What Time period, or civilization, would best fit most of the music heard in Atmoworks?

[Ian Michael Peters]

A silly question indeed!!! I pondered for an answer to my rediculous inquiry and could not come to a steady conclusion.
I would have to say that most of the gracious and wondrous works here at Atmoworks by Igneous Flame, Steve Brand, Disturbed Earth, Eno, SAVO, etc. would have to belong to the Ancient times. When the world was young and full of mysteries and wonders untouched by human hands. I could not think of a specific civilization to match this genre of music unfortunately. Perhaps you could offer an interesting perspective?

[Steve Brand]

I've seen sillier blogs! ;-) Seriously, as always, interesting subject IMP. In making my own music, or even listening to the work of others, some of the material I've read by Ramtha and others is evoked that proposes that there were once great civilizations (some equaling or surpassing our own in technological and spiritual developments) approximately 35-40,000 years ago, but due to glaciation, movement of the Earth's crust, and the shear destruction they brought upon themselves, there SEEM to be no traces. With this music, I often think of those times...and possibly remember.

In addition, I think about and feel outside of "the grid of time." For me, much of this music takes me to a timeless place and state of being. Possible times. "Possible Worlds," as Eno and Hassell proposed. Worlds, expressions of forms and existences waiting to be made manifest, or that are manifest in other levels of Being that we cannot yet see and experience. For me, it's all transporting!

Fun topic!

[John Koch-Northrup]

Silly questions are sometimes the most fun to answer...

With my own music... when I'm sitting at the piano, playing bass, or turning synth knobs... the absolute best times, the magical times - are when I totally shut off my brain, go into auto-pilot, and drift. My instincts, my years of playing, my years of listening to music - all take over. I'm not outside myself - I'm simply living in the moment and at that moment it's playing music. This most often happens to me playing the piano. In a way - it's when I stop thinking and just let my heart take over. It's like being inside the music.

So - for me - I guess the answer is (at least when I'm playing) it's right now.

When I'm listening to artists... I don't know - I guess it really depends... sometimes a track might evoke some primative feeling to me - some earlier age. Or maybe it feels more sci-fi in the future. I think some of that depends on my own frame of mind - and whether the artist themselves have framed the music in a way to lead me down a certain path. Steve Brand's Cahokia for example - he evokes a sense of the ancient culture that inhabited Cahokia... but he also evokes his feelings about he himself being there visiting the mounds. So in a sense - his descriptions about his recordings have added a bit of color to my listening. I don't find that a bad thing at all - I like it when artists open up and discuss why a certain recording was made, what influenced them, and what equipment they used. As a musician and a listener - I find this all interesting. The technical side of me can dissect a track - pick out the mastering, the playing of different instruments, the interplay of different lines in a track, subtle shifts... the listener side of me just appreciates the moment. The feeling the music evokes.

And sometimes - it's just fun to crank something up and listen and enjoy it and who cares how it was recorded, when, or why... ;-)

[John Koch-Northrup]

...guess I should add a side note to my playing tangent above... many times that "magical" moment doesn't happen! My brain won't shut down - I'm busy thinking about things... what happened at work, need to pay bills, must be a storm coming because my arthritis is annoying, or something silly.

[Igneous Flame]

I think this is a very interesting post actually.

For me, the most successful ambient material is timeless, in a sense. Naturally technology 'dates'
music, regarding the equipment used and the like. But the really interesting material still has that
sense of 'timelessness'.

I don't want to sound overly dramatic, but when I'm working on my material, I know a piece works if
I close my eyes and listen to it intently on the 'phones and it takes me 'somewhere'. That
'somewhere' certainly isn't terrestrial !

Speaking as a guitar player, like a lot of other musicians I have experienced that transcendence
that you can get in an improvisational situation - when you 'disappear' effectively.

cheers
Pete

[Steve Brand]

Wait...there's something wrong with sounding overly dramatic?! I'm always the last to know..

[John Koch-Northrup]

When were you overly dramatic?

[Steve Brand]

Written with humor as reply to IF.

Me dramatic?! Never.

John Koch-Northrup said:

When were you overly dramatic?

[Orb Gettarr]

I say during the height of the Toltec empire.. some during the Mayan civilization, and perhaps some Aztec- but so as not to be prejudicial toward one geographical location, we could also include the Egyptian civilization of 3,500 years ago, and perhaps the Atlantean culture that preceded it.

[Seren]

My own favourite 'time' is everything before humans arrived and the wide variety of places and worlds...Mind you I also like the quantum world and the 'other worlds' those beyond the veil of this one, which can be timeless or have a different time to ours.

I thought Steve Roach's 'Early Man' explored great territory - the time when every sound was important, no such thing as noise. Living a life where you had to know where every sound came from, what made it and whether to go towards it or in the opposite direction.

I also like imagination, the worlds within us, or that are gateways to other realms.....