nckn.music.

In my last post I wrote about how today‘s over-availability of music leads to a switch in music-listening. One of the commenters suggested to try listening to ambient music. Actually i don‘t like the term ,Ambient‘. I don‘t know where these associations come from, but I then have people in my head, who normally don‘t listen to this kind of music and label everything as ,ambient‘, that is slow, has no beat, is melancholic and/or laid back. Often these people equal Ambient with background music. I more like to call it ,silent music‘, since – yes – it can serve as a background atmoshphere to tasks you do, like working, writing. But good silent music also invites you to come closer and listen carefully. The elements don‘t scream at you, they want to be discovered. Maybe more like paintings. You can look at them from greater distance, just to grasp the atmosphere, but also come closer and discover details, that weren‘t imminent at first.

One of the musicians who do really great in painting these pictures is Pascal Savy, aka Static. Don‘t know anymore how our paths crossed, but I found his pieces to be really ,well-painted‘. They create a really dense atmosphere – dark, drony and sometimes even a bit creepy. He has a blog over at blogspot, where he describes his concepts and thoughts driving the creative process. Reading through them, you can say, that he already dug deep into the matter. Learning about sonic concepts, he tries to incorporate them into his music. In his blog, I first read about the phenomenons Microsound and Granular Synthesis. Touching these now would go beyond the scope of this post, but still interesting concepts, worth exploring. You can hear, that elements in his pieces are deliberately placed, and not just got there per accident.

Vortex (above), one of his last pieces utilizing Granular Synthesis, brought up a memory of my childhood. We often did summer-vacation in countries you had to cross water to get there. As a child, spending a night in a ferry, there is not too much to do, so you just walk around the ship and discover things. We sometimes did a dare: what would be the deepest floor we dare to be for more than just a second? In these ferries, the deeper you go, the creepier it gets. Corridors get uglier, the sound of the engines gets louder and louder and – since you are below the water suface – the doors start to be heavier. They then have these big opening wheels on them. For a kid, this was really creepy. And I remember I couldn‘t stand this for long.

And this static piece reminds me of exactly these moments: Like in the bottom floor of a big ferry. Water leaking in somewhere near. Astonishing if you keep in mind, that most of the sounds are synthetically created.

Disclaimer:
the idea of this series is to have a conversation. On single pieces of music and through them on musical aspects in general. Imagine the time you were putting up vinyl, drinking red wine, discussing with your friend about things you hear at this very moment. When was the last time you listened to music and did nothing else? Really concentrated?
So if the tracks above trigger anything, just share it. A picture, a small thought, a general impression you have, please share it in the comments. If not, maybe next time. It’s an experiment, I know. Thanks again!

In my last post I wrote about how today‘s over-availability of music leads to a switch in music-listening. One of the commenter suggested to try listening to ambient music. Actually i don‘t like the term ,Ambient‘. I don‘t know where these associations come from, but I then have people in my head, who normally ...

There is a strange unbalance between the effort you put into your music to merely get noticed, and the reward you get (speaking of attention, not money). Through a Spotify-Premium membership i have access to more music than I, my children, grand-children and all their relatives will ever have time to listen to. When I read about an interesting artist, I do a quick Spotify search and put him in my Inbox-Playlist. This is getting overwhelming. I’m at a point now, where I feel I want to listen to music, but don’t feel a connection. Like when you’re bored. “I could do this and that… naah, to boring” etc. Of course I could listen to the mixtapes some of my friends have made, listen to what people in my Soundcloud network recently uploaded, could listen to the people that added me on MySpace, and I just went by, heard the intro of the first track to say “Hey, nice stuff”. But I don’t feel like. I feel satiety. Ate enough.

Like with your parents who get really nice, after you moved out; like with your ex-girlfriend you start to miss when you realize she’s not there, like maybe you first start loving your hometown, when you moved away – I decided to do an experiment: cut out the music. What will everyday-life feel like, if you cut out the music? Don’t listen to it at home, don’t go anywhere, where you expect music to play (cafés, bars, clubs, concerts). How long can you stand that? And what feels important to me: Will there be more music in my head? Who will be the artist I first turn to, when I finished the experiment? Which track? I want to miss music again, not devaluate it by flooding my brain with input.

I can’t do the experiment right away, but It will happen and I’ll tell you about results…

How do you deal with more and more music being available? Do you notice a difference to – let’s say – the music-listening 3 years ago?

There is a strange unbalance between the effort you put into your music to merely get noticed, and the reward you get (speaking of attention, not money). Through a Spotify-Premium membership i have access to more music than I, my children, grand-children and all their relatives will ever have time to listen to. When ...