Listen

There's one particular aspect of the creative output of the artists that leads to what I have seen described as perceiving reality through their eyes. Under this principle, when we admire a picture by a certain painter or read a novel by a certain writer we are perceiving reality through this particular painter or writer's sensitivity. Sometimes this might not necessarily be a privilege... 

But what is the reality depicted by a creative musician or a composer? If we can depict the complexity of reality through art (probably one of Art's eternal goals) what is then the "listenable" dimension of reality (this is a book yet to be written...) and how can we portray it? The problem is that what we can perceive of this portray or the "listenable" dimension of reality reaches us through... listening.

We cannot see it.

And in this day and age of easy and carefree listening, of course, we are probably missing not only an important part of our surroundings but also a great deal of what sound artists and composers senses attempt to convey.

Yi-Fu Tuan

Yi-Fu Tuan has always been one of my favorite authors. It is both a pleasure, a privilege and a permanent inspiration to read his work. I suppose that only if I'd had the chance of being one of his students would I have felt more privileged. I became familiar with Tuan's work through my friend João P. Leão and also through him I learned about his, then, newly created website. While I was reading the latest of his "Dear Colleague's Letters" I wondered what should deserve more praise: his scholarship, his provocative thought, the ever surprising originality of his themes or the generosity he shows in sharing all this with the rest of us through this wonderful medium. 

Portrait of the artist as a shadow of himself

Witch hunt

Color splash

Erudition

A discussion on erudite music vs. non-erudite contemporary music is (would still be) interesting today. Can computer music, for example, ever become erudite computer music? Or was it "erudite" from the inset...? Computers and music software are ubiquitous and the discussion seems more than ever necessary. I will probably return to it sometime. In brief, does the expression "erudite music" equals lesser known or even obscure music? Or is "erudite music" simply a construction geared towards keeping other musics (even a few quite erudite ones...) out of the "erudite" realm. Or is the expression simply a way of encouraging, legitimating and promoting the "iconoclastic" behavior of people like André Rieu, the Three Tenors and others...? 

Slight detour

Grabbing the suns

Mulholland drive

Street art

Futuristic views

Traumatic experience

Sleeping with ear plugs can be a dangerous experience. I used them. Not anymore. Recently one of these ear plugs caused me acute external otitis during my sleep. I didn't understand my symptoms immediately and thought I'd permanently lost my hearing. I woke up with the ear canal swell shut.

I completely freaked out! I knew that hearing was a crucial part of my life. I didn't imagine how crucial it was... This predicament was the single most traumatic event I ever experienced to that date. 

Fortunately I was cured but there was a dramatic and valuable lesson to be learned.

(see also here)

Tears for sounds

I returned to my aurologist one week after I started taking the medication he had prescribed for the otitis. He was very patient, by the way, and I immediately felt "cured" just by listening to his initial words and quiet advice. We talked about music, after he learned I was a musician, and I told him a story that had shocked me about an American guitarist I admire very much, who went through a complicated surgical procedure and had lost his hearing.

The patient that left the doctor's office before my turn was a 99 year woman. She stood completely still and silent at the reception desk for some time, next to another woman who appeared to be her daughter. Suddenly the older woman turned to her supposed daughter in tears and said: "I don't want to go deaf!" The younger woman yelled very close to her ear that she didn't need to worry. She was going to be fine.

I wanted to tell her that exactly one week before I too had cried pronouncing the very same words...

Dumb bells

The newspapers announced that on November 1st, exactly 250 years after the big earthquake, all churches of Lisbon would sound their bells at 9.30 AM. I got ready and anticipated the spectacular sonic feast.

On November 1st 1755 Lisbon inhabitants were caught by surprise with a violent earthquake of major proportions. The earthquake and the ensuing tsunami "made the news" in those days. Voltaire and Kant wrote about the phenomenon that destroyed Portugal's capital city. The citizens of Lisbon had just started to leave the churches after the Day of the Dead mass when the earthquake started. After it ended the few churches that survived the massive destruction sounded their bells to signal the tragedy or to signal life...

250 years later the local authorities decided that all Lisbon churches (including the very few from those days that remained intact) would sound their bells on November 1st at exactly 9.30 AM. 

The Lisbon churches concert promised to become quite an exciting and enriching sonic experience. My plan was to document it and post the results of my efforts here. I prepared my equipment and studied possible locations to properly record it. During that night however I had a problem in my right ear, became partially deaf and had to miss the event. If only I could rewind time...