México. It’s a really interesting melting pot between worldviews. From one side we have the modern occidental view, and from the other we have ancient traditions that clash in the same space. In that sense, electronic music is just a continuity of ancient musical expressions. Most ancient civilizations used music as a way of gathering to have a collectively transcendental experience. This experience could be through repetitive drumming, other percussive sounds, or chants.
“The Language of Sound” is an audiovisual album that focuses on meditation and contemplation. It seeks to achieve the same feeling derived from Tibetan bowls but with modern techniques. The sounds of these “standing bells” provides a continuity between ancient musical expressions and our own. They take us on a sound journey that can bring some calm to ur current situation. The album’s concept derives from the psychedelic nature of cymatics, Lissajous curves, and the rotational patterns of the planets. It explores the hidden geometry in sound, a sonic “yantra.” All the geometry was created by pure sound through an oscilloscope. This means that what you see you also listen to. It’s all part of the album.
Intention in Creation
Each song is associated with a planet which at the same time determines the day of the week. The Moon relates to Monday, Mars to Tuesday, Mercury to Wednesday, and so on. in that sense, we can practice one of the meditations every day, 15 minutes in touch with our inner self.
The album was composed in a such a way that all the sounds merge into one driving feeling. There is no protagonist in these pieces, just a continuous movement of evolving sounds, but without a dramatic change. That change could disturb our focus on the pieces if we want to use them for meditation or during a journey.
The Language of Sound
- 1 Moon
- 2 Mars
- 3 Mercury
- 4 Jupiter
- 5 Venus
- 6 Saturn
- 7 Sun
Exploring Sound
We could say that art is the science of emotions. Music can change our emotions in a matter of seconds. The pieces on the album seek emotional equilibrium. There isn’t any euphoria, anger, sadness, or even happiness, as we understand these things. The goal is to achieve equanimity.
These pieces explore the concept of sound association. This means our brain’s propensity to relate certain sounds with familiar ones. All sounds are auditory illusions, whether sounds from nature, animals, or the human voice. It’s like finding shapes in the clouds or seeing a rainbow. We can never reach it but we know it’s there.
In the Middle Ages, the concept of quadrivium (‘four ways”) meant the study of the liberal arts. It comprised four areas: arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy, together forming a foundation for the study of philosophy. In the song Venus, we can discern the relationship between the orbits of the planet of love and beauty, and Earth.
There are elements of drone music in this album. A drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment. It is a note or chord that continuously sounds throughout most or all of a piece. We can find drones in different cultures, from the didgeridoo of Australian Aboriginal music and the tanpura of Indian music, to Scottish bagpipes and Tibetan overtone (or “throat”) singing.
We can say that drone music is like mantras, something that repeats itself so many times that it loses its meaning. We are also surrounded by drone sounds in our modern world. The sound of all the machines that surround us can be so familiar that we’re unaware of them. Do these sounds affect our psyche? Even before the current crisis, we already had a pandemic of stress, anxiety, and depression. What about the influence of the sounds of nature? Can birdsong, rustling leaves in trees, wind, and water change our perception of life? It would be interesting to study the impact of all these sounds. How does it affect our consciousness?.
RS Contributor Network Creator: Andy Martin
Andy Martin is a Mexican Jamaican electronic musician and artist. He is based in México and has been creating music for the last 10 years. On this album creation: “I composed this audiovisual album focused on meditation and contemplation. I wanted to do something that could bring some calm to people. Even before the current COVID-19 crisis, we already had a pandemic of stress, anxiety, and depression. Initially, it had been conceived as an art installation for museums. However, due to the current situation, I decided to put it online to share with the world.”
