Improvised Synthphony No.1, "The Explorer", mov't 1

[nickc]

I'm excited to share this with you all. All though it's definitely "out there", I feel this improvisation explores new musical grounds. I'm finding that improvising in a poly instrumental sense, opens new avenues of musical ideas. By improvising in this manner, one is forced to let go of harmony, scales, chords, key signatures etc... and allows the creator to just "speak" in music.

 Instead of cadences, I use what I like to call  "musical magnetism"... A push/pull system of harmony/rhythm whereby consonance/dissonance (both tonally and rhythmically) don't exist as two separate entities (not that they ever were, but that is how most would understand the concept)... instead, tonal/rhythmic structures are either attracted to one another, or they repel one an another. Either way, this concept allows for the music to infinitely expand/contract without the need for conventional musical ideas. It's a deeper exploration of counterpoint without any conventional "rules".
 
A question is asked, and the answer is explored... just like day to day life. Everyday is no different then a musical improvisation. We have no idea what each day might bring but yet every action, no matter how small, leads to something else. Something "new"... but yet everything seems to work together in a consonantly dissonant contrapuntal musical existence.

Simply put... we are all improvisers! Most of us just don't realize it... yet.

Looking forward to discussing this!

Nicholas

[nickc]

I would also like to add that I have been toying with this concept since I first started to explore improvisation in 2015. I have recorded 3 "poly instrumental improvisational albums" since the fall of 2015 and this one is definitely the furthest I've explored musically... For comparison, here are the other 3.

If you would like to explore these albums track by track, the times and track names are in the youtube description.

1) My debut Album, Sonic Architecture: This is my very first composition and is "psychedelic" in nature (as most of my music is). This was recorded in garage band, fall 2015.

2) Miles High: This is my first attempt at a psychedelic jazz album and the title track is one of my favorite improvisations. Pure contrapuntal exploration...

3) Brain Mapping: A musical exploration of mental illness/emotion (the track tiles are essential for this work. It opens with the sound of "autism: A sensory overload" and ends with "Death"

[ted]

This interesting music, it seems to me, has a common aesthetic boundary with that which used to be called "space music" (not because of the picture). The difference is that you manage to embody your own piano personality, including the very vital Asian influence. The continuous transformation I remarked on before is here too, and very effective, especially transitions in rhythm, which I find particularly exciting. I cannot begin to imagine how I would set about creating such music myself though. For what it is worth, I didn't hear any sounds I would describe as dissonant; just what you get used to, I suppose. I do think, however, that this music is better heard through good headphones or, better still, through a big hi-fi in a large room.

[ted]

I am listening to the Sonic Architecture album for the third time. What is it that makes your music compulsively listenable ? To attempt analysis by selecting this or that detail, while a good exercise in pattern recognition, is not germane to understanding its syncretic effect, and indeed, attempting such might possibly hinder it. For instance, "Loosing Ludwig" and "Miles Away" are very acute imitations, but to perceive them solely on that level sells them short. "Memory", despite its brevity and simplicity, resided with me the longest after the first hearing, but the reason for this, not that reason is needed, eludes me.

A musical experience requires a listening mind as well as a creating brain. It is a bit like one of those experiments wherein the investigator ineluctably affects the outcome. Self-reference, as Douglas Hofstadter repeatedly, and I think correctly, asserts in all his books, is fundamental to our own nature, the nature of mind and consciousness, and beyond that an intrinsic property of the universe. It strikes me as oddly significant that your set ends in precisely the same way as many of my own improvisations, with the reassertion of the unified life force, the dance of Shiva, or as Aldous Huxley termed it, a Rakshasi Hornpipe. Why should this be the case ? Quite frankly, I haven't a clue.