Music and Art Together!

I recently submitted some of my music to the LarkGallery Online competition where musicians were to pick paintings from submitted works and pair it up with an original composition or performance of their own. This intrigued me as I had always liked this combination but had never tried it.  Art very much for me evokes music and music evokes art in this endless collaboration that takes one on a journey through space and time.

For me, art is a tapestry woven together by threads of sound that saturate and enrich themselves to the point of being visible.   These threads carry our essence throughout the landscape of our being forming a map that defines our energetic space  as belonging to oneself.   Pairing up music and art is important as a metaphor because it ties a very important link together within us between the seen and unseen worlds. The art must contain some thread or aspect of its features that evokes the music for them to vibrate together in harmony.  This has quite a large range though as many different pieces of music can harmonize with a painting. If you peruse all the paintings selected by the musicians  , see if you can gauge how much of a match you sense between the two. Is is a good marriage or one that could be improved upon? The music should not only complement the art but it should help bring the art to life adding another dimension to it. Let me know what you think, which combinations of art and music work the best.

 

 

http://www.larkgalleryonline.com/colors_of_life_music.php

The Feng Shui of Timing

The music I write is all about timing. The way that certain notes and rhythms mathematically align themselves to create different mini-melodies and flourishes of sound is meant to express the synchronicity and “oneness” of their existence to all other sounds on the CD.  Every sound is generated from the same geometric seed pattern so that every melodic element is tied together by this pattern.

A metaphorical way of looking at this would be to look at the relationship between a plant and its seed. The seed contains all the genetic material necessary for its complete unfoldment. This means that the plant is a reflection of the organization contained in its DNA. Every nuance and detail of the plants appearance in all its beauty comes from this organic process of growth. It is the same way with the SoundPoints CDs. You are listening to the unfoldment of its growth from its internal oganization into the outer. This organization is designed in terms of frequencies and their timing relationship to one another.

Many in the alternative healing field are familiar with Feng Shui and how it is used to design houses and spaces for maximum energy flow and manifestation of ones desires. The SoundPoints CDs are designed to organize time and its unfoldment. Time has a geometry to it just as space does. Time is meant to unfold in interesting synchroncities, blossoming anew into each moment. The music is designed to allow one to stay present by being both somewhat unpredicatable and holding a higher order amidst this seeming chaos.

Chaos vs. order is a relationshp and continuum which is defined depending on whether you feel the underlying order or not. In order to bring order to chaos is to surrender to its flow and to discover its deeper or more likely hidden order. This is not always possible but the relationship is there nonetheless.

When your mind eventually stops trying to organize the sounds on the CD it will relax and start allowing time to flow again. It is common for us to stop time with our mind and therefore get caught up in the past. By acknowledging the present moment and the constant unfoldment forward one can release the mind and body blocks to the present moment.

So, I have often used these CDs to help clear energetic spaces bringing a higher order and synchronicity to the space that just feels good. Try it out your self. Play a SoundPoints CD for a while in a room and see if the room starts to take on a different “feel” or vibe.  Does the space start to feel more creative and in the moment? Let me know what you experience after doing this little experiment for a while. Remember that each CD has a different flavor to it based on its title and the underlying organization, so pick one that fits your needs.  Several of the CDs are now available for digital download on CDBaby.com/artist/rustywickell

Peace and Blessings,

Rusty

Mixing Numerology with Sound

If you have not heard any of my sound healing CDs, you may want to bring up a sample such as Personal Power on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/user/soundpoints while I explain some of the details on how these CDs are made and why.

The music is created with a system of numerology I developed as a symbolic way of representing different relationships of sounds so that every sound on the CD is organized by this deeper symbolic order. This symbolic order behind all the sounds of the CD is a metaphorical DNA for the music which is unique depending on the subject matter of the CD. Just like how the DNA is the computer program of the body governing all of its actions, the musical DNA of this music serves a similar purpose. This “coding” is often an intuitive or artist sense of which numbers will create the effect I am looking for. The music becomes a direct mirror of the underlying organization and therefore a way to communicate these deeper levels of order. This deeper order is dream-like and symbolic in nature as opposed to the mental organization we use to balance our checkbooks or write a grocery list. I believe that exercising our symbolic, dream-like consciousness is as important to our spiritual health as balancing our checkbook is to our mental and financial health.

The sounds are organized in a constantly unfolding organic process that does not repeat itself. I find this helps to relax the mind because if the mind can not predict what will come next it will eventually stop trying and relax into a state of openness to what is coming next. The more you relax your mind into the unknown of the present moment, deeper levels of awareness will emerge which promote health and happiness and a sense of well-being.

On paper, this composition process looks like a stream of numbers threaded together like a tapestry governed by the musical “DNA” program and then translated into sounds using a mapping of numbers to musical notes. This organization is more often “felt” in the shapes and nuances of the music that are unique to the CD rather than heard. I am very inspired by nature and the patterns one finds in nature. The perfect order of nature has a meaning that can bypass the mental structures of our mind. If one observes the way trees grow or rocks are placed on a hillside or the way stars are laid out in the heavens one can tap into the mind of nature and the order of the cosmos. My music is meant to pass this inspiration on to the listener and act as a reminder of our true roots to the Earth in all of its beauty.