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“The First Day Unnamed” (w/ Disturbed Earth) on AtmoWorks.com, Friday, Oct. 30
This album (a long form piece timing in at just over 71 minutes) literally grew out of the parts and pieces of my trilogy collaboration with Dean/Disturbed Earth that came out in 2008 ("Broken Gold," "Busy with Dreams," "The Rest of Time"). That said, this is not a continuation or regurgitation of those works. It is an entirely new piece that has it's own unique character and feeling tone. In the previous trilogy, Dean took my sounds and twisted, bent, re-sculpted them with his own sensibilities and processes, adding his own sounds into the mix. With "First Day...," I have re-cycled and re-processed some pieces that Dean created that didn't make it into the original series, ran them through my own processes and internal filters, adding my own sounds (once again) along the way. (Dean is so prolific that not everything made the cut for the trilogy.) I think Dean and I both love the idea of intermingling, mixing and churning up creations to re-create, re-define and re-discover. Basically, I've recycled Dean's recycling to create a whole new creature: "The First Day Unnamed." The title was inspired by the idea that we strive to encage and cordon off the world by being able to label and define nearly everything without and within us. In doing so, we create the "known," when in reality, much remains unknown, because in truth, we have only investigated that which is most comfortable to us. This disk is characterized by deep terrestrial drones and textures, hints of melody, churning subterranean machinery, occasional calls of weird animals, distant flute, voice and gongs.
I really had no theme in mind for this work other than to delve deeply into the pieces that Dean had created with our sounds, and let whatever wanted to take shape, take shape. As I was making the piece, I could discern that the character of the piece was decidedly shadowy. I have done what might be considered darker sounds before, but they are usually, inherently, mixed with light or at least, more twilight moments. Not so here. For me, this is a nocturnal, subterranean, primal, primeval, visceral, murky, shaded, cavernous expression. For me, it's vital to express these contents in music (I think it is for Dean as well). It's important for my music to have these elements, because it mirrors our process as Human Beings and what we are: we all posses, repress and express what Carl Jung, Robert Bly, Joseph Campbell and others called, "shadow content." For most of us, these psychic contents remain stuffed away in what Bly called, "the long bag we drag behind us." In western culture we typically think of these contents as being "evil," "unwanted," "dark," "unnecessary," "ungodly," etc. For me, this is just another way of disempowering ourselves; for inside Bly's long bag, is not only our fear, hatred, jealousy, distrust, past misdeeds, past unhappy experiences, but also the parts of ourselves that we were trained to turn away and disown which, if we were to recognize them, might actually make us whole. From the time we are very young, we are often taught to stuff and decline what makes us unique, "different," "weird," and ultimately the empowered, awesome entities that we truly are. We do this in hopes of fitting in and being acceptable to the our families, our friends, our lovers, and ourselves. When we can acknowledge and even embrace these elements, we reclaim these unnamed, lost portions of ourselves, potentially making a new and stronger Being. Where elements were once scattered, fragmented and disowned, they are now reunited, re-defined and given context. This is a process that lasts our entire life which enriches us as individuals, as a culture, and as a world, for when we internalize these contents ("good" and "bad"), we are less likely to endow others with these qualities and own them ourselves.
"The First Day Unnamed" comes out at a very important time of year for Dean and myself. For those of us in North America, this is, Fall and Halloween, (and it's also Samhain for some of us), a time of year when we are on the slow slide into the depths of winter, when everything begins to sleep and go into decline—the Earth sleeps for a few months preparing to re-energize Herself for the coming Spring. For Dean, in Australia, it's his birthday! Dean and I are both very pleased to sing out 2009 with this release, and hope is will bring the potential for an unnamed day for everyone in 2010.
I really had no theme in mind for this work other than to delve deeply into the pieces that Dean had created with our sounds, and let whatever wanted to take shape, take shape. As I was making the piece, I could discern that the character of the piece was decidedly shadowy. I have done what might be considered darker sounds before, but they are usually, inherently, mixed with light or at least, more twilight moments. Not so here. For me, this is a nocturnal, subterranean, primal, primeval, visceral, murky, shaded, cavernous expression. For me, it's vital to express these contents in music (I think it is for Dean as well). It's important for my music to have these elements, because it mirrors our process as Human Beings and what we are: we all posses, repress and express what Carl Jung, Robert Bly, Joseph Campbell and others called, "shadow content." For most of us, these psychic contents remain stuffed away in what Bly called, "the long bag we drag behind us." In western culture we typically think of these contents as being "evil," "unwanted," "dark," "unnecessary," "ungodly," etc. For me, this is just another way of disempowering ourselves; for inside Bly's long bag, is not only our fear, hatred, jealousy, distrust, past misdeeds, past unhappy experiences, but also the parts of ourselves that we were trained to turn away and disown which, if we were to recognize them, might actually make us whole. From the time we are very young, we are often taught to stuff and decline what makes us unique, "different," "weird," and ultimately the empowered, awesome entities that we truly are. We do this in hopes of fitting in and being acceptable to the our families, our friends, our lovers, and ourselves. When we can acknowledge and even embrace these elements, we reclaim these unnamed, lost portions of ourselves, potentially making a new and stronger Being. Where elements were once scattered, fragmented and disowned, they are now reunited, re-defined and given context. This is a process that lasts our entire life which enriches us as individuals, as a culture, and as a world, for when we internalize these contents ("good" and "bad"), we are less likely to endow others with these qualities and own them ourselves.
"The First Day Unnamed" comes out at a very important time of year for Dean and myself. For those of us in North America, this is, Fall and Halloween, (and it's also Samhain for some of us), a time of year when we are on the slow slide into the depths of winter, when everything begins to sleep and go into decline—the Earth sleeps for a few months preparing to re-energize Herself for the coming Spring. For Dean, in Australia, it's his birthday! Dean and I are both very pleased to sing out 2009 with this release, and hope is will bring the potential for an unnamed day for everyone in 2010.
Add a Comment
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Comment by Steve Brand on November 4, 2009 at 6:06pm - I've got to add: the cover and interior art for "The First Day Unnamed," besides being photos that I really enjoyed taking, were aligned purposefully with this release. Robert Bly speaks often of the symbolic nature of ashes in his book, "Iron John." For Bly, ashes are what's left after the heat of the fire has receded, they symbolize death, transformation, lost dreams. He stresses that it's important to roll in the ashes once in a while, as a way of acknowledging and embodying change/transformation...and how necessary it is to occasionally shovel the ashes out of the stove to avoid them choking the fire all-together. It's easy to see the psychic and spiritual language being spoken here.
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Comment by eyes cast down on October 31, 2009 at 9:01am - Love the clip - great work lads! I can sure relate to what you said about shadow content - the theme's a bit related to my thoughts about my piece Rebuild From Memory, I should blog that a bit. Great work once again Steve, always glad to hear from you!
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Comment by John Koch-Northrup on October 28, 2009 at 7:51am -
In honor of the upcoming release - I'm listening to the first three collab albums again today:
+ Broken Gold
+ Busy With Dreams
+ The Rest of Time
Two of my favorite ambient composers/musicians - always good stuff.
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