16. Listen

Today I begin a new experiment. Since I’m no longer officially doing the trial, but still have the gear, I’m going to try something. Each day, I’ll listen to an album in its entirety - no more playlists. Then I’ll write about it and how/if it affected me. Thoughts in real time. Wendy told me I should be a record reviewer after reading my thoughts on Fractal Sextet last week, so I’m going to try this out. I’ll link each album. Check them out yourselves. Support the artists!

Day 1: Black Aleph - Apsides Art As Catharsis Records Bandcamp (2024)

OK. I’m a sucker for musical oddity. I’ve also recently been drawn - sometimes - into the heavier side of rock. Black Aleph is a heavy oddity for sure. From Australia, they consist of electric guitar (heavily distorted), cello (also modified) and frame drum. This is a powerful sludge. It surges, ebbs and swirls. To describe it as metal is doing it a great disservice. One of the darkest and heaviest albums I’ve heard in years, it is still powerful and uplifting. Perhaps because there are no vocals - nobody else imposing their vision - the listener can be fully engaged with creating their own. In my case, I was wrapped in the velvet cloak of its darkness without getting depressed or down myself. This is a rare and adventurous piece of music. I can’t say I finished with the desire to go and pet puppies (although my cat lay on my lap for a good portion of the album, which brought its own calm), but I didn’t want to kill anybody either. It did motivate me to try this project out though. The lights, in this case, were relaxed. This is not frenetic music - hence the word sludge used above - but neither is it relaxing. It is mesmerizing though. I feel ready to take on the day.

Day 2: Bill Laswell - Hear No Evil Bill Laswell's Bandcamp (1988)

Originally released on Virgin records, back when the majors still promoted innovation. Did you ever think you’d come across a record that evoked solitary horseback rides across a desolate American west, threaded with the sounds of a temple in Delhi? How about occasionally adding the beats of the New York City underground? All suggesting nothing but peace and tranquility? Well, here you have it. Anchored by a trifecta of Indian, Latin and African percussion, the electric bass, electric violin and guitar (electric and dobro) weave melody lines that connote space - without exploiting it - and time. Wordless vocals weave in and out of the musical interplay. This is an extremely unique album for its time. Guitars treated as sitars, slide dobro and fluid bass intertwine around languid violin excursions. This is an album to relax and meditate with. An album that, while it could serve as background music if you want, can also be a driver to some serious mental exploration. In the dark, at 2:30AM with the light kit running, it was surely that for me. I’ve had this record since the day it came out and it has never ceased to be one of my favorites. I’m ready to try to go back to sleep - but feeling at peace with myself.

Day 3: Don Li - Music For Highways Tonus-Music-Records Bandcamp (2005)

Another new to me release by an artist I’m quite familiar with thanks to the accessibility of the Bandcamp platform. Mr. Li is an architect of the Swiss Zen Funk movement mentioned in the last post. Music for Highways is a minimalistic yet beat driven exercise in time management. Drums and bass anchor swirling electronics and treated clarinet washes. This was a completely engaging hour of music. Exactly an hour, because… you know… the Swiss… It seems that this Zen Funk music will be my jam for these listening sessions. The concept of time, as explored by these musicians is both fascinating and grounding. I’m really grooving on it now (pun intended), and will pursue it in much more depth. One way I’m going to do that in the future is by actually learning how to count time. Sure, I can keep a nice straight 4 beat, or even a 3, but I get completely lost in a 5 / 8 or, god forbid, a 7 / 8 interweaving with a 5 / 8. So that’s going to be one of my next brain health tasks. Learning to count. Now… this might eventually require me getting a drum set so I can realize these lessons. I’d sure hate for all that work to go to waste! In all seriousness though, I think this will be a valuable process for me. I noticed, many years ago, I couldn’t really do two different counts at the same time with different hands. Watch any pianist… They are working with completely different counts as they play. One of the things about the instruments I play is that they are singular. You (unless you’re a tap guitar player - which I’m not) play a single process at a time. So I never really trained my hands to be independent and that’s getting worse now. I notice, even when keeping time on a tabletop (because I don’t have a drum set…) I lose the independence of two hands in opposing time. So, Wendy… You can thank Don Li for spurring this on with the intricate timing of this piece of music. And for the moment at least, most of my listening for this project will be from the Zen Funk school.

Last night I attended a virtual presentation by the Hemlock Society on the possibility of combining VSED (Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking) and MAiD (Medical Aid in Dying). It’s been mentioned on these pages that people who are suffering from acute dementia do not qualify for MAiD because the disease is not considered terminal (less than 6 months to live) and probably do not have the mental capacity to make the decision to die. However, as soon as you go into VSED, you become terminal. So then, in states that allow MAiD (not mine, unfortunately), you qualify. Slowly, the requirements for MAiD are lessening and the prospect of a slow two week long starvation death is becoming a thing of the past. (I do want to state - unequivocally - that those who oppose voluntary death for others, for whatever reason they might have, are adding so much pain to those who are already facing their own imminent mortality. It does not seem to me to be an argument worth having. If you don’t want to die by your own hand, then don’t. Don’t prevent others from being able to make that choice.)

I’m off to get infusion number 8 this morning! Forward Ho!!!!

Day 4: Sonar - The Bill Laswell Mix Translations Sonar Bandcamp (2019) (Original mix on Vortex - Rare Noise Records (2018)

Long gone are the days of blissful record store browsing that saw me finding obscure collaborations. Sure, there was the occasional dud (witness I Ran By A Flock Of Seagulls - purchased unheard because it was produced by Bill Nelson, the amazing and prolific guitar genius). But for every I Ran there were dozens of hits like Temporary Music, by Material (purchased because I went to high school with the keyboard player). Turns out that the bass player on that record, Bill Laswell became a long term favorite. This Sonar album would have caused me to dance for joy in the aisles of whatever record store I was in because not only was it a new Sonar EP (Sonar is the band that Stephan Thelan led - Remember him from last post?) but it was tracks remixed by Bill Laswell. And to top that off, David Torn - who I first saw live in 1987 - was guesting on Guitar. What a combination of musical mayhem!. Taking Sonar’s eclectic approach to minimalist polyrhythmic grooving, adding the insane guitar freakouts of David Torn and then running it through the dub esthetic and bass explorations of Bill Laswell. Sonar, a guitar based electric zen funk outfit is transported to another level - anchored by the deepest dub baselines and beats out there. This is the kind of stuff that gives me hope! Powerful and engaging! Almost any mood you want to be in - while listening to upbeat music - can be supported by this great music.

Infusion number 8 was the first one that I felt weird after. Slight head pain and a general sense of thickness in my brain. I was also super tired and hungry - so I ate some soup dumplings and took a nap. Felt much better after. I’ll be keeping an eye out on these feelings though.

Day 5: sanscreed kanon - Kanon 27 Ronin Rhythm Records Bandcamp (2018)

sanscreed kanon (all lower case as they spell it) is from Russia, and are released on Nik Bärtsch’s boutique Ronin Rhythm Records - which is how I found them (and a lot of other great Zen Funk stuff). Let’s think of this release as punk rock zen funk rave music, shall we? If the rave’s goal was for all dancers to end it with snapped ankles and torn ACLs because of the disparate beats! This is a pounding piece of music, with the anchoring bass barely skipping a beat or note for the whole 31 minutes. Contrasting drums and percussion offset the washes of saxophone and keyboards creating an uneasy tension. Much of the Zen Funk music is peaceful in nature. This is not. This is bruising and angst filled, and builds to an even more crushing end. That is not to say it filled me with angst - it didn’t (and we all know I don’t have much more room in my system for anything but my own angst, right?). This is music to work that angst out of your system with. It’s a blessed release. Absolutely great! Picture yourself (if not in a rave) wearing furs and dancing alone on a snow covered mountain in homage to the viking gods! It’s going to be a productive day!

I drove an hour to have lunch with an old friend yesterday. It was super great to get out of the house and talk about politics, history, movies and life. I need to do more of that! I also spent time on the phone with Jonas (hands free, of course) talking about ways to recreate this light/music experiment when I have to return the gear next Monday. No answers, but good thoughts.

I’m going to post this so it doesn’t get too long - but will continue this experiment through the end of the week and then decide how to continue. I hope you find some music here that stirs your soul. I sure did!

Thanks for reading (and listening)

Dy