Within our class this week we delved heavily into the mind of the composer and musician ‘Brian Eno’ and his genre of expertise called ‘ambient music’. For our research as a class, we watched the short 1989 documentary called ‘Imaginary Landscapes in which Brian discusses and shares in great detail his creative process on how he writes songs and composes his music.
We looked at a number of other ambient artists before we were given our blog task for this week. We have each been assigned a chapter of the book entitled ‘Ocean Of Sound’ which talks about the ambient music scene and its major inspirations.
I have been given chapter two, ‘if you find earth boring…’. In this chapter we focus on the ambient jazz artist ‘Sun Ra’, detailing his overall life and musical journey. Sun Ra is a musician known for his unique and imaginative style. In the chapter it shows how he saw music differently, focusing on spacial vibes and breaking the rules of music at the time. Sun Ra was all about making music that was beyond what people were used to, diving into cosmic themes and pushing the limits of what music could be.
Although difficult to comprehend at first, the author’s way of writing mixes stories, detailed descriptions, scenic metaphors and personal thoughts, giving us a full picture of how Sun Ra made his music differently. He talks about gigs and moments in Sun Ra’s life.
In the second page of the chapter he describes Sun Ra’s first UK gig as ”one of the most spectacular concerts ever held in this country” and compares his performance to ”A man who had chosen to discard all the possibilities of a normal life, even a normal jazz life, in favour of an unremitting alien identity”.
He vividly describes Sun Ra’s expert musical experimentation, describing how he blurred musical boundaries by combining diverse elements like “percussion tornadoes” and “haunting saxophone riffs.”
Sun Ra feels a little out of place to me in this book as even though he definitely has an influence coming from the ambient space in his discography he mainly comes across as more of a jazz artist with light experimental tendencies although after reading through the chapter it does make sense as to why the author included him, with his heavy discussion into experimentation with what he calls ‘space vibrations’. His experimental tendencies resonated with the essence of ambient music, creating sonic spaces unusual to the average music listener.
After listening to a few of Sun Ra’s albums his music has really connected with me, in particular the tune ”Round Midnight’ from his very recent album entitled ‘The Space Age Is Here To Stay’. This song proves to us that even after 50-plus years he still has the creative ideas and musical capabilities to make something that really resonates with the listener, showcasing his enduring creativity even after decades in the industry.
Toop, D. (1996) ‘if you find earth boring…’, in Ocean of sound. Virgin, pp. 23–32.