Ringing the 3rd floor bell at 275 Church Street, we were buzzed in and walked up a narrow staircase towards the volunteer monitor at the top. She asked if we had ever been here before, told us to take off our shoes, not to talk inside and to have a pleasant experience. I opened the door and was immediately blasted by low-frequency rumblings. Above me, a blue and red neon design cast purple shadows along the hall and the plush white carpet. My friend held a hand to his ear and a complaint showed on his face. We walked down the hall towards the main space, a square, white room bathed in purple lights with speakers and sub-woofers aimed inwards from white towers in each corner. There were six or seven other people in attendance, sprawled out on white pillows in various states of awareness. Some appeared asleep, most seemed to be enjoying pure aural osmosis, letting the sound wash over and under them.
As I walked across the room, the sound seemed to pulse and move, both in time and in frequency, but once I joined the others on the floor, the sound stopped all movement and remained static. I sat up and the sound changed. I laid down again and it returned to its static state. Wondering, I lifted my head no more than an inch. The sound changed. I placed my hands behind my head and the sound changed again. Any amount of movement slightly changed which sine waves reached my ears at the particular time and spot my head resided in the room. Still, the sound, wherever I laid my head, remained static. Eventually, I got comfortable and relaxed in the racket.
About five minutes passed before I realized that patterns were changing and developing within the sound. Percussive elements, ranging from tapping sounds to cricket and cicada-like chirpings, blurring waves of static like airplanes flying overhead, a rhythmic pulse and super low-frequency rumblings were all moving with almost physical dimension through my body and brain. A few more minutes passed before I figure out that I can somewhat control the sound by concentrating on particular elements. Before long, I am controlling the rhythmic frequency of the percussive elements, crickets and cicadas are having conversations, airplanes are ascending and descending as if by my will. Am I hallucinating this? Everything I know is telling me that the sound is not changing, and that I am creating these variations in my head. By moving my mind's eye (or ear) around, I am making this music as much as Young is.
Article comments
1 - zingzing
HEY LOOK! first one since july or something. anybody even read this thing yet? sigh...
2 - Mark Saleski
will you relax! i have it printed out and will comment tonight. sheesh!!! ;-)
(cool topic, by the way)
3 - Pico
Sorry, I don't remember anyone who's been AWOL from here for six months or more.
Pretty damned fine article, stranger, but I'm surprised you didn't mention that La Monte played with Don Cherry and Billy Higgins while in high school.
4 - zingzing
yeah, and i didn't mention his blues work either, mostly because i've never heard it. he went to some very famous (for its music program) high school... but i can't be bothered to remember the name right now. i believe he started out on saxophone...
besides, there's enough jazz writing on this site without me going and pooping in the pool.
anyway, he released some blues work as well, or what he decides to call blues, back in the 80s. that's been impossible to track down so far. as for how much his blues and jazz work influenced his minimalism, i won't claim to know. some of his writings (and some samples i think) are up at ubu web, so maybe there might be a clue there.
as for the not writing thing... well... i took some time off to do other things. and other things sometimes take a while. plus blogcritics was rather unhappy with safari for a while.
5 - Jeannie Danna
So, you have only published 8 articles in how many years here? All of them music reviews and none in politics, then you come over to my thread and leave a nasty little insinuation about who? Me or Cindy? This is America and I was under the impression that I was a writer here the same as you. This is an inquiry.
6 - zingzing
the hell are you talking about? i didn't leave any nasty insinuation about anyone, unless it was justoneman... and as far as i know i haven't left any comments on any of your writings...
and what does the fact that i like to write about music rather than politics have to do with anything...
you've jumped a gun here, jeannie.
7 - zingzing
jeannie. ha. yeah. "the ugly girl in a game of spin the bottle?" that was for justoneman. i was saying his presence on the website, which i'm sure he reads (since he was commenting before the editors swooped in), is an eyesore. not you.
it's my fault for commenting on the one better left ignored and forgotten, aka jom. i just wanted to play.
see? no need to get worked up.