I don't claim to be an important musician on the ambient scene...
I know there are many of us in this crowded niche... And there are far more talented than me...
I do what I can, what I know how to do, I chart my course, and I make music first and foremost because it's an important part of my life, of who I am...
As I was thinking tonight about how I make music, I was thinking that improvisation and spontaneity are essential aspects... Of course, there's the mediation of the computer, software and sound banks, but it's improvisation and intuition that are at the forefront...
I have the impression of approaching composition and mixing with a "floating attention", intuitive, spontaneous, making decisions in the moment.
It also reminds me a little of the automatic writing of the French Surrealist poets André Breton, Philippe Soupault, Tristan Tzara...
These poets emphasized the role of the unconscious in the creative process... Letting the flow of words unfold without trying to control the writing hand...
I likewise let the flow of sounds, silences and harmonics unfold...
I slice and dice into what I've recorded, I move, I shift, I erase.
Reflective, rational thinking is not at the forefront. It's intuition that provokes my gestures on my DAW. Cut, copy, paste, move. Listen, re-listen. Saving. Or deleting.
I imagine myself as a painter retouching a sketch until my hand is in suspension: "Do nothing more".
I imagine myself as a sculptor, reshaping a block of stone, rounding angles, polishing surfaces, until my hand remains suspended: "Any further chiseling is useless...".
I imagine myself as a poet, letting words, sounds, rhymes and rhythms flow from my pen or typewriter: "Don't change anything, preserve the flow...".
In my modest musical practice, I don't see myself as an engineer, nor as an artist... But rather as a medium: something passes into me, through me, and materializes in a musical artefact
Maybe that's what inspiration is all about... Something wants to pass through me...
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