
This yearning finally culminates in a breakthrough (7:43), as an intuitive aspect of his consciousness drives the Fool to directly face the churning storm of dark destiny emanating from his own mind. With a newfound but naive determination (8:01), his gaze turns directly within, as he crosses the threshold marking the source of his intensive suffering (8:57). In this deeper recess of awareness, the Fool is brought unto the scheming presence of the tyrannical Oligarchs. These mistakenly righteous beings have fabricated a system of supremacy for themselves far above the embrace of the earth and its natural way. Believing they are immune to nature’s order, they create illusory rules and constructs to feed their hungry egos, as a trumpet song shouts out their dominance upon the world below. (9:57)
Their proclamation settles, and a series of final harmonies stream down into a foreboding cloud. The Fool, now a necessary witness to a powerful sequence of ancient archetypal events set into motion long ago, is drawn directly into the heart of the inexplicable tunnel of darkness-- with no choice but to surrender.

CHRISTOPHER BONO-BARDO-Bardo I: "Enter The Mystic"

Bardo II: “The End Of The Oligarchs”
We are channeled into the second Bardo through a series of open intervals insinuating space and possibility. The neutral sounds of air and ether are eerily interrupted by the low dark energy of the “Mystical Chord” (as defined by Alexander Scriabin). This harmonic collection defines the tonal field of Bardo II. The Fool has encircled the Tower and now becomes a witness to the power of Divine Destruction as it begins to accelerate a war against the afflictions of the Oligarchs.
Death’s drive marks its way as we hear the “Song Of Separation”(1:29), proclaiming the false power of these selfish Earth rulers. They misuse the sounds of the Mystical Chord for their own advantage, yet paradoxically, the music becomes a theme to their own end. The Divine Destroyer’s mysterious energy aggregates into a large mass of destruction encircling the Tower. As this section concludes, the thick dark textures of the Mystical Chord are broken apart into a jagged and asymmetric rhythmic deconstruction of the tonal material. The Oligarchs cling to their bounties and struggle to secure their systems against unavoidable death, but the unknown energies of impermanence begin to break them down, striking them in incessant, yet unpredictable, patterns.

Abiogenesis (3:35)
The jagged sounds of struggle abruptly crash down as the battle comes to a halt. For a moment the Oligarchs seem extinguished. All that remains is a droning, dark pool of low tones; until slowly, something begins to percolate in the murky primordial ooze. Voices emerge chanting elemental seed mantras that coerce form from the remaining roots of negative mental formations. Slowly these seeds of suffering swell and swell, surging in and out of the liquid, atonal crescendos. Gathering strength, the dissonance increases as this black energy is resurrected.

Bardo II Pt. 2: “The Reckoning” (7:23)
The Destroyers’ energy abruptly awakens as the Egoistic Oligarch’s are attacked through the possession of the Tower itself. As the Oligarch’s maintain their hold on tyranny, more and more jagged, violent rhythms take a grave toll. Finally, The Divine Destroyer dispenses a furious pattern of broken stabs in combination with a singular violent harmony, all together hammering through the afflicted walls of the Oligarch’s and breaking their hold on the Collective Consciousness.
Silence, and then slowly, a mysterious musical wind comes through the scene (8:26) as the remnants of the Old Ways gradually begin to regather momentum one last time.
A slow crescendo apexes into a final recapitulation of the fatalist “Song Of Separation” (10:18). Shocking interruptions brought forth by the mysterious energy of the Divine Destroyer signal the collapse of the entire Tower and the destruction of everything around. 

CHRISTOPHER BONO-BARDO-Bardo II: "The End Of The Oligarchs"

Bardo III: “Enter The Void” (10:29)
A being emerges from the water element. It is the Fool passing from his earthly end into what the Tibetans call the Chönyid Bardo, or the intermediate state between lives. Accompanied by music derived from the geometric structures of the pentagram, he begins a spiraling journey through the hallucinations and obstacles inside this labyrinth
of karmic repercussions.
The pentagram music gives way to the droning, dorian motive of a solo guitar (0:49). This noble and forceful music is meant to guide the migrating soul-mind through the many challenges of the transitional state. As the Fool experiences visions of terrifying deities weighing his black deeds against his white deeds, these assured sounds urge him to fight back against weak inclinations, and avoid the fearful appearances of the psychological demons which torment and tempt him to find the easiest path of least resistance. After being reminded and encouraged to trust his own inner wisdom and not become fearful or attached to this psychedelic storm, the militant musical guidance comes to an abrupt close, and a moment of emotional stasis is reached (3:14).
A swelling bed of trilling strings interrupts the silence, heralding a shift of state.
We again hear the raining drops of the Mystic intervals (the sixths), the musical passport of the Bardos (4:24). The Fool enters a new dimension of hope, joy, and positive growth carried by the intentions of his past actions (5:51). Spinning away in rolling patterns of fluctuating movement, the musical energy carries the Fool on and on through spirals of rhythmic light to a place beyond the powerful dark dreams of the in-between.

“Kyrie Eleison” (7:57)
After a period of silence, an instrumental setting of the “Kyrie Eleison” (derived from the traditional Requiem Mass) expresses the wishes and prayers of those who remain on the physical plane. Placing their faith in the possibility of a communicative path between two worlds, Divine intervention is invoked to protect the lost loved one as he moves through the void that cannot be known by those bound to the earth.

CHRISTOPHER BONO-BARDO-Bardo III: "Enter The Void"

Ghost Against Ghost- "Checkpoint Charlie Part 1, "Contact"

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

CHRISTOPHER BONO-Invocations-Invocation No. 1 "Exhaust"

CHRISTOPHER BONO-Invocations-Invocation No. 3  "Sunday Stills The Willow"

CHRISTOPHER BONO-Invocations-Invocation No. 2  "Fish, Father, Phoenix"

CHRISTOPHER BONO-Invocations-"The Missing"  for String Quartet

CHRISTOPHER BONO-Invocations-Invocation No. 2 "Fish, Father, Phoenix" (Instrumental)

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