[] ^^ {=} **
(1.) Clipped Earth - 00.00 (2.) Rippling Water - 05.12
(3.) Entangled Air - 13.10 (4.) Flickering Fire - 19.10
CuBisT GraMmaR: Ambient Folk 1
Symphony for Acoustic Guitar, Electronics & Tape fX
I). Clipped Earth - 00.00
II). Rippling Water - 05.12
III). Entangled Air - 13.10
IV). Flickering Fire - 19.10
Total Running Time: 23.30
CUBIST GRAMMAR – Notes on Origin
This composition began its recorded life on July 7th 2007. The short, single line guitar theme, stated in full at the beginning of the piece and extended by way of a sustained harmonic into the main body of the music, was only intended as connective tissue in a collection of songs. However, it seemed to call out for more attention.
Later that night I have a dream. I am flying over an alien city on a distant planet. The buildings, towers & spires are luminescent, transparent & shimmering structures; rising up from a circuit board grid of exquisitely subtle details. Neon hues of gold, maroon & green, in vivid pulsations, glow under star-sparkling skies; overlaid by a rolling mathematical lattice of shifting, laser line patterns.
The next morning, inside my Sebastopol cottage on the hill, overlooking Santa Rosa Mountains; I set up microphones, interface & computer. Working astral muse into musical logic, I attempt to capture the still flowing memories of rhythm & melody that sound-tracked the previous night’s dream. After recording five interlocking lines of that inspired recollection, I play back the 'Garage Band' captured result on the stereo with a knowing smile.
Scene 2 - it is now October- at the Cosmic Circuit Studios in Berkley. An intended program of song material is abandoned mid-session. In order to salvage the studio time, I pull the five lines from memory and lay them down track-by-track. The original recorded block is about 6 minutes long.
Fast-forward to September 2011- a raw edit into a two minute/twelve second composition (including the original guitar recording) is included inside a blog (cubistgrammar.blogspot.com) promoting a new technology which enables images to be embedded with hyperlinks. These images allow multiple windows (simultaneously… at that time) to be opened inside a single picture-as-context, which could be easily transmitted. My focus is on the possibility of extending the gains of modernism.
The blog is used as vehicle for rhapsody, celebrating a new mode of historical compression, where the user acts as an image DJ. It also forecasts the power of memes, to generate creative/critical awareness, within the constant news cycle patterning our perceptions. A political message, designed with the future in mind; & one which can still evade the algorithms of censorship in place today.
Icing on the cake of this Marshal McLuhan moment - the 4th & final entry of the blog – is where the “Cubist Grammar 1.0” piece is embedded inside a Picasso picture – Guitar on a Table. Inside the picture of this painting, is also a link to a black & white film of Cymatics in action; where sand grains, randomly poured upon a vibrating plate & amplified through different pitches by an audio speaker, slowly Mandala-Morph, blossoming into complex archetypal geometries; shifting shape as a sine-wave tone is modulated up through the frequency spectrum in a sonic, coupled circuit of energy-metal-vibration-sand-pattern > In-Formation. This video, played together with the Cubist Grammar piece (both 2 minutes long) provided the perfect bend-blend of sound and vision, showcasing the potential of medium becoming message.
Scene 4 – 2017, post a return to Chicago, after 8 years out West. Inside `MasterWork Mill` my home studio, the 2.12 minute composition is cut-up, layered & arranged into the cubist collage we have today. The piece fulfills its destiny, distilling the lessons of high modernism; utilizing 20th Century techniques, invented to explore the 4th Dimension. The piece becomes a dream realized, containing the image of a dream remembered.
Where Cubism reconfigures the frame of Space, “Cubist Grammar” analytically scales the recursive pulse of melodic slices in a synthesis of interleaved Time. Instead of one scene viewed from multiple angles, we have the original 2.12 minutes, heard from within a fractal singularity of 23.30 minutes. Harmony in the original arrangement is Doppler-phase-shifted; extended into interlocking wave trains, enfolded & explicated in bifurcating currents.
Duration becomes temporal lens, magnifying the figure-ground shifting Moiré patterns; mapping the emergence of a Strange Attractor. The winged wave packets, beat pulsating chords through undulating cycles of overlapping rhythms, shuddering measures through the phase tide frames; amplifying butterfly motions into new movements. Interpolating meters generate self-similar structures, as thematic topologies are mixed through entangled iterations of a dynamical system, wherein a single snapshot contains the film reel.
“Cubist Grammar” is the first Ambient Folk work to be released. Other college pieces like “The ElectricK Wilderness 0f Illuminated Man-U-Scripts” contains my oldest recordings, followed by a guitar recording in “Star Water Radio Frequency Quartet”… but, “Cubist Grammar” is the 1st multi-track, long form, recorded work; and by fully exploring the potential of the signature guitar technique, it lays the foundation for the whole Ambient Folk project; establishing the primary aesthetic as metaphor; echo-resolving the Resonant Interval in <A> KnoW-Us-Sphere
{[( Where )]} the Ever-Present is X-Rayed -
Revealing the Hologram <0f> History through intensities of Integral Consciousness.
||
Integral Consciousness renders the Hologram <0f> History transparent in a diaphanous ApPerCeption <0f> {[( Compressed Time >< SuPerPosed Space )]} - the PoWer of TiMe shines through the entangled flux of phenomenon, as temporal intensities become punctuated instants in a holo-flowing sphere of radiant energy.
Integral Intensity is the result of a mutation in consciousness. This mutation of awareness is the actualization of innate potential inherent in Arche; or the Ever Present Origin. Integral Consciousness as an emergent power is catalyzed by the human <> technological coupling of man & environment, having gone asymptotic in its cause-effect >< effect-cause FeedBack L00p.
The now deficient Mental structure, gives way to the chaotic attractor of {[( OmegA PoinT )]} manifesting a new ecology of mind through our instantaneously enchanted S0niC PLaNeT, driven by the technologically enveloped, globally wired, atmospherically charged context of the World Wide Web.
The Mental consciousness modes of Visual, Liner, Sequential, Point [0f] VieW
[[ Frame 0f Reference ]] are transformed <int0> an Acoustic (( 360° )) Compounded, Simultaneous, Spherical, ApPerspectival apprehension of eXperience. In his exposition on electronic media, Marshall McLuhan, referrers to the act of seeing a situation from all sides, above & below as cubist vision in acoustic space, where everything arrives to us from everywhere all at once.
Integral Consciousness in the MassAge of EveryMan, is correlated with the rise of the Noosphere. Realization of the Noosphere as modulated by a higher order, Monad Pointed,
(( OrB )) {[( OmegA )]} <is> <the> Ultra ThoUghT <0f> <theE> SuPerMinD
– a mode of Integral Insight.
The Pulse-Strum-Phase Guitar
Technique <0f> Ambient Folk <iS> Metaphoric performance <0f>
INTeGraL InSighT = Phase Tide Framing <0f> <the> Know-US-SpHerE
<thr0U> full SpectrUm ApPercepti0N <0f> <the> `auditory imagination´;
ReCoGniZing <the> CuBisT GraMmaR <0f> oUr Global Village:
Who = EveryMan;
What = Noosphere;
When = Compressed Time;
Where = SuperPosed Space;
Why = Industrial, Electronic, Communication, Atomic, Genetic, Space, Information [ Age ] MatriX;
How = Effects as Cause.
The Noosphere, as a consolidation of all Previous Mediums <&> Infrastructure-
(( Lines > Cables > Towers > Dishes > Transmitters > Relays > Satellites > Stations > Servers )); becomes the Whirling Magnetic Womb of the World, wherein all human culture is etherized into a digitally suspend Museum of Works & Days; echo-ringing into endless Reflecti0Ns through Psi-Fi channels of <the> OverSouL; generating an electrified artifact of living information– <the> HoloGraM <0f> HisTorY >))>> gathering EveryMaN @ EveryWheN into a ''KnotShall'' <0f> MosAiC Moment(UM).
This ''KnotShall'' <0f>
MosAiC Moment(UM) <iS>
<theE> SinG-U-LaritY <0f> 0Ur
No0SPherE <*> RealiZeD <aS>
HoLograM <0f> HisToRY
<iN> <a> SpHerE <0f>
INteGraL InSighT;
TUneD <bY>
{[( OMeGA PoinTeD )]}
Orchestrations <0f> Situation <&> Significance
Conducting >))>> OrigiN InVisiBLe
>=< SyNKrO-SiM-UL-CasT
>))>> PreF0rMing InDiVsiBLE {[( N0W )]}.
This involves <a> Tacit Grasp <0f>
Events <&> Meanings
<aS> Coincident ConJunGction,
Coherent Correspondence
<&> SynKroNos SynCopati0n <w/iN>
<theE> Narrative DaeM0nSioN
= >))>> ReFleXAe0N <0f> One´s
{{ (( CaUsaL <°> AtoMiC <*> HeArT )) }}
<=> InTerDePendentLy OriGinatinG,
TranScenDenTaL <])~ [>*<] ~([> WaVe FunCti0N
>=< ConCresent MoMenT(UM) >))>>
ReVerberant )^( K0SmiC StrUct-U-r-RinginG
<iN/aS/Thr0U> SeLF;
Correlating <theE> <aS/iN/thr0U> <the>
{[( LOGOS )]} <0f> ReALiTY ¨ItSelf¨ <aS>
Intrinsic-Ineffable ContinuUM <0f>
Self/World/Subject/Object ><
Matter/Energy/Light/Consciousness
<=> InsTanT <*> {[( WhErE )]}
We aRe CalleD <t0> ReSpond <t0>
The WoRD <0f> LIVING GOD.
This Grace mediated Process <iS>
<A> JourneY <iNt0> Integral Individuation.
Integral Individuation involves Self-Understanding <&> Self-Transcendence
<0f> the Karmic Reverberating, OverSouL Conditioned, KoSMiC MAtriX
(( WhereiN )) <theE> Narrative DaiM0nSi0N
Co-Creatively emerges
<throU> Self <&> World.
The Narrative DaiM0nSi0N <aS> SouL emBodied Nature <0f>
OuR {{ (( CaUsaL <°> AtoMiC <*> HeArT )) }}
<=> BeinG >*< ReFeXi0Ns
<0f> 0UR Character Mirrored <thr0U> >)the)>>
Fire WaVinG >*< SinG-U-LaritY;
The Karma enfolded ''KnotShall'' ShiMmeRinGinG <w/iN> the
(( HoloGraM <0f> HiStorY )) Phase Tide FrameD <iN> <A>
Radiating, Diaphanous SphErE <0f> Integral Insight;
<aS> ArcHE Shines <w/iN> {[( LOGOS )]}
Transfiguring <theE> Mobius Strip <0f> Eg0 <&> Empire.
Thus, Cubist Grammar as a Notion, is the aesthetic texture of Inegral Consciousness, tuned into the `auditory imagination` wherein Integral Insight tacitly grasps <the> {{ FracTaL Z00M }} SpiRaL nature of our entangled moments on Sonic Planet, as we are transformed into global citizens & Ambient Folks.
Ambient Folks can Feel the PuLsE <0f> the Global Village. As Events beComE PatternS, EnChantinG Whole SocietieS <iN> their eXtended effecTs, we are beginning to Learn the Language of Ech0; <a> Multi-DaeM0nSionaL, CuBisT GraMmaR <0f> Coincidental ConStellations;
Re-CorDinG <theE> SimultaneoUs 0rder <0f> oUr iNternaliZed (><) World KarmA.
This InterDependentLy
Originating PlaY <0f> Reverberating Event-Systems InVolve Us <iN> <the> SynKr0nOs RhythmS <0f>
(( ElecTricK GrounD >< Ac0ustic SpaCe )); </-\> SuPer-TerResTriaL SinG-U-LaritY
{[(>((O))<)]}
OsCiLLaTinG <thr0U> <the> PiXoGLYpHiC [#] TeXtUReS <0f> <a> Moment's Realizati0N.
Our [[ FraMe 0f ReFerence ]] <iS> AtomiZed <bY> <the> ImPact I-Media-SeA <0f>
>))>> Eve-We-HeaR @ EveryWheN >))>> ImpLoded <iNt0> <a> DiSsipative StructURe <0f> Charged EleMentS. This VibratorY GestaLT <iS> <a> Scatter-MatriX <=> Collective ImPresSi0ns, TranSmitting
<0N-0FF> Tele-Path-WaYs <0f>
{([ CoMprEssed TimE >< SuperPosed SpacE ])}.
Sonic Planet Earth <aS> reCombinant LoGh0st <0f> Cultures, Genres <&> HiStOrY
<iS> RemiXed inside <the> MinD <0f> N0W: =>))>>
SpeCtRaL-ReCurSiVe, H0LO-ReTiCuLaTinG <<~~ TaPe-Us-TreeS~~>>
MaGneTiZeD <w/iN> ShuddeRinGinG ><()[]()[]>< WaveLengths <&> CoLoReD BandWidthS,
IntertWined <thr0U> <the> Fields <&> ForCeS <0f> PsychE.
Our Hearts <aRe> Mirr0reD <&> TransFigured <thr0U> <these> Fire WaVeS
<0f> InterModulating OverToNeS <aS> <theE> HuMaN NerVoUs-SysteM <iS> EnTrained
<&> Conditioned <throU> Cybernetic, FeedbacK Circ-U-itS <0f> Fractal eMerGence
{[( EaR-Ringing >< Mind's Eye )]}.
EVerYMaN <iS> Milled, Cross-Stitched <&> ChurneD
<thr0U> <the> Dialectical ArchE-TeXt-U-ArE <0f> oUr
Global Nex-US; <&> thus <a> Naive, 21st CenturY Folk Musician,
Naturally generates Music that ReflectS <the> Internal State-Shape <0f> <thiS>
{[( PaN-PsYchiC <() ReSonanT ()> InForMati0N-EcoLogY )]}.
Processing this State-Shape involves interpreting the phase space between Local & Global, Self & World <as> Event; now miniaturized in a flash of visionary distillation & understood through a primal projection of our {{ CaUsaL AtoMiC <*> HeArT )]}; the Narrative DaeM0nSioN, Radiantly displaying essence of Being, through the PreSenCe of a Self recursive archetype- governing our journey <iNt0> Integral Individuation.
The composition ¨Cubist Grammar¨ performs a body-mind computation of the Internal State Shape of the Noosphere. As such, it is the ideal representation of Ambient Folk music, which can be understood as a Global Noetic music- positioned somewhere between 4th World music & American Primitive.
In <the> Ambient Folk aesthetiC:
Modern Picking Styles bec0me Sonic Figures,
Pulsating <iNt0> Aboriginal RhythMs.
Back Beat gr0oVeS []+[]+[]
Chr0moSome ZiPpeR ->>
Slip-Shutter-Chords CYcLe <thr0U>
0rBiTs <iN> PsY-Fi SpiRaLs.
Popular Song themes
<are> Spliced <w/> Classical Technique
<&> 'Cut-Up' <iNt0> Cinematic TableauX.
Blues Riffs are Filtered <thr0U>
Electronic Atmospheres <0f>
Random Access Memory.
India's Modal Harmonies, 0rnamented <bY>
Arabic ScaleS, aRe Doppler-Phased ))
>>~~<iNt0> Roots Driven Syncopation../../...
Sparkling - StrinGs - StruMmeD /~////~/
Sounds – SpLashing -> Shakers <0f> BeadS;
Plucked Notes, Glistening <iN> Sun Columns
~/~/ Between SLices <0f> ShadoWs
– Jade Leaves;
Rippling Facets <0f> RainboW °}{°
Thread ChaKraS >°< Braiding ~>
African StreaMs ~~
EntangLeD =}={= EarTH <> TranS-Missi0nS ~~
FloW <thr0U> Baroque,
Embroidered Chambers ->>
~[]*[]*[]~ Bouncing >><< Constellated ReLaYs
<0f> MassAgE ~~^~~
MinD MaPpinG >#< Layered SeamS.
|||
¨CuBisT GraMmaR¨ incorporates the aural & sonic colorings <0f> Wire > Tube > Transistor > Circuit > MiCr0ChiP = recorded artifacts. Integral Insight reCognizes that these engraved strata of time imprints are at play between the Memory of History & the History of Memory <w/iN> the hologram- mediated, indexed by & characterized through technological limitations encoded in the Mechanical, Analog & Digitized methods of storing & transmitting cultural information.
[ OraL ° OuTerRinGinG ° SCripT ° EmBrOiDeReD ° ALpHABeT ° CoNDenSeD ° PriNT ° StAcKeD ° ELECtroniC ° BiT-GaTeD ] artifacts
Correspond to { ArcHaiC ° MaGiC ° MytHiC ° MenTaL } structures of consciousness.
As supporting elements in the structure of the ¨CuBisT GraMmaR¨ composition these technological hues of past recorded artifacts become setting & backdrop, which come to the fore as Figure~Ground Flips. Symbolically charged strata within the historically conditioned psyche, excavated & rendered transparent; aural imprinted, temporal fabrics; dissipative signatures, resonating through vanishing veils.
From early insights of the Futurists, electronic music & musique concréte pioneers, Ambient Folk inherits the art of ´attuned noises´ - weaving mechanical motions into musical content; & transforming sound sources through a spectral exploration of their root frequency- modulating that frequency into novel tonal territory. The magnetic phase-space of tape flange, splice & rewind fx, interwoven with the pulse-strum guitar chords, pay tribute to these traditions by updating their inventions in a new context. The magnification & superposition of transformed sonic textures + the cut-up arrangement of individual instrument tracks, covers both traditional approaches to cubist composition - synthetic & analytic.
A cubist symphony, honoring its Spanish roots, had to be composed using the acoustic guitar. “Cubist Grammar” reveals many facets of the Ambient Folk guitar technique. In order to render these guitar articulations tangible, the overall sound of the composition needed to be mixed & mastered with precision. The acoustic guitar bandwidth was sculpted with exquisitely combined & combed EQ & filtering curves to deliver clear bass response on a cell phone or a sub-woofer.
The pulse, slice phase-space in which the guitar shapes are set into flutter through the Doppler range, are the subtly strummed, metal string coils; touch crafted with flesh of hand brushings- uniquely sculpting each chord into place. Each particular measure of chordal motion evolves through a singular sequence of self-differentiating stresses & sprung rhythms, characterized by a shift in emphasis particular to the unique way that the segment was played.
One measure may evolve through a pattern with a stress placed on chord
1, 3, 5, 7 or 1, 2, 4, 5 or 1, 3, 6, 8 . . .
[ ,,, …--- °°° }}} ] [ ..--- ,,,°}}°° ] [ -,-,-, …}°}°}° ].
The Vari-Shift emphasis in alternating brush strokes, painting the guitar chords in silver & bold, are 3rd order displays of the underlying metric spine; maintaining back beat counts by projecting the primary order of rhythmic units, established by intervals in the original modal scale, upon which the main melodic idea is constructed. All subsequent, fractal segments of strum & slice are vectored by the underlying ratio established through the original vertebra of rhythmic spacing; & thus, all magnetic, gravitational, strong & weak forces of tension, holding each section of thematic variation in place, are dependent upon primary intervallic divisions, to push & pull into resolution the different musical inventions, unfolding through the four main movements of the composition. The flux & flow of tidal motion in the piece is generated from the overlapping reiterations of these interwoven, modal sections; revealing different aspects of the implicate, metric ratio, as it expands & contracts through intertwined sequences of melodic permutation.
The modal blend of rhythms & melodies required the concentrated presence & controlled impact of sufficient low-end information, in order to boldly illustrate the internal rhyme of the guitar chord slices. The sonic brilliance of “Cubist Grammar” is the result of sculpting & indexing the internally entangled series of ´noise´ timbres, guitar notes, tape textures, electronic frequencies & low-end blocks of compressed air; bookended between strums in order to transmit the interlocking alchemy of metaphoric flux, through scenery changes where the torus turning, fractal-flowering fabric of musical algorithms weave a canvas for:
Bass punchy impressions of fully unfolded, pulsating chords, invoking the crash of an ocean wave, splashing into a salt water spray of vapors & sea mist.
Hand crafted, vibratory patterns shimmering through a cedar wood shell, etched into magnetically charged fields; reconfiguring iron oxide deposits on a reeling band of plastic tape.
Bit fluctuating, electronic signals splattering into a radio field, morphing into a square-waving cluster of flickering motion- to emerge as finger picking figures of silver string lead lines.
The splat of wet oil paint, slapping onto the canvas, in the creative throws of a kinetic action painting; richly colored pigments, smack into the aural envelope- outer ringing sounds >))> crests with airy impact.
As these forms, shapes & figures present clear in the mix, the internal structure of the composition reveals a dynamic vector at work within complementary musical flows, as thematically bounded transitions unfold. The ParTicle~WaVe nature of electronic elements supporting the transformation of evolving guitar lines, exfoliating the interdependently generated motifs & explicating internal ratios in the fractal-reiterating arrangement, reveal layered communications of symphonic architecture. Here a style of sound design uniquely developed in ambient music, where long sustained notes in reverberant spaces, blend synth lines through micro-tone pitch shifts, is brought into the context of earthy, percussive guitar actions. Through a gradual transformation of signal & a staged translation of frequencies, we experience interstitial transitions within the piece, where temporal duration diffuses into quickly evolving & subtly shifting meters; within which notes, rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre & texture exchange values & replace their respective musical position at that given intersection of momentum & interpretation.
In Dream logic realms, the entangled qualities of re-Corded Time are projected upon a manifold Diamond, displaying the theater of Psyche through water colored tones of Eros; suspended in a slowly blossoming temporal Dawn- rotating in hyperspace. Retrieval of information, encoded within this compounded state, requires the multi-faceted structure of a cubist array to be fully mapped & wholly represented. As facets of awareness in luminous veils, wavering through the diaphanous sphere of integral intensity, the content of this dream logic transmission retraces its fractal geometry, when sculpted through the crossroads of art, science, aesthetics & engineering.
Notes 0n the Composition
{[(*)]}
2 External Microphones + 1 internal pick-up
= 3 Guitar Inputs -<I>-
-> 3 different Tambours / teXtures <0f> Guitar <for> each Musical Line
{ 4 chord sections - Covering 3 Registers:
Rolling Bass / Strummed mid-Range / Shuddering high Chords
--> 4 Chord Patterns }
+ 1 Lead -->> Picking PhraSe
= 5 Musical LineS
{ 5 [ Guitar Tracks ] x 3 (imputs) }
= 15 Guitar Tracks
+ 2 Harmonic <> Sustain Note TrackS
<<>> Forward <&> ReVerse <<>>
( These 2 Tracks are then Arranged / eXtended <oNt0> 5 TrackS )
= 20 Guitar Tracks ->> comprising <the> main Composition
Recorded through AnaLoG PreAmps <iNt0> Logic Pro
(@ Cosmic Circuit Studios – Berkeley, CA )
To these 5 Guitar Lines ( x 3 ) + OvertonE Tracks,
An opening Track <wAs> added;
A Fingerpicked Figure (Recorded a month earlier @ Home -> Garage Band)
This Figure <iS> placed on 2 Other Tracks -- >>
These ( [5 x 3] + 2 + { 2 0n 5 } ) Tracks <0f> different TambourS
Were Brought <int0> 'MasterWork Mill' -> mY h0mE Studio ->>
Imported <iNt0> LogicC X;
Where 2 More TrackS <0f> Electronics, Tape <&>
Trem/ech0 { fX } <aRe> Added
[ 24 ] TrackS <>
Cut-Up <&> eXtendeD
<iNt0> Fugal MotionS:
PuLsE // PhaSe //
[[ BeaT ]]
<><0n-0ff><>
ShudderinG ChordS
>·< Doppler-FaDe >·<
BifurcatinG PlaneS
Sparkling Lead Line
ShineS
>·< WeaVinG
<thr0U>
OverLapping RhythmS
<> CyCleS <>
(( \/ariati0N >-< TheaMs ))
>< Inter-W0VeN
WaVe-TrainS
>< MadrigaL ><
Spliced <&> reArrangeD
SpiraL Roots <> Magnet SkieS
<#>
Entangled MeasureS
<throU> Braided StreaMs
Beads <&> Ribbons
<~> Tape-Us-TreeS
~#~
River CurrentS
<> GleaM <>
StereoGraphic >< TraceS
>< CrisS-CrossinG ><
<aS>
They <are> ChurneD
~~ RoLLinG ~~ Shards ~~
ReComBinE ><>>
SoniC <BLosS0Ms>
Fractal ZooM
Film-Flickering >< Slides FlasH
<iNside> <0f> Butterfly BeatS,
Fluttering <iNt0> Winged Measures
Between <the> LaYered SeeMs
Dancing >< IntUitioN <&> IdeA
<iN> Torus Turning TimE
Syncopating ><>> Recollections;
Shape-Shifting BackGrounD
ReFigureD
TransparentLY