on 'music and the new group I want to form'

Every sheet of music ever written is full of question marks. Is music for the soul, for the ears or for the brain? Is it a social concept, intimate concept, political concept or cultural concept? The vexed issue of evaluation of music as an art has been dealt with by innumerous ethnomusicologists, musicians, philosophers, anthropologists etc. in various theoretical, experimental, even dogmatic ways, but the conclusions have always proved out to be inept. Every attempt of classification of music has been turned down by time as abortive with intermingling of genres and recreation of forms. For eg. whether a non-Westerner studying Bach or Mozart would also be an ethnomusicologist, and whether ethnomusicology, as a Western invention, is simply a disguise for the continued dominance of Western concepts and values is a paradoxical question over the whole approach that is termed as ethnomusicology. Similarly, the Impressionist movement in music led by the French composer Claude Debussy, influenced by the paintings of the French Impressionists and by the poetry of Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire, and Stéphane Mallarmé; emphasized tonal colour and mood rather than formal structures such as the sonata and the symphony but by the beginning of World War I in 1914, provoked adverse criticism from composers and critics alike for its over-refinement and technical limitations. A new group of anti-Romantic French composers, Les Six, influenced by Erik Satie, satirized and revolted against these excesses. Eventually, Impressionism, which had been conceived by Debussy as a revolt against Romanticism, came to be regarded as the final phase of Romantic music. History is filled with such ironies and contradictions. The form and function of music has always been a question of great debate all over the world, and so is it, even today.

It becomes important, at this time, to look at the aleatory music techniques, not as an answer or as a refuge (which, frankly speaking, we don’t even need) but as a fresh point of view towards looking at music. For eg. Minimalism evolved in the United States taking influence from Indian improvisation, Balinese gamelan, and African drumming. The experimentalists John Cage and Harry Partch can be seen as father-figures, but La Monte Young was the earliest exponent with his group Theater of Eternal Music, founded in 1962. Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Steve Reich etc are other remarkable figures. Similarly, influenced by the Zen Buddhist philosophy of adapting to the world rather than attempting to shape it, Cage’s attempt to reduce the musical importance of the composer, seeking to find music in life and the environment, rather than to create it by using silence as a musical element, with sounds as entities hanging in time, and exploring ways of incorporating certain degrees of randomness in his music came to be known as Music of Changes (1951) for piano, where, combinations of notes occur in a sequence determined by tossing coins, in accordance with the Chinese Book of Changes, Yijing. In 4′ 33′′ (1952), the performers sit silently at instruments; the unconnected sounds of the environment are the music. Like Theatre Piece (1960), in which musicians, dancers, and mimes perform randomly selected tasks, 4′ 33′′ dissolves the borders separating music, sound, and non-musical phenomena.

What you will listen here, is an extension of these and several other techniques, which we believe, move towards a radical concept of ‘Free Music’. The emphasis here is not towards freeing the music from all the above and several other ‘classical’ and ‘non-classical’ influences, but on the contrary, to allow the artists, to move freely and merge all the possibilities that he wants to explore with a musical piece, not worrying about any possible influence of form or technique. This, we believe, is a true strive towards ‘Free music’. The idea here also is not to play with the term ‘Free music’ but to understand the phenomenon of free music. Any attempt to eradicate a certain kind of an influence from music is ironically an attempt to create a rigid ‘form’ of music- and thus, can’t be termed as ‘free’. Therefore, we allow the free flow of artists’ emotions to create their own music, free from all pre-conceived notions- a truly formless music. Thus, we propose ‘Free music’, not as a term, but as a belief, in continuation of several aleatory techniques already existing in the field of music. We also do not call this a new concept, as this ofcourse is not, but instead a small endeavour towards re-discovering music- with a free and honest heart…. the only requisite for a truly free music. May this freedom stir the souls of all the living beings. Amen.

on 'Z'

Sometimes a small casual meeting can have so many side-effects… and long-lasting ones. Like the prime motif of Beethoven’s ‘fur elise’, that’s playing on my soundbox rite now… the simple little touch and its equally soft responses that this piece so beautifully incarnates… my mind takes me back to that moment… when we shared some whispers, floating in the atmosphere and covering us from all the side, as if hiding us from the world for those intimate moments, those soft little whispers, and their responses… those gazes, touches… smiles. Our body is so full of music, only one should know how to play it.
The obvious query comes up to me, kisses me and says “Hail Rabbi” when I know all it wants is my crucification on the frozen wall of time. Is it love? Do I really need to answer? The impotence of words in explaining and defining the innermost feelings is an issue I keep on complaining about all the time. Then why not this time? Somebody asked me, what do I want to come out of it? I said, ‘Nothing.’ Do I really need anything else to come out, except the pure bliss, the nectar of which has filled me allover… and I’m brimful. I know it’s all very romantic, one can argue about the reality side of it… what is the future? And is it really feasible. I know, an open relationship seems like a mirage to most of us, and we? Two commitment scared souls have found a unique manifestation in this relationship… even if this is a mirage (which, bye the way, I guess every relationship is) then this one is a beautiful one.
My hand has always been full of pearls, of distinct shine, texture and colour. There have been times when a pearl or two has rolled down from my lousy hands… and their shadows have rolled down from my eyes at those moments…watery shadows. Every such shadow has written a testimony for my emotional attachment, and more, for the regular and most natural of all human habits- to hold on. Somewhere, interestingly enough, we all are also scared of this habit- of holding on… of being possessed, being owned… being caged! But at the same time, human beings have got so accustomed to acquiring everything through power that they are also always insecure about these things being snatched away in the same way… and this is where words like relationship, commitment and marriage come in. So the result is a society where an emotion becomes inept to be defined unless it falls into any one of these conventional norms.
When I was born, I had no name… a piece of soft flesh… with a hue of the beauty of the world, a drop of innocence and a little ignorant soul was all I had (sometimes, really, ignorance is bliss) with only one relationship with the physical world… of breath… of hollowness (exhaling) and fulfillment (inhaling)… 23 years later, I share the same relationship with the world (though now I share a name too, the water is all contaminated, and the soul has turned into an arrogant one.), of hollowness and fulfillment. Interestingly, one leads to the other. The only refuge is… if you believe me, the moment of a kiss. That is the only moment, when the hollowness and fulfillment get interspersed with each other, loosing any distinct character which can separate them in any possible manner. Perhaps it becomes possible, because at that moment… you share yourself with someone else… and stand as one. So you share someone else’s hollowness and vice versa. For me... all beauty of life lies in that one moment… the moment of sharing… the moment of unification… the moment of pure bliss…with nothing behind… nothing forward…
Whenever people ask me, what Z is for me? I say… Z is that moment of pure bliss for me…that moment of sharing… that moment of togetherness!
When was the last time you did something without a reason? When something deep inside you compelled you to look at the surrounding things… and smile… without getting any physical gain from it? When was the last time… after getting completely tired after a hectic day, you’ve waited to meet someone… and stayed awake all night? If life was a human, she would’ve lived in all those moments… those precious moments. And then there are people who make every moment equally precious and cherishable. Yes, we are remarkably different people, with different opinions, different points of view and different aspirations about just anything under the sun… but when we are together… we share them… even the differences… and that’s the beautiful part. I have seen the darker sides of that ‘carved’ body and Z has seen that my ‘kissable’ lips have venom too… so it’s ‘all said and done’. Yes, life is a series of discoveries… and tomorrow is uncertain. I won’t claim that this is what I’ve always been looking for... and all that shit… actually I’ve never known what I’ve been looking for… but yes, some right button is pressed… and some beautiful thing is initiated…don’t know what destiny keeps for me… but until this discovery is on… I have things to look forward to… and I’m keeping my fingers crossed….