Phenomenology and Rhythm are the consistent woof and warp of my work.
When I perform live in a solo context I do not consider the acoustic results to be music per se – but rather orchestrations of acoustic phenomena.
And a note regarding the term solo –
my performances result from the interaction between myself, the instruments, the physical space, the time and place of the performance, and the energies of the audience.
Any change in the any of the last 3 will result in a totally different performance.
And this will not be a matter of ‘improvisational’ variation, but that the actual sound will be
different.
Primarily my instruments are formed from stainless steel and titanium
Thirty years ago, when my work began to be presented internationally, it was quite different from what I do now.
At that time I had developed a performance style which was a mixture of Movement and a sort of Marionette, in that the instruments were assemblages of stainless steel and PVC plastics which were strung together an manipulated at a distance [45-90 cm] from my body.
Traditionally in the West [barring marching bands] sound-as-music is experienced in a static relationship between a fixed instrumentalist or sound source [loudspeaker] and a fixed audience.
Reflection, interference, refraction and diffraction are the four processes that affect a sound's quality in space.
When one begins moving the sounding material, the results of each of those processes is increased by orders of magnitude, helping to generate copious amounts of acoustic phenomena; standing waves, beat frequencies and etc. .
A note on Rhythm:
A Rhythm expresses a particular proportional quality of relationships in-and-between density and texture.
And this is as true for a visual work as for a sonic work.
Now Proportion literally translates as ‘for one’s portion’.
And portion can have a definition of ‘destiny’.
And destiny is ‘the principle or determining cause by which things come to be or events to happen as they do’
So when you are evoking a Rhythm/Proportion you are invoking a course of events, the intention of which is to manifest the energetic qualities and potentials inherent in the Rhythmic densities and textures through the eye or ear, or both, of the beholder.
london october 3 2008
When I perform live in a solo context I do not consider the acoustic results to be music per se – but rather orchestrations of acoustic phenomena.
And a note regarding the term solo –
my performances result from the interaction between myself, the instruments, the physical space, the time and place of the performance, and the energies of the audience.
Any change in the any of the last 3 will result in a totally different performance.
And this will not be a matter of ‘improvisational’ variation, but that the actual sound will be
different.
Primarily my instruments are formed from stainless steel and titanium
Thirty years ago, when my work began to be presented internationally, it was quite different from what I do now.
At that time I had developed a performance style which was a mixture of Movement and a sort of Marionette, in that the instruments were assemblages of stainless steel and PVC plastics which were strung together an manipulated at a distance [45-90 cm] from my body.
Traditionally in the West [barring marching bands] sound-as-music is experienced in a static relationship between a fixed instrumentalist or sound source [loudspeaker] and a fixed audience.
Reflection, interference, refraction and diffraction are the four processes that affect a sound's quality in space.
When one begins moving the sounding material, the results of each of those processes is increased by orders of magnitude, helping to generate copious amounts of acoustic phenomena; standing waves, beat frequencies and etc. .
A note on Rhythm:
A Rhythm expresses a particular proportional quality of relationships in-and-between density and texture.
And this is as true for a visual work as for a sonic work.
Now Proportion literally translates as ‘for one’s portion’.
And portion can have a definition of ‘destiny’.
And destiny is ‘the principle or determining cause by which things come to be or events to happen as they do’
So when you are evoking a Rhythm/Proportion you are invoking a course of events, the intention of which is to manifest the energetic qualities and potentials inherent in the Rhythmic densities and textures through the eye or ear, or both, of the beholder.
london october 3 2008
OF ACCESS TO A REALITIVISTIC AWARENESS
Acoustically generated sounds react and charge the actual air molecules in an environment. My intention is to delve into the space between the air[its ambience and atmosphere] and the instrument. To become so familiar with that space that it can be drawn out and widened, so that one can create in that space.
Of instruments on the one hand - sound on the other - the externalization of the nervous system between them.
Of having both hands - hence both sides of the brain - in a synchronous resonance.
Of the movement of the hemispheres fusing within the resonance of movement.
Of physically compensating the balance of two varying frequencies and vibrations - one in each hand - within the context of playing on one's feet.
Of the movement or series of movements needed to evolve a sound from an instrument.
Of the description and definition of motion.
As sound is motion perceived, to develop then a vocabulary of sounds which do just that; describe and define motion and translate/communicate that information to convey an awareness of mass, gravity and light.
Of an awareness not only of sound in space, and sound through space, but sound AS space as well.
Of listening to sound with the intention to observe its motion with the whole body.
Of feeling with the whole body.
Of being aware that sound is air moving
Of air constantly moving against/across/through acoustic instruments, some sound
is always being produced, traveling with the earth's rotation.
Oakland CA 1976 / 1977 & S. Egremont MA 2000
ANALOG ACOUSTIC ASSEMBLAGE
"The sound of the thunder that accompanies the movement of reawakening life is the prototype of music" [I Ching Hexagram 16: YÐ / Enthusiasm]
1.
The basis for this work: a continual search/presentation of/for new information.
2.
When dealing with instrumental and acoustic phenomena, the links to [the] phenomenological world[s] become the primal facet of the consciousness inherent in realizing the design, preparation and presentation of the performance experience. What develops is the continual mating of the micro- and macrocosms, and a total reliance upon the intuitional abilities within the matrix of "Other Traditions"; that is the varieties of universal occult ritual and practice.
3.
Composition is based on the externalization of the nervous system; as sounds manifest, a feedback loop develops from the acoustic information to the nervous system ad infinitum. Notational 'time' becomes Durational Time. Permutations of physical activities are trans- and juxtaposed across/through permutations of instrumental configurations. This constitutes the Performance Structure.
A muscular technique of controlled fibrillation is developed which is combined with the wrist/finger fulcrum technique extant in traditional percussion. As such, physical exercise replaces instrumental 'practice'.
4.
What this produces which electronics [per se] seems to lack is"
Physical Indentification: sound - performer
sound - instrument
audience - sound/performer/instrument
Recognizable Energy Level: acoustic volume/dynamic retains a drama that
electronically reinforced sound lacks.
february 24 1978 Los Angeles
TOWARDS A DIALOG IN COMPOSITION
There exists among contemporary classical music composers an attitude that their audience must share with them a similar sophistication of thought (equal education) and a knowledge of the advances or 'continuations' of their work to properly appreciate its performance.
This is formalized in a mode of presentation where by the composer presents work in the form of a monologue: performing at, or to - seldom with.
Consider, in dialectical response, situations where the
composer/performer/space/time/audience collaborate in a real-time dialog.
A mutual creational experience where each participant is
listening / hearing / structuring / organizing a distinct composition drawn from their relation to the 'sound in reflection' and the matrix of their cultural and cognitive associations.
In these situations the composer controls only the choice of specific information (source material) and methods of (its) presentation (contextualization).
There is no 'one and only' intended composition.
The composer instead creates the opportunity/potential in this/by this process/experience for an 'empowering' of the audience, such that the audience becomes aware of the extent to which they themselves are the formers of their experience.
This empowering can then radically alter their relationship to their environment in general, long after they have left this specific situation.
It is the imparting of not only an isolated aesthetic experience, but the basis for an ongoing relationship to the sound environment of everyday life. The ability to transcend a 'passive' acceptance of urban/suburban noise/sound and replace it with an 'active' ability to organize / experience / appreciate it as such - into an orchestral / symphonic continuum.
Eindhoven, December 1981
FORMATIONS
1.
My work is a wedding of private art and craft and public performance, with materials and objects of my own choice, design, and formation. The exploration and exposition of the sonic universe is the unifying concern.
2.
GENESIS: and the fire of the elohiem vibrated through her waters, and the elohiem spoke: speaking light, and the light returned.
I CHING: it fell to music to build a bridge between the worlds of the seen and the unseen.
3.
Sound is the presence (pressure) of energy vibrating through space, generally between 20 and 15,000 times per second, but at a constant 760 mph.
We form sound by transferring energy to some mass/material, which in turn transforms and propagates that energy into space. The form of this propagation is spherical. There are not sound waves as such, but (spherical) pressure zones.
Territories with specific qualities distinguished by their density (amplitude) and rhythm (frequency). These zones propagate by a process of vibration. That is, the gas molecules (air) which the pressure zone vibrates adopt its density and rhythm. The atmosphere within the sound barrier is a meta-pressure zone composed of the infinite varieties of these energies. Even more metaphorically:
pressure zones are currents in the sea of sound within the shores of the sound barrier. Our sound barrier is formed by energies vibrating faster than 760 mph.
4.
How the qualities of energies of this velocity and vibration rate are heard entails a 3 stage process. First, by a mechanical process in the middle ear when the exterior energy (pressure zone) vibrates, successively, the ear-drum, hammer, anvil and stirrup: transferring a re-proportioned energy to the inner ear. This begins a hydro-electric process. The fluids of the cochlea vibrate, which in turn vibrate/fire the neurons along the basilar and tectorial membranes of the cochlea. As neural impulse in the voltage of the central nervous system, the exterior energy has been transformed back into the realm of electricity (physical light).
5.
The first place that these neural impulses go is to the memory, where they are distinguished, say, from the taste in your mouth right now, and from there to the cognitive center of awareness.
All sensory impulse first arrives at memory.
You (p)re:cognzse all stimuli (from Jung's collective unconscious, for example) regardless of your linguistic ability to name it, which is based on this life's associative memory.
6.
THE FLOWING OF PURE MOVEMENT IS MEMORY - THE REPRODUCTION OF AN IMAGE OF AN ACTION IN ANOTHER PHASE OF MANIFEST-ATION, AND CONSCIOUSNESS IS BUILT OUT OF MEMORY, AS DISTINGUISHED FROM AWARENESS, WHICH IS A FORM OF REACTION BETWEEN TWO PLANES (emphasis mine).
Action and reaction do not constitute consciousness. It is reaction plus memory which is the basis of consciousness; and the currents in space of pure movement are the basis of memory because, being frictionless because they are substance-less, they persist.
7.
Meanwhile, back in the material world: Brass, the metal most commonly used in the construction of instruments, is smelted by simple means and easily formed by hand. It also propagates the simpler zones upon which traditional musics have been based. Modern metals, due to their elemental properties and methods of formation, will actually multiply the energy transferred to them. This increases their capacity for transformation, and accounts for the sheer number of individual rhythms composing the pressure zones they propagate. Note: for thousands of years, the Tibetans have succeeded in forming alloys as refined as modern technology's by directing their consciousness into the simple smelting process. Percussion is the obvious choice for harnessing this sonic potential, and translating this potential into a musical system based on these complex zones.
8.
However: most percussive sensibilities conform to the model of awareness previously mentioned; "A FORM OF REACTION BETWEEN TWO PLANES", in their basic physical function: one beat, one sound. Throughout the world, various traditional collections of beat patterns exist. Their basic genres are: ritual, communicative, social and martial, with variations in each genre. These four forms engender reactions between the planes appropriate for their functions, in varying degrees and each from different perspectives. This dynamic can be used as a beginning, and not merely as an end in itself.
9.
As motion is always the basis for the production, propagation and perception of sound, the inclusion of kinetic energy in the sources forming the sounds closes a circle, when memory equals pure movement, thus maximizing these 3 levels.
10.
Production Propagation and Perception.
Mechanics Hydraulics and Electricity.
Both sets can function as metaphors for the 3 inter-revolving rings of the cosmos' formation.
Winter/Spring 1983, NYC
[These notes are dedicated to my teachers, both in- and disincarnate, especially Dr. D.M.L. Franck Oberaspach. Discussions regarding these notes with P. Calvert, P. Van Ryper, and T. Wright are gratefully acknowledged. The CAPITALS are quotes from "Cosmic Doctrine" by Dion Fortune. The translation from Genesis is an excerpt from "Partners in Sacrifice", a work-in-progress by Z'EV.]
LIGHTNING MUSIC
1.
Drums, flat bells, with these sounds one calls them, inviting the gods of knowledge down from the celestial spheres' - from "The 9 Ways of Bon"
2.
And the fiery spirit of the Elohiem vibrated over and through her water and the Elohiem spoke, speaking light;and the light returned.
Genesis 1 v.2, 3, translated by Z'EV
Annotations:
- The fiery spirit of the Elohiem is light
- Light manifests in our nervous system as electricity
- Vibration is self-reflection: the will to act in action
- The waters symbolize life, the life-waters within us, our blood, as red as fire
- The waters are also symbolic of memory, in our brain: where electricity vibrates as synapse (of thought or feeling). These electric vibrations (sensory awareness) can form a way of return to the light (consciousness). The way of 'the conciliation of opposites' can begin deep within ourselves, in our memories, and in our lives: the union of fire and water: they steam; as vapor, like our souls.
3.
"What is the sound of one hand clapping"
This classical koan / paradox is meant to place one at the limits of reason. If one crosses over, and returns, could one possible response be: imagining the thumb as a head, the 2 middle fingers as legs, and the 2 outer fingers as arms; the pentagram of the human/primate form is mirrored in this 'one hand'. The naturalness and integration of the hand in any action can be seen as 'the sound' of 'the one hand'; a being, 'clapping'; living. Z'EV has developed a discipline of instrumental/compositional techniques based on this possible response, aware at the same time that a response is not in question (but by way of explanation: the response was experienced, not deducted).
4.
For the past 11 years, I have been developing percussion instruments and techniques specialized for the production of acoustic phenomena. That is, the complex of interactions resulting from sonic energies and the physical locations they occur in. I would metaphorically refer to these 'results' as the "feelings" arising between sound and space. I use 'feeling' because, as they belong to the intuitive realm, this refers to their qualitative effect on the listener. The majority of acoustic phenomena are based on resonance: the intensification and enriching of tones by 'supplementary vibrations'. These 'supplementary vibrations' are produced by the aforementioned interactions between sound and space. Dealing with mysticism, one is involved with non-material realms of experience/consciousness. A relationship with these realms is made manifest through intuition. This led me to develop a music based not, exclusively, on the usual devices of pitch and rhythm, but on expressly acoustic phenomena. This seemed the optimal manner to address the intuition of the listener.
5.
In many African languages the word for 'drum' signifies both the physical instrument and various forms of communication, including telepathy. It is not coincidental that the drum is the only instrument which has a direct physical counterpart within our bodies. Our ear canal, ending with the tympanic membrane (ear-drum), is the 'archetype' of drums, of which all physical drums are copies.
In Vou-Dun, the religion of the 7 African powers, it is the drum patterns themselves which call the powers forth. This also still exists in the indigenous cultures of Sri Lanka. This is in contrast to cultures where solely the voice, through prayer/supplication, is used for invocations. Through this use of rhythm, a specific 'ordering of vibration', the participants' awareness is focused and conditioned by the rhythmic pulsations of the synapses triggered by their eardrums. Through this process the awareness of the participants is harmonized with the (higher) consciousness of the specific powers invoked.
6.
I do not use drums, but metallic instruments whose extremely rich harmonic potentials produce an abundance of acoustic phenomena. However, these same aforementioned dynamics can apply with the focused/concentrated reception of the phenomena aiding in the transmutation of awareness into intuition.
7.
Consider the role that memory plays in these dynamics. The first place all sensory information/stimuli 'goes' is to the memory, where they are distinguished, and from there sent to their specific centers. We recognize all stimuli, regardless of our semantic ability to name it, which is based totally on this life-time's 'associative' memory. This indicates the deeper levels of memory available to us. When one is 'listening' to acoustic phenomena then one is, in fact, remembering these phenomena. This process puts us in touch with levels and realms, co-existent, but removed from 'material' phenomena. When these memories form the basis for visualizations, the results can be quite dramatic and highly rewarding.
8.
Intention is the key. Intention is what distinguishes the willful act from both the thoughtless and the thoughtful act. When it is one's intention to utilize sonic experience to extend beyond awareness and approach the higher realms of consciousness - intuition and inspiration - it can be achieved.
With thanks to Dorothea Franck for her comments; Amsterdam, 1986.
Acoustically generated sounds react and charge the actual air molecules in an environment. My intention is to delve into the space between the air[its ambience and atmosphere] and the instrument. To become so familiar with that space that it can be drawn out and widened, so that one can create in that space.
Of instruments on the one hand - sound on the other - the externalization of the nervous system between them.
Of having both hands - hence both sides of the brain - in a synchronous resonance.
Of the movement of the hemispheres fusing within the resonance of movement.
Of physically compensating the balance of two varying frequencies and vibrations - one in each hand - within the context of playing on one's feet.
Of the movement or series of movements needed to evolve a sound from an instrument.
Of the description and definition of motion.
As sound is motion perceived, to develop then a vocabulary of sounds which do just that; describe and define motion and translate/communicate that information to convey an awareness of mass, gravity and light.
Of an awareness not only of sound in space, and sound through space, but sound AS space as well.
Of listening to sound with the intention to observe its motion with the whole body.
Of feeling with the whole body.
Of being aware that sound is air moving
Of air constantly moving against/across/through acoustic instruments, some sound
is always being produced, traveling with the earth's rotation.
Oakland CA 1976 / 1977 & S. Egremont MA 2000
ANALOG ACOUSTIC ASSEMBLAGE
"The sound of the thunder that accompanies the movement of reawakening life is the prototype of music" [I Ching Hexagram 16: YÐ / Enthusiasm]
1.
The basis for this work: a continual search/presentation of/for new information.
2.
When dealing with instrumental and acoustic phenomena, the links to [the] phenomenological world[s] become the primal facet of the consciousness inherent in realizing the design, preparation and presentation of the performance experience. What develops is the continual mating of the micro- and macrocosms, and a total reliance upon the intuitional abilities within the matrix of "Other Traditions"; that is the varieties of universal occult ritual and practice.
3.
Composition is based on the externalization of the nervous system; as sounds manifest, a feedback loop develops from the acoustic information to the nervous system ad infinitum. Notational 'time' becomes Durational Time. Permutations of physical activities are trans- and juxtaposed across/through permutations of instrumental configurations. This constitutes the Performance Structure.
A muscular technique of controlled fibrillation is developed which is combined with the wrist/finger fulcrum technique extant in traditional percussion. As such, physical exercise replaces instrumental 'practice'.
4.
What this produces which electronics [per se] seems to lack is"
Physical Indentification: sound - performer
sound - instrument
audience - sound/performer/instrument
Recognizable Energy Level: acoustic volume/dynamic retains a drama that
electronically reinforced sound lacks.
february 24 1978 Los Angeles
TOWARDS A DIALOG IN COMPOSITION
There exists among contemporary classical music composers an attitude that their audience must share with them a similar sophistication of thought (equal education) and a knowledge of the advances or 'continuations' of their work to properly appreciate its performance.
This is formalized in a mode of presentation where by the composer presents work in the form of a monologue: performing at, or to - seldom with.
Consider, in dialectical response, situations where the
composer/performer/space/time/audience collaborate in a real-time dialog.
A mutual creational experience where each participant is
listening / hearing / structuring / organizing a distinct composition drawn from their relation to the 'sound in reflection' and the matrix of their cultural and cognitive associations.
In these situations the composer controls only the choice of specific information (source material) and methods of (its) presentation (contextualization).
There is no 'one and only' intended composition.
The composer instead creates the opportunity/potential in this/by this process/experience for an 'empowering' of the audience, such that the audience becomes aware of the extent to which they themselves are the formers of their experience.
This empowering can then radically alter their relationship to their environment in general, long after they have left this specific situation.
It is the imparting of not only an isolated aesthetic experience, but the basis for an ongoing relationship to the sound environment of everyday life. The ability to transcend a 'passive' acceptance of urban/suburban noise/sound and replace it with an 'active' ability to organize / experience / appreciate it as such - into an orchestral / symphonic continuum.
Eindhoven, December 1981
FORMATIONS
1.
My work is a wedding of private art and craft and public performance, with materials and objects of my own choice, design, and formation. The exploration and exposition of the sonic universe is the unifying concern.
2.
GENESIS: and the fire of the elohiem vibrated through her waters, and the elohiem spoke: speaking light, and the light returned.
I CHING: it fell to music to build a bridge between the worlds of the seen and the unseen.
3.
Sound is the presence (pressure) of energy vibrating through space, generally between 20 and 15,000 times per second, but at a constant 760 mph.
We form sound by transferring energy to some mass/material, which in turn transforms and propagates that energy into space. The form of this propagation is spherical. There are not sound waves as such, but (spherical) pressure zones.
Territories with specific qualities distinguished by their density (amplitude) and rhythm (frequency). These zones propagate by a process of vibration. That is, the gas molecules (air) which the pressure zone vibrates adopt its density and rhythm. The atmosphere within the sound barrier is a meta-pressure zone composed of the infinite varieties of these energies. Even more metaphorically:
pressure zones are currents in the sea of sound within the shores of the sound barrier. Our sound barrier is formed by energies vibrating faster than 760 mph.
4.
How the qualities of energies of this velocity and vibration rate are heard entails a 3 stage process. First, by a mechanical process in the middle ear when the exterior energy (pressure zone) vibrates, successively, the ear-drum, hammer, anvil and stirrup: transferring a re-proportioned energy to the inner ear. This begins a hydro-electric process. The fluids of the cochlea vibrate, which in turn vibrate/fire the neurons along the basilar and tectorial membranes of the cochlea. As neural impulse in the voltage of the central nervous system, the exterior energy has been transformed back into the realm of electricity (physical light).
5.
The first place that these neural impulses go is to the memory, where they are distinguished, say, from the taste in your mouth right now, and from there to the cognitive center of awareness.
All sensory impulse first arrives at memory.
You (p)re:cognzse all stimuli (from Jung's collective unconscious, for example) regardless of your linguistic ability to name it, which is based on this life's associative memory.
6.
THE FLOWING OF PURE MOVEMENT IS MEMORY - THE REPRODUCTION OF AN IMAGE OF AN ACTION IN ANOTHER PHASE OF MANIFEST-ATION, AND CONSCIOUSNESS IS BUILT OUT OF MEMORY, AS DISTINGUISHED FROM AWARENESS, WHICH IS A FORM OF REACTION BETWEEN TWO PLANES (emphasis mine).
Action and reaction do not constitute consciousness. It is reaction plus memory which is the basis of consciousness; and the currents in space of pure movement are the basis of memory because, being frictionless because they are substance-less, they persist.
7.
Meanwhile, back in the material world: Brass, the metal most commonly used in the construction of instruments, is smelted by simple means and easily formed by hand. It also propagates the simpler zones upon which traditional musics have been based. Modern metals, due to their elemental properties and methods of formation, will actually multiply the energy transferred to them. This increases their capacity for transformation, and accounts for the sheer number of individual rhythms composing the pressure zones they propagate. Note: for thousands of years, the Tibetans have succeeded in forming alloys as refined as modern technology's by directing their consciousness into the simple smelting process. Percussion is the obvious choice for harnessing this sonic potential, and translating this potential into a musical system based on these complex zones.
8.
However: most percussive sensibilities conform to the model of awareness previously mentioned; "A FORM OF REACTION BETWEEN TWO PLANES", in their basic physical function: one beat, one sound. Throughout the world, various traditional collections of beat patterns exist. Their basic genres are: ritual, communicative, social and martial, with variations in each genre. These four forms engender reactions between the planes appropriate for their functions, in varying degrees and each from different perspectives. This dynamic can be used as a beginning, and not merely as an end in itself.
9.
As motion is always the basis for the production, propagation and perception of sound, the inclusion of kinetic energy in the sources forming the sounds closes a circle, when memory equals pure movement, thus maximizing these 3 levels.
10.
Production Propagation and Perception.
Mechanics Hydraulics and Electricity.
Both sets can function as metaphors for the 3 inter-revolving rings of the cosmos' formation.
Winter/Spring 1983, NYC
[These notes are dedicated to my teachers, both in- and disincarnate, especially Dr. D.M.L. Franck Oberaspach. Discussions regarding these notes with P. Calvert, P. Van Ryper, and T. Wright are gratefully acknowledged. The CAPITALS are quotes from "Cosmic Doctrine" by Dion Fortune. The translation from Genesis is an excerpt from "Partners in Sacrifice", a work-in-progress by Z'EV.]
LIGHTNING MUSIC
1.
Drums, flat bells, with these sounds one calls them, inviting the gods of knowledge down from the celestial spheres' - from "The 9 Ways of Bon"
2.
And the fiery spirit of the Elohiem vibrated over and through her water and the Elohiem spoke, speaking light;and the light returned.
Genesis 1 v.2, 3, translated by Z'EV
Annotations:
- The fiery spirit of the Elohiem is light
- Light manifests in our nervous system as electricity
- Vibration is self-reflection: the will to act in action
- The waters symbolize life, the life-waters within us, our blood, as red as fire
- The waters are also symbolic of memory, in our brain: where electricity vibrates as synapse (of thought or feeling). These electric vibrations (sensory awareness) can form a way of return to the light (consciousness). The way of 'the conciliation of opposites' can begin deep within ourselves, in our memories, and in our lives: the union of fire and water: they steam; as vapor, like our souls.
3.
"What is the sound of one hand clapping"
This classical koan / paradox is meant to place one at the limits of reason. If one crosses over, and returns, could one possible response be: imagining the thumb as a head, the 2 middle fingers as legs, and the 2 outer fingers as arms; the pentagram of the human/primate form is mirrored in this 'one hand'. The naturalness and integration of the hand in any action can be seen as 'the sound' of 'the one hand'; a being, 'clapping'; living. Z'EV has developed a discipline of instrumental/compositional techniques based on this possible response, aware at the same time that a response is not in question (but by way of explanation: the response was experienced, not deducted).
4.
For the past 11 years, I have been developing percussion instruments and techniques specialized for the production of acoustic phenomena. That is, the complex of interactions resulting from sonic energies and the physical locations they occur in. I would metaphorically refer to these 'results' as the "feelings" arising between sound and space. I use 'feeling' because, as they belong to the intuitive realm, this refers to their qualitative effect on the listener. The majority of acoustic phenomena are based on resonance: the intensification and enriching of tones by 'supplementary vibrations'. These 'supplementary vibrations' are produced by the aforementioned interactions between sound and space. Dealing with mysticism, one is involved with non-material realms of experience/consciousness. A relationship with these realms is made manifest through intuition. This led me to develop a music based not, exclusively, on the usual devices of pitch and rhythm, but on expressly acoustic phenomena. This seemed the optimal manner to address the intuition of the listener.
5.
In many African languages the word for 'drum' signifies both the physical instrument and various forms of communication, including telepathy. It is not coincidental that the drum is the only instrument which has a direct physical counterpart within our bodies. Our ear canal, ending with the tympanic membrane (ear-drum), is the 'archetype' of drums, of which all physical drums are copies.
In Vou-Dun, the religion of the 7 African powers, it is the drum patterns themselves which call the powers forth. This also still exists in the indigenous cultures of Sri Lanka. This is in contrast to cultures where solely the voice, through prayer/supplication, is used for invocations. Through this use of rhythm, a specific 'ordering of vibration', the participants' awareness is focused and conditioned by the rhythmic pulsations of the synapses triggered by their eardrums. Through this process the awareness of the participants is harmonized with the (higher) consciousness of the specific powers invoked.
6.
I do not use drums, but metallic instruments whose extremely rich harmonic potentials produce an abundance of acoustic phenomena. However, these same aforementioned dynamics can apply with the focused/concentrated reception of the phenomena aiding in the transmutation of awareness into intuition.
7.
Consider the role that memory plays in these dynamics. The first place all sensory information/stimuli 'goes' is to the memory, where they are distinguished, and from there sent to their specific centers. We recognize all stimuli, regardless of our semantic ability to name it, which is based totally on this life-time's 'associative' memory. This indicates the deeper levels of memory available to us. When one is 'listening' to acoustic phenomena then one is, in fact, remembering these phenomena. This process puts us in touch with levels and realms, co-existent, but removed from 'material' phenomena. When these memories form the basis for visualizations, the results can be quite dramatic and highly rewarding.
8.
Intention is the key. Intention is what distinguishes the willful act from both the thoughtless and the thoughtful act. When it is one's intention to utilize sonic experience to extend beyond awareness and approach the higher realms of consciousness - intuition and inspiration - it can be achieved.
With thanks to Dorothea Franck for her comments; Amsterdam, 1986.
