As is tradition, the beats of life rhythmically provide waves of disorder and wrench throwing. As much as one may try to stave off any unwanted obstacles, ultimately it seems it’s up to the infinite myriad of interconnected points of reality and the cosmos to kick sand into plans. In the occurrence of such an inevitable consequence of life the traveler of time must endure and adapt. Perseverance in the face of doubt fetches experience useful for simplifying the data into manageable chunks. Problems are all around us but so are the solutions.

As we calibrate centers to the ever changing tomorrow-now celebrate the steps of yester-now alongside artists entombed by their work. Reality bends to the will. Absurdity walks hand-in-hand with life.

-L

Here it is. Finally. Like a weight off the shoulders. Press play and turn it up!

The album came about as they all do over the course of a few years. I would return to this place of wonderment and exploration called the creative process. With ND it can be anywhere from brief moments of a single phrase to long excruciating scenarios where there is a constant struggle of possibilities and loss of sleep. The process is different and so is the product.

A couple songs had debuts in independent film and internet radio compilations. Others were created for this release with correspondence and collaboration with Matt happening when his schedule would allow. The idea behind the tunes was really all the same; to bring the style into unfamiliar territory, as with my first film soundtrack attempt and the final product, while trying to solidify a concept of some sort around what will be. It coalesced beautifully as the full picture came into view. The Map and The Territory.

The idea for the special variants came as one of those epiphany moments. I love and collect colored vinyl of movie soundtracks and would have loved to get this pressed on vinyl but I couldn’t afford to so the idea to create different tangible, artsy packages came to be as something I could accomplish myself with all I had available. I think they came out beautifully, much like the music.

Now for some of the pseudo-intellectual philosophy behind the name…

The Map is a symbol and The Territory is what is and it’s what The Map stands for. But they are not equal. One is flawed. One is absolute. Our human experience, to anyone that has stopped to ponder, is more than what we can see, taste, feel, smell, and hear. Our perceived reality leaves out a majority of what is actually there. Our brains can’t comprehend what’s actually there, what we’re wading through. If the doors of perception were cleansed we would see everything as it is, infinite. Which means our reality would melt and there would be no point of reference, our minds lost but maybe not forgotten.

So we wander through this symbol pretending we have it figured out. That we have the complexities of what is simplified to its simplest terms and documented in triplicate to the tenth power. According to the map we’ve only gone about five inches in the last second of the last hour. We should re-calibrate.

-L

If you go HERE or look on the bottom of this page (or any post page) you’ll see a media player with a playlist that has nearly all the drone style ambient songs. In celebration of this past decade of dreams and to actively usè this site more there may be a new playlist highlighting other songs with a new mix every month including relics, unreleased, in progress and demos.

The playlist now consists only of tracks from I Am My Own Mushroom and The Caduceus Saga. They were made in very similar styles with a nearly identical rig setup which relied heavily on Behringer’s V-amp 2 because the delay setting was such that I could tap tempo about two and a half seconds of loop time then strum a chord on the guitar volume turned to 0, then roll it up and down at various rhythms creating that swelling effect. Much improvisation made those pulsing, warm atmospheres that is the majority of IAMOM. Much of everything else was recorded while improvised with minor editing. Layering each run through and adjusting pan and volume levels made sculpting those sonic scapes possible. The availability of free software such as Goldwave and Audacity also made the mere idea of creating truly independent music a reality.

IAMOM was born from a dream and was shaped by haphazard trial and error in a very playful and experimental “I-don’t-have-a-clue-what-I’m-doing” kind of way. The Caduceus Saga on the other hand was more planned out and built upon things learned from the albums before it. Many of it’s ambient songs had the same setup but the execution was far better and audibly clearer. As experience lengthened, knowledge grew, and the style solidified, of course.

This about concludes the serotinal update. Stay tuned for the next post come autumn as it will probably be info about the crowdfunding plans and ideas for the upcoming release.

Like dots on a CRT so are the dreams of of our lives.

-L

Our domain expired back in August.
There’s really no need to renew it just yet.
Nothing to share.
Only slowly realized plans briefly hinted in previous posts.
Alas, forward we march as a drought seats itself.
Leaves drop to conserve energy.
Cracks form along the ground.
It’ll spring back to life sooner or later.
Nourished and eager.
For now,
Dream well
Everyone