music

October 9, 2013

TranShamanism

We are all a part of everyone and everything because there is no spoon. . .

Each piece of music that I create is like sound poetry or frequency art, as I call it (as I can think of no other name that describes what I create). Just the layering of different genres and types and sounds and frequencies of music with one another to create a wholistic pattern that attempts to convey a greater meaning, like an abstract or conceptual or surrealistic painting, like a poem that follows no particular rule.

This piece, Cosmic Consciousness, is an attempt to illustrate the interconnectedness of all things, our “cosmic consciousness.” So, changes in genre, takes a 90 degree turn suddenly to show the sudden changes of life and phases of evolution of a lifetime and history of living. It also has frequency (toward the end), a binaural beat backed by an ambient piece that follows the recorded “sound” of planet earth. We are a system of multidimensional fractal patterns, as the universe, as existence, as consciousness.

I titled the post TranShamanism, because this kind of fractal pattern, this concept of interconnectedness is associated often with mysticism and shamanism.

Who are we without nature? Who are we without harmony? Who are we without synthesis and synergy with our environment?

We are a all a part of everything, we are all nature. . . and there is no spoon.

Features (music used with permission through CC license or public domain & fair use):
“sidereal desert” by /:set\AI transmedia off album emergent/green/theogenesis
“AquaDub” by Sonic Wallpaper
“Simple Soul in a Mechanical World” by aviz85
“QAD-2013-05-13_20_25_25-Stero” by Miquel Parera Jaques off album Quadrophonic Automatische Drohne
“Most High Dub” by Mikus off album Rain Down Dub
“Cosmos (universal mix)” by Psychadelik Pedestrian off album Nocturnia
“song of earth” NASA (public domain)
“interstellar” sound of voyager leaving the solar system NASA (public domain)
“Part of Everything” Jeremy Reed sample from the film Powder
“There is No Spoon” sample from the film Matrix

Image Art by Shawn Hocking

September 23, 2013

Psychotic Episode (I Have No Ego)

I have no ego. . . my psychotic episode.

The schizophrenic experiences a stunning barrage of continuous, horrifying symptoms: auditory hallucinations, delusions, ideas of reference, paranoia, etc. The “indescribable severe torture” is unrelenting and can go on except during sometimes restless sleep, at whichtime the symptoms are even active when one becomes conscious at all. This experience is so overwhelming it is beyond the imagination. It cannot be conceived of intellectually. By its very nature it in fact necessitates the concept of religion in order to relate to it at all. This continuous experience of psychotic symptoms can be viewed as “spiritual exercises in perfection”. The effect on the schizophrenic is similar to that of monks when practicing their rituals in monasteries. When these spirited exercises become a lifestyle for the schizophrenic (lasting 8-10 years) with no real evidence given to the schizophrenic that he will ever recover, a fascinating thing happens to the psyche of that schizophrenic—he loses the perspective of “ego”. Ego consists of all his identifying factors in the world: his age, sex, race, religious affiliation or lack thereof, education level, social class, political affiliations, nationality, etc. He begins to see his environment with the eyes of a newborn, without the bias or prejudices, preconditions of his particular circumstances. It can be seen as a sort of continuous baptism by fire, a kind of purification, enabling him to see reality for what it is in actuality, rather than being viewed through the preconceptions of his individual mental, emotional, and behavioural repertoire instilled in him from birth. The schizophrenic in this condition is able in his interior to walk around in someone else’s moccasins with perfection. This can be seen as loving your neighbour as you love yourself, perfectly. I do not believe it is a condition that can be acquired by a “normal” individual by any method, because the horror of the symptoms of schizophrenia are unduplicable by man. (Religious persons would call this condition repentance for all one’s sins, e.g. “perfect repentance”.) ~Source

Recommended readings on the absence of ego in the SchizoAffective (schizophrenic) mind:

Features:
“What You Want”, “Bent and Broken” and “The Complex” by Kevin MacLeod, Incompetech.com
“Tech-No-Logic” by In[Perfektion] off album Perfekt Chaos, freemusicarchive.org/music/InPerfektion/
“In Suspense” by Psychadelik Pedestrian off album Nocturnia, freemusicarchive.org/music/Psychadelik_Pedestrian/
“Eerie Horror Scene”, “Strange Days”, “Hell”, “Spooky Water Drops” and “Pterodactyl Scream” sound FX recorded by Mike Koenig, SoundBible.com

*Image Credit (used with permission through CC license):
“walking on the razor’s edge in the underground train world : manhattan (2007)” by torbakhopper

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September 18, 2013 Video

Continual crisis, endless solutions…

EXPLORINGtheLATERAL

“A Life Of Illusion”

Sometimes I can’t help the feeling that I’m
Living a life of illusion
And oh, why can’t we let it be
And see through the hole in this wall of confusion
I just can’t help the feeling I’m
Living a life of illusion

Pow! Right between the eyes
Oh, how nature loves her little surprises
Wow! It all seems so logical now
It’s just one of her better disguises
And it comes with no warning
Nature loves her little surprises
Continual crisis

Hey, don’t you know it’s a waste of your day
Caught up in endless solutions
That have no meaning, just another hunch
Based upon jumping conclusions
Caught up in endless solutions
Backed up against a wall of confusion
Living a life of illusion

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September 17, 2013 Video

Big Road Blues (A Look At Humanity’s Alienation through Industrialization)

With the advent of the automobile, civilization changed greatly and at great speed. Henry Ford, the first to use the assembly line technique to build his Model T cars, also created (unbeknownst to him at the time) the precursor to scientific management and the alienation of Man from his humanity. When skill and mastery were removed from work and delineated along an assembly to many people (who need not have the skill) performing the same task repetitively over many days, months, years, Man became divorced from his own sense of accomplishment, efficacy, and benefit from the fruits of his own labor. His being was reduced to numbers and algorithms, he became quantified and thus his trajectory towards a life of drudgery and misery. Rather than the life of leisure at first thought promised to civilized Man, his life became one of automation and robotification. Empty and emotionless.

This music video is an attempt to illustrate that story.

Credits (all clips are public domain or used with permission through CC license)–
Music:
“Big Road Blues” by Tommy Johnson from Internet Archive
Clips:
“American Road 2” from Prelinger Archives
“Wheels of Progress (circa 1927)” produced by U.S. Bureau of Public Roads, Department of Agriculture, Educational Film Service from Prelinger Archives
“Black Girl” by livedtap
Stock Footage filmed by NIKOtheOrb
Edited by NIKOtheOrb

Other music videos.

 

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September 12, 2013

Falling Into Flight

The music spreads its tenement over a city of spirits & coffee flats.

A voice chases the tail of a broken wind,

sipping sentiments from the minds of a people

aching to be free from the claustrophobic raiments of society.

 

A man w/his strolling guitar forsakes the city

in the lilac wake of a flute dream reaching timidly

for the hand of any god wearing a jaded dress,

spilling forth lace & perfect notes nearly weeping

in the midst of angels falling into flight.

 

Everywhere, the dawn lies september failures down in the tired streets.

A flower breaks its petals into bloom,

then laughs loud enough to whisper over the edge

of someone else’s beautiful scream scattered

across a concrete floor into insanity.

 

The door to the basement café closes,

leaving the bones to hallow w/in, where no one is dying,

but a funeral song just finishes its last verse.

No body hears the final note touch briefly on silence,

then dissipate into obscure obelisks.

 

On Thursdays, Friday turns to green to hide its child-echo indigo eyes

& week’s end follows a subtle rinse of sunshine around the corner.

Monday comes anyway w/too many melodies

playing in the private garden of a backyard cemetery.

 

The morning rolls carefully to the end of the line

& waits for the moon to glow

so it can let go & disperse itself into music,

sleeping in a bed of fluidic ambiguity.

September 7, 2013

A Nomad’s Lucidity

A man in a cave or in a camp, a nomad, will die with no more estate than the wolf or the horse leaves. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The road to understanding nomads’ lives, how they are affected by economic development, and their views of conservation, runs through many a tent. Lined by countless cups of tea and stories shared, by challenges and treks on horseback, and by unfamiliar notions it is a road that is unfrequented and untravelled upon. I will wear down the soles of my shoes on that road, I will get tired on that road, but I will find something along it that I cannot find elsewhere.” ~Nomad’s Land

Features:
“The Wheel” by GeeNerve off album Suspense Dance Delights
“Demented Dustin” by Monk Turner off album Instrumental Friends Part 3
“Raindrops” & “Cyberstalker” by Psychadelik Pedestrian off album Nocturnia
“Dub Feral” by Kevin MacLeod
Free samples from ACIDplanet

*Image credit:
“barabaig portrait” by Emilia Tjernstrom

My soundcloud

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September 3, 2013

InterDimensional Artifacts

Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole. ~William S. Burroughs

An impromptu, just for fun, improvisational experimental piece made using ACID Xpress 7.

“Rocket” & “Artifact” by Kevin MacLeod Incompetech.com
“Deep Bass Velocity Slapper” from BeatsRoyaltyFree
Free samples from ACIDplanet

More music on my SoundCloud.

Music Video COMING SOON!

August 24, 2013

Medicinal

“Medication Time! Medication Time!”

Fig. 1My music is a kind of poetical literature in instrumental form. In each piece, I attempt to tell a story.

This experimental, ambient piece tells the story of before, during, and after taking medication. In the past (a long ago past), I was highly against taking any kind of medication as part of treatment, as I considered medication a form of mind-control and I did not want anyone mucking about with my mind, despite the fact that, at that time, my mind was quite unfriendly towards me and regarded as monstrous. I explain this, to further illuminate the influence behind this particular piece and why I created it.

The beginning of the music portrays what triggers the (almost daily) psychotic episode (the affected part of SchizoAffective Disorder) and a depiction of the resulting mood and state of mind/consciousness (which is why the music grows from dark to a kind of chasing feel, as if the mind were chased by the impending psychosis). The middle of the piece/story portrays taking the medications (I no longer hold the same beliefs I did when I was younger about medication, I can now see its use and I now comprehend much more about the beneficial chemical effects it can have on the brain, which has an effect on the body and state of mind) and how differently the mind is affected and the semblance of peace it brings afterward (which sort of explains the lyrics in the middle, “Little did I know. . .”). But the medication lasts only a while and is not impervious to further triggers (shown in the immediacy of the return to the psychosis). The end portrays the return to the psychosis. . . and time again for medication. Basically, this piece illustrates the endless daily loop of life for a mind schizo affected (the reason behind the ending looping back to the beginning, although not exactly, because not every episode is the same).

This is the second track off the new album I am currently working on titled, From The Mind Of A Schizo, Affected. First track, Melvin, is here.

Features: (all samples are used with permission through CC license or public domain)
“Ghostpocalypse – 7 Master” & “Digital Bark” by Kevin MacLeod, Incompetech.com
“Awair — Forever Yours” & “Spooky Hallowe’en Sound 02 FX” from BeatsRoyaltyFree
“Traffic” & “War” sound effects from SoundBible
Free samples from ACIDplanet

Untitled*Image Credits (all artwork used with permission through CC license)–
“biTteRNeSS bEfoRE bREakFASt” by Sippanont Samchai
“Fig.1” by Vacon Sartirani
“Untitled” by Andres Yeah

August 9, 2013 Video

Melvin (music video)

Melvin has ShizoAffective Disorder. Melvin has no socially constructed ego.

This is Melvin’s daily lifestory. Melvin is fine one moment, and in complete madness the next, then after too much of society’s false conventions, platitudes, consumerisms, materialisms, pseudo-complexities, bureaucracies, frivolous and superfluous laws, governments,  neuromarketed ego need for shopping and other illusions and imaginary things, for too long, Melvin becomes shell shocked and unable to function. . . like a thousand yard stare.

This experiemental, ambient piece depicts the ups and downs, the good days and bad days, the moments when Melvin is “okay” and those moments when Melvin is going through hell. It’s syncopation follows the daily “schizo” moments wherein madness seems to overwhelm the entirety of Melvin’s consciousness and awareness and also those moments of beauty and tranquility wherein the whole of being becomes filled with peace of mind. This Melvin’s dis-ease, this Melvin’s life. Hit PLAY.

Melvin is a term of endearment given to me by my Stephen. So, this one is personal.

More of my music videos.

Credits–
[Clips used from the following footage. Some used with permission of CC license and others available in the public domain]:
“Sand City” by Don Whitaker
“sometimes i want to be a monk” from Daniel J Alex
“War Neuroses — Netley Hospital, 1917” by Wellcome Film
“chicago beach” from doctorfaustroll
“American Look (Part I) 1958” produced by Handy (Jam) Organization
“The Samaritans – Scream” from HallofAdvertising
“Platinum Fashion Mall, Petchburi Road, Bangkok” from Guido Vanhaleweyk

Image Credit (available through public record from the National Archives):
“Thousand Yard Stare” from The National Archives

Music:
“Melvin” by NIKOtheOrb, available for download and Track 1 off future album, From The Mind Of A Schizo, Affected (COMING OUT SOON!).

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