sound-psychology-ego-zen-death

[Tim Kugel <guitardo@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

hi Tobias

"tobias c. van Veen" wrote:

> Of interest, there's a certain Prof. over at Harvard Psych who is looking at
> using music -- specifically ambient and microsound -- to attempt to calm
> "ADD" kids. I was a little shocked to learn that the standard practice was
> still to tie these kids down, "19th Century style" (what in fact remains
> 21C, unforunately).

not surprising, very good idea (probably healthier and better than ridilin
IMO)...sad to hear that the therapy is messed up with what sounds like cruelty.

> Also amazing how little American psych knows of Felix
> Guattari's work @ La Borde clinic --

please send more off list! I am more in the Szasz camp than most, but did not know
of this.

> Suggestions so
> far have been to create a classic chill-out room in Harvard,

ah- if they could use this for the business and government studies programs...

I think a facet of microsound and ambient and others....is the anonymous...or non
ego...nature of the composer's attitude towards his/her work. This was discussed a
long while back in a thread about DJ culture, on this list I think. Not to make
too fine a point on this, but...

I am getting old...not too healthy...have a belief in the many cogs theory of
social action.  --> A minimal act can change the mind/cells/atoms of the world.
<-- This and zen have always been close to my idea of a collective
spirituality....or context - for life.

As one faces death, one wonders...do I attempt to leave a record?...is this
ego?...would Meher Baba approve, so to speak? (joke)...does the random quality of
some electronic musics and the minimal attributes of same spread or generate
collective meaning for others? Is the writing or free association of words and
sounds contain life altering and planet changing vibrations? All in a day's
musings...

I know Stockhausen has written on a sacred and profane qualities of music...big
trouble for a statement about 9-11 involved Satan....but I refer to a quality
contained in process [journey] and random collection, of the time-symphony of non
repetitive change...to express this in sound.

Is this toooooo morbid? For me, not. I am more fascinated than scared, and
although a huge Phil K Dick fan, I don't see only a grotesque human hand at work
in our world.  The shrinking of the world and the destruction of the planet seems
expressed very well in microsound works I've heard...my impression of the Waterman
project works, such as Andrey's washing waves, and nearly all others there - is a
simulation or approximation of a nature. So, is micro music and ambient sound a
reflection of a surreal dream or of a sacred trajectory?

Is microsound the soundtrack of an apocalyptic time? Or a [another] return to
science in art? Is it divorced from such meanings for most of us here? Or not?

------------------------------