#Nature White Noise the wind the Ocean Waves and the Sounds of Water Meditation | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

irrfahrer · 2 years

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“The ocean is so mysterious at night…” [blind and being a lovable fool]

The night by the ocean was as cool and fresh as a snowflake, the waves were white not from snow but from the spray that dyed the waves silver where it hit the black sand. Tynna was a planet whichs nature had been carefully preserved like a precious gem, so the ocean at whichs edge they were walking and the air they were breathing in was cold but also clean like a gulp of refreshing springwater. It was quiet, most buildings on Tynna had been build underwater so the noises of civilisation were dampned by the calm waves. In the late evening the beach was empty, at the horizont driftwood had been washed ashore and looked in the starlight like giant lifeforms that were so still as if they were peacefully sleeping. Ziv had hooked her small paw in the crook of Kestrels arm and thought abut that she was happy that the other could now walk like this, she thougth about how she enjoyed the cool wind and the water splashing around her webbed toes, she thought about that the sound of the rushing waves remained her of something she had heard in her dreams of the time when she had been nothing but a infant, she thought about that the black sand, the distanttreelines and the clean ocean were very bautiful and she thought about how strange it was.

She thought about how strange it felt to be here in the palce where she had been born and yet feel as if she did not belonged, she thought about that in the Jedi Temple she had never heard a oceans waves rush and never smelled the salt in the air and never had seen by water grinded down and paled driftwood shimmer in silver starlight and that doing it now felt strange. It felt strange because it did not felt like home.

It felt strange because it did not felt like home,when this was the planet she had been born on, the planet she had been born for, the planet she had been made for and that still did not felt like the home with the warm sunlight falling in the corridors, with the blue shimmer of the archives holobooks, with the meditation chambers and the gardens and the distant noises of Coruscant past the Temples walls that did not soudnd in the sligtest like the rushing of cold waves. It felt strange because the place she was in had been a place she had dreamed of since she had been a child as a home, but was not her home and the place that was her home since she had been a child was now gone and burned down by the empire until it was nothing but a wisp of what it was in her memory. Poes voice made Zivs ears turn in his direction, moonlight shimmering on her pale pelt and turning it into silver. At the edge of her mind the Tynnan was suddenly very happy that the other could not read her mind and automatically she lifted her other paw and gently stroked over his arm, feeling that the skinw as covered in goosebumps from the coolness, but also the warmth of a healthy humanoid beneath the skin. "...sure, when you can not see a kriffing Kriff, it sure is mysterious. Very kriffing mysterious.", the young woman mumbled and shoved the thoughts about strangeness and home at the back of her head hasty like a dirty secret so in the very sensetive moments Kestrel had he would not catch random wisps of her thougths like a sometimes wind caught randomly pieces of flimsi when the scuttles of a house had been left open. Instead she thought about the bed she had put a hot waterbottle inside under the blankets before they had left for a walk, she thought about the easily heated up soup pot still standing on the stove, she thought about the dried wood to burn through she had put in the oven and she thought about the waterheater that could make it easy to prepare a hot bath. There was a smile spreading on the young womans muzzle, showing the razorsharp edges of her canines in all their glory.

Then she jumped forward, leaned down, burried her small paws in the waves and moved them hectically up again, making two waves of icecold saltwater wash over the other and destroying the calm rushing of waves with a loud splash that was in the silence as loud as thunder: "-MYSTERIOUSLY COLD!"

[ @poewingsdameron ]

#Poe the blind fool and Ziv the menace #that would be a nice shiptag #right next to 'Pants are optional'#asdfghjkl #poewingsdameron #V: Building a Trojan Horse

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british-order-of-thelema-blog · 5 years

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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

For the second day of the Thelemic Holy season pathworking (March 21st e.v.) we are studying Atu XX - 'The Aeon' which corresponds to the path of Shin which connects the sephira Malkuth and Hod on the kabbalistic Tree of Life.

Todays reading is Chapter IV from Liber LXV: Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente sub figûra אדני

1. O crystal heart! I the Serpent clasp Thee; I drive home mine head into the central core of Thee, O God my beloved.

2. Even as on the resounding wind-swept heights of Mitylene some god-like woman casts aside the lyre, and with her locks aflame as an aureole, plunges into the wet heart of the creation, so I, O Lord my God!

3. There is a beauty unspeakable in this heart of corruption, where the flowers are aflame.

4. Ah me! but the thirst of Thy joy parches up this throat, so that I cannot sing.

5. I will make me a little boat of my tongue, and explore the unknown rivers. It may be that the everlasting salt may turn to sweetness, and that my life may be no longer athirst.

6. O ye that drink of the brine of your desire, ye are nigh to madness! Your torture increaseth as ye drink, yet still ye drink. Come up through the creeks to the fresh water; I shall be waiting for you with my kisses.

7. As the bezoar-stone that is found in the belly of the cow, so is my lover among lovers.

8. O honey boy! Bring me Thy cool limbs hither! Let us sit awhile in the orchard, until the sun go down! Let us feast on the cool grass! Bring wine, ye slaves, that the cheeks of my boy may flush red.

9. In the garden of immortal kisses, O thou brilliant One, shine forth! Make Thy mouth an opium-poppy, that one kiss is the key to the infinite sleep and lucid, the sleep of Shi-loh-am.

10. In my sleep I beheld the Universe like a clear crystal without one speck.

11. There are purse-proud penniless ones that stand at the door of the tavern and prate of their feats of wine-bibbing.

12. There are purse-proud penniless ones that stand at the door of the tavern and revile the guests.

13. The guests dally upon couches of mother-of-pearl in the garden; the noise of the foolish men is hidden from them.

14. Only the inn-keeper feareth lest the favour of the king be withdrawn from him.

15. Thus spake the Magister V.V.V.V.V. unto Adonai his God, as they played together in the starlight over against the deep black pool that is in the Holy Place of the Holy House beneath the Altar of the Holiest One.

16. But Adonai laughed, and played more languidly.

17. Then the scribe took note, and was glad. But Adonai had no fear of the Magician and his play. For it was Adonai who had taught all his tricks to the Magician.

18. And the Magister entered into the play of the Magician. When the Magician laughed he laughed; all as a man should do.

19. And Adonai said: Thou art enmeshed in the web of the Magician. This He said subtly, to try him.

20. But the Magister gave the sign of the Magistry, and laughed back on Him: O Lord, O beloved, did these fingers relax on Thy curls, or these eyes turn away from Thine eye?

21. And Adonai delighted in him exceedingly.

22. Yea, O my master, thou art the beloved of the Beloved One; the Bennu Bird is set up in Philæ not in vain.

23. I who was the priestess of Ahathoor rejoice in your love. Arise, O Nile-God, and devour the holy place of the Cow of Heaven! Let the milk of the stars be drunk up by Sebek the dweller of Nile!

24. Arise, O serpent Apep, Thou art Adonai the beloved one! Thou art my darling and my lord, and Thy poison is sweeter than the kisses of Isis the mother of the Gods!

25. For Thou art He! Yea, Thou shalt swallow up Asi and Asar, and the children of Ptah. Thou shalt pour forth a flood of poison to destroy the works of the Magician. Only the Destroyer shall devour Thee; Thou shalt blacken his throat, wherein his spirit abideth. Ah, serpent Apep, but I love Thee!

26. My God! Let Thy secret fang pierce to the marrow of the little secret bone that I have kept against the Day of Vengeance of Hoor-Ra. Let Kheph-Ra sound his sharded drone! let the jackals of Day and Night howl in the wilderness of Time! let the Towers of the Universe totter, and the guardians hasten away! For my Lord hath revealed Himself as a mighty serpent, and my heart is the blood of His body.

27. I am like a love-sick courtesan of Corinth. I have toyed with kings and captains, and made them my slaves. To-day I am the slave of the little asp of death; and who shall loosen our love?

28. Weary, weary! saith the scribe, who shall lead me to the sight of the Rapture of my master?

29. The body is weary and the soul is sore weary and sleep weighs down their eyelids; yet ever abides the sure consciousness of ecstasy, unknown, yet known in that its being is certain. O Lord, be my helper, and bring me to the bliss of the Beloved!

30. I came to the house of the Beloved, and the wine was like fire that flieth with green wings through the world of waters.

31. I felt the red lips of nature and the black lips of perfection. Like sisters they fondled me their little brother; they decked me out as a bride; they mounted me for Thy bridal chamber.

32. They fled away at Thy coming; I was alone before Thee.

33. I trembled at Thy coming, O my God, for Thy messenger was more terrible than the Death-star.

34. On the threshold stood the fulminant figure of Evil, the Horror of emptiness, with his ghastly eyes like poisonous wells. He stood, and the chamber was corrupt; the air stank. He was an old and gnarled fish more hideous than the shells of Abaddon.

35. He enveloped me with his demon tentacles; yea, the eight fears took hold upon me.

36. But I was anointed with the right sweet oil of the Magister; I slipped from the embrace as a stone from the sling of a boy of the woodlands.

37. I was smooth and hard as ivory; the horror gat no hold. Then at the noise of the wind of Thy coming he was dissolved away, and the abyss of the great void was unfolded before me.

38. Across the waveless sea of eternity Thou didst ride with Thy captains and Thy hosts; with Thy chariots and horsemen and spearmen didst Thou travel through the blue.

39. Before I saw Thee Thou wast already with me; I was smitten through by Thy marvellous spear.

40. I was stricken as a bird by the bolt of the thunderer; I was pierced as the thief by the Lord of the Garden.

41. O my Lord, let us sail upon the sea of blood!

42. There is a deep taint beneath the ineffable bliss; it is the taint of generation.

43. Yea, though the flower wave bright in the sunshine, the root is deep in the darkness of earth.

44. Praise to thee, O beautiful dark earth, thou art the mother of a million myriads of myriads of flowers.

45. Also I beheld my God, and the countenance of Him was a thousandfold brighter than the lightning. Yet in his heart I beheld the slow and dark One, the ancient one, the devourer of His children.

46. In the height and the abyss, O my beautiful, there is no thing, verily, there is no thing at all, that is not altogether and perfectly fashioned for Thy delight.

47. Light cleaveth unto Light, and filth to filth; with pride one contemneth another. But not Thou, who art all, and beyond it; who art absolved from the Division of the Shadows.

48. O day of Eternity, let Thy wave break in foamless glory of sapphire upon the laborious coral of our making!

49. We have made us a ring of glistening white sand, strewn wisely in the midst of the Delightful Ocean.

50. Let the palms of brilliance flower upon our island; we shall eat of their fruit, and be glad.

51. But for me the lustral water, the great ablution, the dissolving of the soul in that resounding abyss.

52. I have a little son like a wanton goat; my daughter is like an unfledged eaglet; they shall get them fins, that they may swim.

53. That they may swim, O my beloved, swim far in the warm honey of Thy being, O blessed one, O boy of beatitude!

54. This heart of mine is girt about with the serpent that devoureth his own coils.

55. When shall there be an end, O my darling, O when shall the Universe and the Lord thereof be utterly swallowed up?

56. Nay! who shall devour the Infinite? who shall undo the Wrong of the Beginning?

57. Thou criest like a white cat upon the roof of the Universe; there is none to answer Thee.

58. Thou art like a lonely pillar in the midst of the sea; there is none to behold Thee, O Thou who beholdest all!

59. Thou dost faint, thou dost fail, thou scribe; cried the desolate Voice; but I have filled thee with a wine whose savour thou knowest not.

60. It shall avail to make drunken the people of the old gray sphere that rolls in the infinite Far-off; they shall lap the wine as dogs that lap the blood of a beautiful courtesan pierced through by the Spear of a swift rider through the city.

61. I too am the Soul of the desert; thou shalt seek me yet again in the wilderness of sand.

62. At thy right hand a great lord and a comely; at thy left hand a woman clad in gossamer and gold and having the stars in her hair. Ye shall journey far into a land of pestilence and evil; ye shall encamp in the river of a foolish city forgotten; there shall ye meet with Me.

63. There will I make Mine habitation; as for bridal will I come bedecked and anointed; there shall the Consummation be accomplished.

64. O my darling, I also wait for the brilliance of the hour ineffable, when the universe shall be like a girdle for the midst of the ray of our love, extending beyond the permitted end of the endless One.

65. Then, O thou heart, will I the serpent eat thee wholly up; yea, I will eat thee wholly up.

Happy pathworking and meditations!

In LVX et NOX

Love is the law, love under Will.

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numberonebouquetperson · 4 years

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Aqua Wav – Wind Chimes Sample – Bolder Sounds (Free Music Effect)

Aqua Wav a beautifully sampled set of ethereal copper Wind Chimes. All 6 chimes are sampled in 3 articulations – with a rubber mallet, a wood “beater” and wood stick hits. Also included are Wind Chime atmospheric samples, some of which were processed with Granular Synthesis for an other-worldly quality. Programming includes velocity cross faded articulations, layered pads and flexible key mapping.

55 MB of pristine stereo looped samples

18 single chime samples

3 articulations – rubber, wood and stick

5 Atmospheric samples (3 treated with Granular processing)

Formats:

Kontakt 2: 29 instrument files (.nki)

Apple Logic EXS 24: 24 instrument files (.exs)

You may also like;

Native Instruments – Absynth 5 – Mac Torrent v5.2.0 UPDATE [OSX]

Download Link || Mirror

Aqua Chimes:

This time from Koshi Bells series meditations: Water element. The beautiful tonal scale of this Aqua chimes gives me a thrilling, immersive, unconditional experience of pure gratitude and thankfulness. Dive into chiming sound effect relaxing ocean of delicate sounds and find the waves that will let you flow deep into oneness… Lay back with headphones, relax and close your eyes.

Wind Chimes Sample:

Soothing ambiance Chimes, Rain, Thunder & WInd. This relaxing nature sound video creates a peaceful atmosphere for sleep & insomnia, relaxation and a lot of other applications. This video contains wind chimes sample, rain, thunder, thunderstorm and wind sounds. If you have insomnia or a sleep disorder, then this video can be helpful.

Wind Chimes Sound Effect:

Nature sounds are known to reduce stress and anxiety. If you have problems with sleeping this nature video can help you to relax, you can fall into a deep relaxing sleep. This peaceful ambiance a natural noise, includes white noise winds to help calm your mind. Perfect also as background for massage rooms and offices to stay focussed and concentrated as well as doing homework.

Windchime Wav:

Best enjoyed with using sleepphones during nights in low volume as background sound or played as underlay with your favourite music. New Earth meditation is back on Calm channel, but with new video I recorded this summer. Please give windchime wav a like to spread the sounds. I’m moving things around from my second channel “thanks to” YT that blocked it from monetization. Beautiful Koshi Bells Earth element spring meditation…

You will find safety in aqua wav and calm as never before. Close your eyes and experience the crystal clear waters of stillness where you find path to a new life and peace. Soak in the water of healing sounds that will resonate with your imagination and imagination is a portal of rebirth. Koshi bells Earth element 432hz and rainstick.

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mosylufanfic · 7 years

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The World was Moving She was Right There With it and She Was

“And She Was” by The Talking Heads

The song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgSVTdAtNYE

Most of these prompts are shippy because that's what I asked for, but the person who gave me this prompt also gave me carte blanche to use whatever characters I wanted. When I listened to the song, it's so trippy that this was all I could think of.

The World was Moving She was Right There With it and She Was

The thing was, Rey was terrible at meditation.

"I'm a scavenger, Master Skywalker," she tried to explain. "I'm not good at sitting still. Scavengers live too close to the bone. If you sit still too long, you don't eat."

He looked at her through his shaggy brows. "Right. Yes. Nothing like moisture farming."

Sarcasm was, she felt, entirely uncalled for.

He shook his head. "I know it doesn't come naturally, but not everything about being a Jedi is going to come naturally. That's why you have to work at it."

"Sitting there doing nothing. That's not work."

"You're not doing nothing," he tried to explain, but that was what it looked like to her, the way he would plop down on a convenient bit of rock or patch of floor and not move for hours. "Look. Rey. The Force isn't a battery, all right? You can't just tap into it for power when you need it and ignore it when you don't. You need to spend some time with it. The Force is a living . . . entity. It's beyond living. It surrounds us and - "

"Flows through us," she muttered. "And - "

" - binds the universe together, don't roll your eyes at me."

She raised her brows at his turned back as he scraped food scraps into the recycler. "The Force told you I was rolling my eyes?"

"The Force had nothing to do with it," he said. "More like years of teaching snarky teenagers."

"I'm not a teenager!" she said indignantly, and paused. "I think. Anyway, please, can't I put off meditation to master later?"

"No," he said. "It's the first thing you have to master, or you're just swinging lightsabers around."

"Worked on Starkiller," she muttered, but subsided at his look.

At their nightly meditation practice, she was so fidgety that he opened his eyes and sighed.

"It's too quiet," she tried to explain.

"That's to eliminate distraction."

"I can't just go away from everything like that," she said.

"You're not going away. It's the opposite. You're opening yourself to everything. You're inviting it in and you're going out to it."

"At the same time?"

He shook his head. "Go check the traps."

She clambered down the path to the traps. She knew it was busy-work at best - they'd already had dinner and unless it seemed like there was a storm coming on, he preferred fresh fish. Well, they both did. Desert children that they were, fish still carried the edge of luxury to it, even if it was mostly what they ate.

One lone fish swam placidly around the trap, unaware that it was fated to end up in Rey's belly. She left it to its happy ignorance for a while longer.

She squatted at the edge of the sea, wrapping her legs around her shins and resting her chin on her knees. She let out a little sigh.

She did want to meditate, actually. It looked so good and peaceful when Luke did it, especially when he wasn't trying to drag her along with him. And she could feel it in the Force as he settled into meditation, the bright blob of his powerful presence settling, smoothing, spreading out, the edges feathering into the rest of the world. She envied it, and she envied the calm peace that seemed to hang around him for hours after. She wanted that.

The trouble was - she couldn't.

Silence was too loud for her. Every little hush of wind or scrape of a foot jolted her into guarded awareness, long years of self-preservation kicking in. She felt quite sure that guarded awareness wasn't the best place to meditate from. Awareness, maybe. It was dropping the guard that was the problem.

Her chin itched. She scratched it on the rough fabric stretched over her knees and sighed again.

There was a storm coming. The waves were getting choppier. She watched them roll in, break, collapse with a spray of water, then reform themselves, smaller, closer to the shore, and break again on the rocks, spitting fine mist over her where she squatted. She could move, she thought, but didn't. She wanted to look at the ocean some more.

It was something like the desert.

She'd never liked the desert, exactly, but she missed it. She liked green, she liked the water, she liked rainfall. She really liked the sounds of animals who weren't actively trying to kill you.

But there was something so big about the desert. When you looked out over the sand, listened to the wind, you felt small and temporary and as if all your problems and worries were blips to this uncaring vastness. Even a Star Destroyer was rendered tiny and meaningless in the desert.

How strange was it that she'd always found that a kind of comfort?

The only thing she'd ever seen to rival it was the ocean.

She let out her breath a third time. Not quite a sigh. Balanced as she was, on a slippery rock, she should be much more tense than this.

The sound of the waves and the wind wrapped around her.

Up in the temple, Luke opened his eyes and said, "Huh."

"We're meditating where?" Rey asked, scrambling down the rocks after Luke. They were taking a path she hadn't explored very far yet, because it was very badly maintained. The path looked practically coincidental, as if flat stones had just happened to fall in this particular way by some wild probability. A herd of the fat, flightless black-and-white birds native to the island, with their round eyes and sharp beaks, scrawwwwwwed at her before waddling off in high dudgeon.

"Not we, you," Luke said, picking his placid way down the path as if he knew every stone in it personally and might stop to inquire after one's mother in a moment. He hadn't gotten scrawwwwwed at, she noticed grumpily. "And you'll see."

She muttered to herself.

"You're rolling your eyes at me," Luke called over his shoulder. "Stop it. Ah." He paused, took a step forward, and disappeared.

"Master Luke!" she yelped, reaching out for him automatically.

But he was fine, and she realized that what she'd taken for another dip in the crumpled-looking land was in fact a drop into a cave. She stuck her head in and found him waiting, brows raised.

"Is this a test?"

She had to shout it over some kind of intermittent booming noise.

"This is where you'll meditate," Luke shouted back. "Come down here, Rey."

She eyed the path, decided that if she broke her ankle or smashed her knee on the rocks she'd make Luke heal it, and picked her way down.

The noise was astonishing. It was bigger than sound. It seemed to slam into her like something physical. When she peered toward the other light source, she found that the mouth of the cave was half-underwater and the waves rolling in broke on rocky walls and ground. The booming was the sound of their breaking, echoing and re-echoing in the dips and nooks of the cave.

"I thought meditation required silence," she shouted.

He shook his head. "Try this," he shouted back.

A particularly large wave bashed itself to pieces on the cave wall and spattered them both with cold, salty water.

"Is it safe?"

He shrugged. "Safe enough."

"What if the tide comes in, floods this place, and sucks me out to sea?"

He smiled at her. "Just try it."

"Lovely," she muttered, settling herself on the flattest bit of rock she could find. The pervasive damp immediately started soaking her butt. "You're leaving?"

He waved over his shoulder, clambering up and out of the cave again.

"If I die, I'm going to haunt you," she yelled at his back.

How he heard her, she had no idea. How she heard him say, "You'll have to get in line," she didn't know either.

Before she could think of some kind of response to that, he was gone. She huffed out her breath.

How was she supposed to empty her mind with all this noise?

The waves boomed. Water splashed, echoing damply further back in the cave. Some kind of amphibian squeaked, and she watched a bug skitter over the stone. Waves rolled in, booming louder.

So loud - so much -

It filled her head, crowding out her thoughts. She tried to keep her mind clear, but it was taking her over, wrapping around her -

The ocean. The noise. The fish, the bugs, the sky, the birds, the clouds, the heartbeat of the ground beneath her feet, the song of the stars high overhead. She swore she could feel them all, crowding round her, pressing in on her skin. She shook her head, thinking, Go away, I need to find the Force -

She gasped in sudden recognition.

This was the Force. Not some lofty ideal, drifting about in the ether.

This was the power of life itself, breathing, fighting, dying, being born. Blood and entrails, tooth and claw. The high hum of the tiny biting bugs that lived only a day or two, the low mournful song of the great aquatic mammals far out to sea. The motion of the waves, the crack in the seafloor, the ferocity of the magma hitting the seawater, flash-boiling it to the glee of the animals that made their home on the seafloor vents.

She didn't need to seek it out like a hidden treasure. She just needed to see it as it was.

As present as anything had ever been. More. The moments when she had touched the Force, had let it flow through her, had let it wrap around her - that hadn't been some mystical wisp of elusive power. That was the universe itself grabbing her by the head and saying, Listen. Be.

How did Luke live in this all the time?

Her Rey-ness was slipping away, and she grabbed for it before she realized. She couldn't lose herself. She was in it, she was there. The Force was with her and she was with the Force.

Keeping herself apart from it would be the mistake.

She gasped for air. Her face was wet. She didn't know if it was salt-spray or tears.

Some hours later, she picked herself up and climbed out of the cave, moving very, very carefully. Gravity felt optional. She had to focus on putting her feet on the ground, not above it or under it. Her skin felt like a transparent membrane between her and the universe.

She pushed the door of the hut at the top of the hill open, surprised that her hand pressed on it and was able to move it. She could feel the Force humming in the long-dead wood.

Luke was by the fire, cutting something up for the stew pot. He peered up at her as she picked her way across the room. His hands were nasty with fish skin and blood and guts. His presence glowed like a beacon.

"How was the Force?" he asked.

She settled down across from him, folding up her legs. "Sends its regards."

FINIS

#Rey #Luke Skywalker #fanfiction #mosylufanfic lives up to her damn name #musical prompt party #Rey is a terrible student #Luke is trying to remember how to be a teacher #The Force is just waiting patiently #star wars

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lunarfae714 · 7 years

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guatemaya & mecksiko

12.29 Atop Yaxha Pyramid

when we can measure our journey

in love shared,

found, exchanged?

instead of in fear of disease

hijack eyes of mania

panic

feeding-off-conflict

the beauty is known no ego

only offerings

can the love always be

charged like the Sun,

infinite, and changing

in each hour-

when does it become a service,

the exchange?

when can it be fully free

undrained, exuberant?

for yourself & for all

for the earth

for the wind

for all that is—

changing form

a leminascate

can it all be

selfless

words & actions,

are they enough?

like the rocks that love the water which kisses them,

the eternal dance

of stability & moving union.

***

after noon

soft dreams

downstream

count backwards

from twenty

& forth

until the numbers dissolve

facts turn to feeling

& the border boxes break free

natural & unseen

patterns yet changing

each non-moment still

like pre-dawn’s cirrus

the dance like curtain

unfold away lights

strong-

the elements

burnt sun

ice water

really

feeling it all

full

heart

full

mind

full

nothing

as it should BE

always still

& moving

seed to harvest

sow

in to morrow

with Love’s light

blasting

1.17.16

amethyst

charged

emerald & selentine

dreams directed

by the mind’s wind

candlewax drip

fixed on fingers

the torch lights

our nightcrawl

naked under the quarter moon

& the river runs high

poison toads

& branches that split,

graze under the soles

night becomes dawn

time told by Sky

the visions change in Ember’s logs

consume gadgets not necessary

almighty mother fire force

acts, destroys, creates

our womb ignite

as we place hot stones on our sacral chakras,

active the living unacknowledged children

the family of us

the natural

All living as one.

water pulleys from the creek,

the new flow.

the same water near passes

over our feet twice

our collective feeling,

on solid foundations.

***

when I’m alone

& write poems

of travelers notes

how real addictions can be

to communication

sugar from the parasite

all the world addicted to the white mans crystal

ancient ruins of conquest

how to get away

from conquerer mentality?

can we remove ourselves from history?

why do we capture another?

separate, control, dominate

trapped in the material system

material hunger

we are spiritual beings

meant to live like plants

will it disappear as the bombs go

the few who print the papers

the chemicals & vaccines

police and sex tourists

drag us where?

the north and south pole

on the same earth.

morning meditation on the river dock

silver smokerings oscillate

tubes of ashes fall

the air moves east

& the river rolls west—

wind & water

frankincense & appelblauwzeegroen

their dance

smooth & constant

like thoughts dancing along the rivers

(background noise is all)

no use to anticipate

the next moment

or dwell

the past moment

who you were

what you said

what you thought

what you felt

meaningless

when we live in the mind

in our fears, pain, or planning

we will miss the sweet kiss

of wind on our lips,

the first sip of coffee, bitter

the way the monkeypod shines crimson

gleams bark in the noon sun,

the glory in taking a inhale deep

in tune with the sway of the trees,

you may not see

the makeshift fishingrod

of sticks & shells

the bearded fishermans tailored pants

beside me on the dock

what are we trying to catch?

how simple to speak in silence

when we are at peace,

knowing we swim through these bodies

beyond our crown

beneath our feet

complete

in the profound simplicity

of stillness.

***

day mares

1.7.16

cold breeze & hard nips

a woman sings go ask alice

and the naked children shushing me

under fallen ladders ex-lovers

with newfound company locked

out of the room of togetherness

outside, the observer watches

the time

a stolen wristwatch

a sun blistered lip,

salty like sea waves

& bad barganing

what golden melancholy brings

an even pace a meditation

a clearing of nebulous brain lobes

rotten with acid washed

down gopher holes

bruised & fallen tangerines

which do we shape shift into

focus our energy our hearts

we can be the potted plant

or are we already,

and who is the gardener?

****

san marcos sound wave

lights across the lake, starry

dogfights in the calle

endless & ghastly

cries of infants constant

like crickets

& fireworks

thrown reckless

like the piles of shit

scattered on cement

trumpets & flutes

balancing cop cars on fire

across the lake

peace in the balance

of turquoise caldera

the mother lake

has waves.

when i heard pretchel speak of

the navel—

bellybutton of the earth

blood sacrificed from the

hard hits

deep fingered

dirty regrets

just to sleep in a bed

away from the nightmares shadow/work

9-5 & 5-9

what a way to pass the time

we jump off the piers onto boats

trembling volcanos make our circles as we

kiss on the mouth

bless the food

break the blender

pull the Devil

karma

as orange the Sun understand

could twist that way

pure BLISS the goddess

we are all a part of

perfect nothingness

nonetheless

i am you

are me

what i do to you

i do to me

when i pour out my mind

like lemonade

the sun shines through

shitshow brigade

body ecstasy

outside the body

we were born as two

we were born without shoes

without the navel of the earth

that keeps

pulling us back.

***

friends with scorpions

the all-knowing scorpion

aliens

why do they return

to the same places

same beds like

second-time lovers

who think they can get by

hiding beneath your pillow

while you wonder in silence

what it will take to be strong

amid Surprise

5.18

sleep paralysis

& dead drunks on the sidewalk

brains hanging loose over

puddle of blood sangria

faerira any excuse

to drink to death

feel the pain in my kidneys

free the beating heart parasite

pulse in my body

pulse in my pulse

in my despair,

mary oliver’s wild geese sing,

tell me of yours

i will tell you mine

tell me why the shadow man

comes at the coldest part of night

sun rise before

we rise too

pretend these bodies

will keep us going

and the wind will carry us

in the way she pleases

living to die noble

or living humbly?

***

6.20

sweetwater

the little pleasures-

to graze my tongue along a frozen mango

perfectly ripe

deep orange, unique & so sensual,

craving union with the mouth

to remain nude all day in the jungle

to dance wildly to a drumbeat capable of visioning

to hear ruiz shout the problems of the mind

to think of life outside misery

to cook granola on the fire

to free the lice eggs from my head

to view problems as roadblocks

water-filled potholes choose

how to get through and admire the turtle.

reptilian overload

to see the birth of the day—

the fresh black baby chick

bounce under mamas wing

to roam freely & pick cactus spikes

to prepare dinner

all when the negativity has stepped out.

***

jellyfish regenerate, they are the aliens of the sea.

how to live naturally, harmoniously

here i am, meant to

reflect the fucked up system i am from,

to encourage others to return to the land.

wake up & work together

return to simplicity

not selfishness, pleasure & comfort

we meet the right people at the right time.

truth comes in action & awakening

not the the illusion of movement

or perception deception.

thank you iyke

***

not feeling

vs. feeling it all

meant to ascend

& experience nothing

do you love rollercoasters

or are we?

poems hidden in moleskins

in a sugar-addicted consumer country

malnutrition consciousness

school teachers in system to know the enemy

there’s a reason why the madmen cooped up in the jungle

away from us all

& there’s a reason why the city folk stay cooped up in concrete,

swarm like fish, absorbed in screens & button

virtual reality, where Gaia Mama

shows her pubes in remote rooftops

the belief in the debt coins & papers

manifest by three generations of puppeteers.

And yet-

who feels more alive?

i see the frustrated alien bacteria control the game

war mentality,

beheading kittens

craves community-

yet blows them away with the word vomit violence.

hate the system, know the system

to use the system,let the system

control how much can we control?

how much will outside stimuli satisfy?

busy consume interweb-reliant

instantly gratified

forget what is really gratification, blessings

how many systems

no different species

we are infinite,

nonlinear time

no reptiles control

don’t get caught up in the spiderweb of the world

who weaves your dreams?

the spiders body, lemniscate

forever expanding

intend, manifest, unchain, let be.

you hate poetry because it doesn’t move fast enough

& paints a portrait too pretty

unknowing that scenery

& the white spaces

speak and move in in ways

the human body could never.

spinning in the cycle of earthly life

creatures on the wheel, darwin

hired to tell us dog-eat-dog

& win not work together

lets separate for power & call it evolution.

but we eat too. we eat chemicals in candy

the white man’s crack, let memory be a hard drive

in the computers of our minds.

backpacker dilemma

live in love

live to get high

live in fear

live to die

live to live

***

morning coffee with crazed

one way to wake up.

irony of sitting & talking

the real parasite the defeat of pessimism

when truth speaks

don’t be insulted

swimming in sweat

in the mexican sun

caked dirt

being in isolation

makes one angrier?

lonelier?

working together

the real solution

instead of believing

in the money go-round

that separates us in our boxes

our safe.

in a meat-excessive society

to fight, kill, invade

poison the food

control the water

damage the sea

leak nuclear waste

when free energy

could fix it all?

ets walk, step by step,

mindful

in our place

in the evolution

of being, aware

of control, corruption

of our ripple, on ourselves

into the universe and under the stars.

remember what hicks said,

we are all expressions of the same ocean

6.16

each day i’m asked by a mexican man

why I’m traveling alone

they don’t understand

im not alone

last weeks companion

a parasite in my gut

and now i have a family of lice on my head.

eggs waiting to watch

you see

i attract the finest suitors to share myself with

you wouldn’t think they wouldn’t want to join me

as i walk for hours in vernal Mexican sun

eating only fruit

living away from traditional travelers

caught in the system

on vacation oil their money runs out

drinking their way along the hostel road

sightseeing the hits of their tourist books

you are your surroundings

you are your environment

express the unique wave

you image yourself to be

all your beliefs

shaped by stimuli, external

reflections

pregnant in the dreamscape.

fast-paced taqueria tales

i find it silly to spend much money on myself

pay the price of locals

& sit at the tamale stand

on the street corner

with teens and papas

& saucy mujer server

(always love that central american women are not afraid to laugh at you)

behind the counter like a dealer

in the casino of the calle.

bright lights

of the coke machine behind her

& bad television, sports that fuel the town

in the sugar-addicted novella.

division as entertainment.

hit me.

another tamale strikes the bar

with swift hands,

the 40 peso workday

soft camote sleeps in a bed of corn

under a blanket of hot sauce.

hit me.

a week of accidental fruitarianism.

can’t stand the heat

reptilian land

a far walk to the village

flesh-eating bacteria going around

the one who passes gives me a ride

with shotguns in the backseat

he eyes it & grins,

“are you scared?”

today a gang member

tattooed tears under his eye

in an iron blue shirt

large bodyguard

working the tourist turtle beach

like a chessboard

eyescans

hustling at the entrance

to watch all who come & go

like prey. he lent me

his nephew’s jacket

from his swanky rick roller

family car

and thought about

the slice of cheesecake in the dumpster

you can find sweet things hiding

in all corners of the earth.

pat watches as papayas

do the reverse-rainbow dance

satisfied, self-reliant

as the green parrots pass

& a new pair of eyes

hatch from the egg.

meanwhile, the masses dive

in binary systems

of separation, run the wheel of the money-go-round

chew on the potent chemicals,

live inside cement boxes,

domesticated mice working for money-driven madmen

but

since time isn’t linear

& the seeds have been planted

what you seek

is seeking you

in the karmic cycle

of non-attachment

non-aversion

true action.

with steady hands,

a quiet mind,

patience

you’ll watch the earth

return to tribe or die.

flora teaches us

to honor what’s growing

follow new life

all realities created

christmas eve in the mayan jungle

mules do the pleasure bankroll not he dirt

as the rainbow scale turkeys peek aimlessly from the forest

the jaguar stalks the deer behind us

& the howler monkeys do the tree-top tango.

their call like a lion

i practice the guitarita

watch makeshift football

& lazing hammock brothers sway

blistered soles from miles of dirt deep

treks through mosquito village

i miss my blood family

yet present with my tree family.

my ancestors in their mysteries

corn & snake gods

modern looters & night guards

body full like the moon,

blood sacrifices and love rituals on the jaguar pyramid,

solstice of the waves of this recycled life

of forgiveness.

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thesunlounge · 5 years

Text

Reviews 273: Yutaka Hirose

There’s been an intense focus on Japanese environmental and ambient music over the last few years, with a range of essential reissues coming out from artists such as Hiroshi Yoshimura, Midori Takada, Yasuaki Shimizu, Takashi Kokubo, and Jun Fukamachi, just to name a few. And earlier this year, Light in the Attic collaborated with Visible Cloaks’ Spencer Doran for what might be the definitive survey of the artform: the 3xLP set Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990. But a name that has been conspicuously absent amidst the clamour for environmental music is Yutaka Hirose and more generally, there’s been little attention paid to the Misawa Home Corporation’s Soundscape series, of which both Hirose and Hiroshi Yoshimura participated. As well as any other example, the Soundscape releases perfectly embody the unique relationship between corporations and artists during the kankyō ongaku boom, as Misawa Home commissioned Yoshimura’s Soundscape 1: Surround and 静けさの本 (Static) as well as Hirose’s Soundscape 2: Nova to provide sonic accompaniment for their prefabricated homes. So as often was the case with environmental sound design, we see deeply transcendental music being borne of shallow capitalism…a sort of strange push and pull between art and consumerism where a plastic product is being sold via timeless sonic creations that transport the spirit to worlds of escapist fantasy.

Now, archival specialists WRWTFWW Records have finally added Hirose’s chapter to the larger narrative of kankyō ongaku with an expansive reissue of his masterpiece, bearing the new title Nova + 4 and including over 50 minutes of unreleased magic. The liner notes include an interview with Hirose, where he discusses influences, technical processes, and the mental landscapes he was trying to evoke, all of which help explain the overwhelming purity of the music and its nearly perfect construction. On the original Nova, the lines between natural and synthetic are blurred, as ancient bell tones intermingle with futuristic synthesis for ethereal passages of dream minimalism. Birdsong, running water, crashing waves, and thunderstorms suffuse the mix while string and brass orchestrations smear into drone cloud majesty, choral fantasias emanate from cosmic oceans, and marimbas splash through pearlescent hazes…as if threads of nature have been woven into a meditative display of chiming new age spiritualism. As for the four unreleased tracks, Hirose speaks in the interview of liberation from the restrictive concepts and approaches of Nova and of abandoning drone and minimalism for new method of composition, one that involved developing “sonic scenery” not from overt melodies, but rather from techniques of layering, addition, and subtraction…as if he was “creating a sculpture and confronting the sound” in real time.

Yutaka Hirose - Nova + 4 (WRWTFWW, 2019) In the epic opener “Nova,” heavy liquids drip around the spectrum, with cavernous reverb rippling outwards as spherical droplets hit crystal surfaces. Running water swishes back and forth to create psychosonic modulations…as if we are suddenly transported to a mythical stream, one whose gentle yet strange motions are observed by singing birds. Pianos emerge and are joined by decaying tones sourced from temple bells or sanukaito stones, and the ivories, lithophones, and bells proceed according to a dream logic…their patterns at once alien and beautiful, with resonances overlapping and golden overtones encircling the soul. Melodious orchestrations swell in and their majestic waves of synthesis are sometimes suffused with choral wonderment…like a choir of angels singing spells of new age euphoria. But eventually the symphonic layers recede, leaving resonating metals and vibrating stones to converse with dripping liquids while birds swim in the sky. “Slow Sky” also features birdsong, with trilling calls and owl hoots intertwining. Synths like colorful gases wrap around each other and sustaining woodwinds join a mallet instrument lullaby…their slow motion themes arcing across a shimmering void. Imagine beings of light locked hand in hand and swaying romantically as crystalline electronics and vaporous synthesizers melt down from a cloudburst sky. Towards the end, waves of static are heard…as if we are observing an ocean of white noise from far away…and deep listening reveals blurred trumpet fanfares amidst the interwoven layers of dream ambiance.

Insect buzz is interspersed amongst avian chatter at the start of “In the Afternoon,” with the birdcalls eventually morphing into extra-terrestrial vibrato. Virtual marimbas and gemstone synthesizers create drunken fantasy patterns and sometimes, the synths are trapped within fractal delay cascades…their tones ringing out like malfunctioning handbells. Haunted swells of choral synthesis float beneath grey skies and roaring thunder before it all starts fading away and by the end, everything has reduced to mist and birdsong. Like “Nova,” “Taiko” features dripping water, though this time less controlled…like a discontinuous rain falling within an echo chamber. Plucked bass notes, airy kick drums, and disjointed cymbal skitter unite for a shadow rhythm while ethereal chime melodies swim through subsuming currents of choral wonderment. It’s a slow motion march through a dark dreamworld, with massive chords constructed from an array of voices and supported by ambient brass orchestrations. Peals of thunder ring out and birds sing through darkened cloudforms while chime melodies add a touch of light to an otherwise funereal dirge and as anning colorations and rainbow crystals float through the stereo field, the track takes on an almost Twin Peaks-esque vibe of sonic mysticism, with the music soundtracking evergreen mountains covered in fog and sat above by swollen black clouds crackling with electromagnetic energy…their ominous presence portending some unknowable evil. Yet there is also peace and stillness…clarity and communion…as if every living creature is witnessing the powers of the earth together, united in terror and awe.

“Humming the Sea” creates a hypnotizing drone tapestry from layers of running water and the effect is all-consuming. Childlike melodies wander through the vibrant sonic weavings…their tones constructed from glowing glass, with flowing solos working between decaying chords. Pianos join the mix as everything grows in strength and eventually, time-morphing sequences generate a strange rhythmic pulse that is increasingly washed over by the soothing sounds of the sea. Prog flutes and synthetic orchestrations drift above black hole phaser drones in “Through the Windows” while screaming ghosts suffuse the air. Later, the classical romanticisms and woodwind harmonies decay into nothingness and as rain begins falling, deep space droneclouds merge seamlessly with sheets of thunder. “Epilogue” returns us to the subterranean world of “Nova,” with neon liquids dripping while pitch-shifting and time-stretching beyond recognition. Ominous bass tones swell in, causing the mind to lose orientation in spacetime, and a radiant chimescape generates sensual waves of subsonic warmth before evaporating into silence, which is then filled by angel hazes and dream orchestrations. Ecstasy choirs are sequenced, yet buried deep within the mix….like future visions of 90s chill-out and ambient rave floating within an environmental music masterpiece. Gentle water rushes over rocks as the ever-present dripping sounds are joined by sonar piano pings and there are moments where mermaids break through the deep blue landscape to sing glorious hymns to the sunrise.

The first of the unreleased tracks is “Old Dream Spell,” which begins with sleigh bells decaying through spectral delay fx. Throbbing bass waves flow in then disperse, clattering swells of percussion are surrounded by white noise, and rainforest shakers morph through a cosmic fog while sirens sing out from islands in space...their fragile songs barely discernible across galactic distances. Starshine jazz melodies are abstracted into celestial shimmer and FM vibraphones splash through aquamarine tide pools while up above, wavering clouds of light swirl slowly before evolving into a symphonic ceremony. And moving towards the end, sea-shell shakers and high-pitched hand drums are caught in echo webs as abstracted Indian string drones are transformed into animalistic cries. In “Light Which Shakes Quickly,” zipping bass drones fly through laser echoes…their tones reversing and transmuting into air. Strands of crystal flow on unsettled sea surfaces and plucked electronics modulate like rubber while e-pianos wander through incandescing bodies of celestial gas. Delay fx catch wooden bass tones and abstracted marimba attack and refract them across the stereo field as angels breath on the back of the neck. Elsewhere, Hirose weaves dream sequences into the mix, sometimes like alien music boxes locked into hypno-cycles, other times shrouded within maddening echo layers wherein drunken polyrhythms enchant the mind. And in between these dark sequential patterns, reversing space winds decay into silence, tambourines shake then die away, and prismatic echo fantasias swim through oceanic swells.

“On Day in Summer” sees layered chimes blooming like a field of flowers while amorphous bass drones move underneath. Crowd chatter enters and suffuses the song with a constant hum of human conversation and mystical tones of the earth merge with starlight synthesis to form a paradise world of crystalline purity and youthful innocence, with the sonics evoking currents of light swimming through clear blue waters. Everything floats freely yet is held together by a spiritual connection…some deep textural symbiosis that only Hirose can discern, with layers continually added and subtracted to create psychoactive motions amidst a static field of fantasy ambiance. The final unreleased track is “Shadow of a Water Droplet,” which starts with an alien gamelan ceremonial wherein synthetic gongs initiate dark temple rituals. Flutes wrap around layered metallophones, noir chords hover, piano notes decay, and marimba patterns lock into a minimalist lullaby before receding…all while pan-pipes sing like birds. Overlapping resonances create gentle currents of enchantment and there are moments given over to atonal chime mesmerism and glowing treble intoxication. Hirose once again defly merges the virtual and real, with bell-tress indistinguishable from sequenced synth chimes and marimbas uniting with tropical electronics. At some point, the mix descends into pure silence…as if given over to a momentary pause of reflection. But soon the extra-terrestrial gamelan ritualisms resume, with woodwind breezes blowing over piano chord clusters and feedback swelling like a solar flare.

(images from my personal copy)

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thesunlounge · 5 years

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Reviews 266: Gigi Masin & Jonny Nash

For the 2017 Venice Art Biennale, visual artist Xavier Veilhan was given opportunity to transform the historical exhibition’s French pavilion and alongside curators Christian Marclay and Lionel Bovier, he reworked the space into Studio Venezia, an immersive installation inspired by Kurt Schwitters Merzbau, as well as the experiments of the Black Mountain College and Doug Aitken’s nomadic happening, Station to Station. The result is a sculptured structure where unfamiliar wooden geometries bend, collide, and refract around a fully functioning recording studio, one replete with piano, clavinet, modular synthesis, Buchla, vibraphone, percussion, and more exotic instruments such as sound sculptures from the Association Structures Sonores Baschet. During the Biennale, the space hosted many musicians, allowing them free reign and full ownership of anything produced while also inviting in visitors to experience not only the incredible constructions of the space, but also real-time musical creation and the inner workings of a professional studio. Among the musicians asked to participate were frequent collaborators Gigi Masin and Jonny Nash, a duo whose deep artistic connection has been explored across Clouds and The Distance, two albums made in conjunction with Young Marco as Gaussian Curve. Within Veilhan’s studio-sculpture, Masin and Nash primarily stuck to the instruments of their souls, with the former on piano and the latter on guitar. And at times, Baschet sourced drones, plucked string vibrations, and dreamy mallet instrumentation made their way into the duo’s improvisations.

In 2018, Nash was approached by design agency Commission to collaborate on a vinyl LP, which led to him editing down the Venice recordings into Postcards from Nowhere for eventual release on Melody as Truth. Musically, two interconnected minds work together through realms of ambient jazz, pastoral psychedelia, minimalist shimmer, and idiophonic noir and though Nash’s recent work has seen his guitar spread ever further out into esoteric fourth world experimentation, there are times here where the playing erupts into classical space rock majesty, with touches of the HIllage, Gilmour, Rother, and Göttsching-indebted echoguitar brilliance found on Land of Light, Phantom Actors, and Exit Strategies. And just as Veilhan’s installation was an interdisciplinary experience, so is Postcards from Nowhere, which surrounds the music with photography from Luke Evans and the printwork of Paris-based atelier Imprimerie du Marais. It’s an incredible visual presentation, as Evans’ floral photographs appear as if melted onto the record sleeve, with the folds and distortions of the image sticking out three dimensionally. The inner sleeve features a white on white variant of the melting photograph technique as well as an embossing of the project’s mission statement…all on textured cotton paper…and going even further, the liner notes have been hot foil printed around the edge of the album, the interior of the outer jacket is fluorescent pink, and the whole thing comes in a jet black mailer sourced from recycled coffee cups and embossed with the same collaborative mission statement found on the inner sleeve.

Gigi Masin & Jonny Nash - Postcards from Nowhere (Melody as Truth, 2019) Swells like wisps of wind begin “Butterfly’s Tale,” with Nash’s blurred guitar impressionisms interspersed with scattered picking sounds and crystalline echowaves. Masin’s bucolic piano meaderings touch upon pastoral jazz and warming new age, as atonal chord clusters drift into pearlescent strands. It’s cozy and inviting, evoking the titular butterfly as it flits flower to flower under a bright summer sun. At the other end of the A-side sits “Astro,” which features mallet instruments drifting like leaves on a stream and accompanied by the otherworldly Baschet creations. Clattering noises flow in the background, all shuffles, scrapes, steps leading nowhere, and unidentifiable string plucks that could be some one playing the piano’s interior, or perhaps some strange instrument built into the very body of Xavier Veilhan’s immersive creation. The sculptural instruments and their metallic structures bend, waver, and sing like ghosts as everything drifts within a dopamine dreamscape and contemplative silences are just as important to the song as the barely defined melodic development. Towards the end, resonances grow in strength and a vibraphone dances through shadowy noir motions as bowed arcs of feedback generated from strange pieces of metal wrap around unidentifiable percussive detritus.

Between “Butteryfly’s Tale” and “Astro” sits the epic “Interstellar”, where Masin establishes a three note bass riff on piano while slowly working in spiraling leads and waterfalls cascades. It’s ambient bebop floating on clouds, with Nash slowly evolving from scraped textures and metallic shimmer into bluesy space psychedelia. As the dreamy piano patterns hold down a semblance of a groove, ivory keys and steel strings explore the cosmos, with the whole thing evoking nothing so much as the breathtaking interplay between Daniel Fichelscher and Florian Fricke in Popol Vuh. Masin alternates between gentle chord strokes and majestic runs that stretch the full length of the keyboard and Nash’s guitar is smothered in slapback echo, with notes moving like beads of light on turbulent waters, growing louder…more intense…even chaotic at times…as the delay and fast motion picking creating fractal structures. At some point it all seems to vaporize, leaving just the three note piano refrain to sit below Nash’s guitar, which is now reduced to a fragile whisper. Footsteps, breaths, and creaking stools are heard amidst the hushed ambiance and there’s a feeling of intimate immersion…like being right next to Masin and Nash as they improvise together through outerspace dreamworlds. And later, Nash switches to e-bow, with infinite sustain and blissed out saturation joining soloing piano for a slow burn float towards the center of the cosmos.

The centerpiece of the B-side is “Girl With No Name,” starting with guitar curlicues and piano dancing through the shadows. Layers of feedback and droning resonance drift like a dark fog as Masin moves up high, with his notes twinkling like starlight. Sometimes guitar and piano drift apart, as chords and solos flow out in all directions only to merge again. Other times the two play off of one another in spiritual synchronization, with Masin spontaneously alighting on some heavenly journey only to be miraculously tracked by Nash, or with Nash erupting into spiraling solo magic as Masin backs down into a supportive chordscape. Near the middle, the piano drifts into a breathtakingly beautiful progression and it all seems destined for some majestic climax as the heart is swept towards paradise skies. But it never arrives, for the duo simmer instead into near silence. Masin disappears completely while Nash uses his lower strings to wander through ethereal desert landscapes, with bass drones and subsonic resonances floating in the depths. When Masin returns, his piano is locked into pure minimalist magic while generating shimmering tapestries of ivory incandescence…like an infinitely oscillating web of jewels. Eventually, Nash also joins the gemstone weavings, creating thrilling moments where guitar and piano blur into indistinction…as if the mix is completely subsumed by pulsating echo bursts and prismatic celestial vibrations.

Surrounding “Girl With No Name” are “The Sea in Your Eyes” and “Postcards from Nowhere,” with the former reveling in the kind of oceanic piano dreamscapes that could only come from Masin. Imagine moonlight rippling against the gentle motions of a paradise lagoon while the heart floats forever at peace…a serene environment into which Nash’s guitar fades, shambling at first, with moments of improvisational strangeness as six-string clusters and piano leads overlap. But before long, their playing develops into a bewitching conversation, with Masin’s chords reasserting the flow as Nash alights on gorgeous and glassy solo adventures…perhaps the closest the duo come here to the meditative balearica of Gaussian Curve. Then in “Postcards from Nowhere,” there is further e-bow, though at first vaporous and distant. Much of the album has seen the guitar foregrounded, but here Masin takes over, with his piano closed mic’d and warm as bass waves and high notes sing towards the sun. Natural distortions blur the edges of everything and strange scrapes and pulses float in the background as atonal string vibrations evoke tamburas from an alien planet. Nash sometimes fades away completely, only to re-emerge on a shooting start of gently sustaining bliss. And his playing grows in volume as the song progresses, eventually breaking free of the shadows to bathe in the light alongside Masin’s spiritual piano ambiance.

(images from my personal copy)

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