“Why let yourself be so torn and traumatized by the inanity and depravity of the epoch in which you are obliged to live?”
“[…] to be rational within himself, to remain human in an inhuman time, to remain free in the vortex of pandemonium”
“Always, whatever his mode of living, he kept for himself alone the most authentic and most subtle element of his being”
From HTHAC
“You always have a choice […] to hold the past and future as you choose. You always have a choice.”
The written biography of an old frenchman fleeing from conflict, his own wife and children, and any social responsibilities has held up remarkably through generations of change because his way of living was true to any epoch he may have been born into. The preservation of self that Michel Du Montaigne possessed was ever-so relevant during the Second World War when Stefan Zweig wrote “Montaigne”, and has continued it’s relevance today, as we’ve approached the end of the Post-WWII paradigm.
For the individual practicing any medium of art, a dense, impenetrable inner world creates rich and informed work, free from the bias of current events. In an era of noise, it’s immediately relevant to hold this idea close to the heart. What used to be primarily a game of workmanship and craft, has been interwoven with the inner world of the artist themself. It can be argued that this has always been the case, with early post WWII examples such as Andy Warhol acting and speaking in ways that informed his work as something deeper than what meets the eye. This inner world has been moved online, and the artist is now required to make these nuanced decisions through posts and captioning, using or not using certain social platforms, reposting, commenting, but also in less ephemeral ways such as personal style, appearance, and curatorial taste. Every aspect of self has been magnified, and every decision connotes high or low status. An authentic, true, and unshakable inner world bypasses the overthinking that inevitably occurs making these small choices.
The importance of this preservation is also subtly inferred in Matthew Maxwell’s How to Hold a Cockroach. A story of self discovery and freedom through a boy’s journey with a cockroach. Through a perspective shift, the boy realizes he has the choice to always remain curious and open for what’s to come, and his previous habits were based of of the reactions of others. This openness to surroundings becomes another crucial element for the artist. The skill of observing without the bias of other’s opinion is what truly allows for work to transcend time. What’s popular in the moment is known age poorly, trapping the work in the era in which it was created. To make what lives beyond it’s era and it’s own creator, it must be created in a rich and curious inner world, free enough from bias so as not to be plagued with impermanence.
Without maintenance of the mind, one runs the risk of being swept up in a flood of pertinence, placing their art in a time capsule that is observed with the eyes of the contemporary.
I argue that msuicians such as 2hollis or Fake Mink have a larger internet presence than Cameron Winter or Geese, however, they are on the opposite side of this duality in that their music does not live up to the social standing that they have (as of right now).
The last artist that has existed in both fields of the online world and the real world or the music world is likely someone such as Frank Ocean, as his music and songwriting credits have stood the test of time and have proven to have moved the needle for indie music, simultaneously becoming a cultural figure in the online space and influencing much of modern internet culture.
2020 proved to shake up many industries with the music industry included, coinciding directly with the birth of TikTok. 2020-2025 was a shakeup for music because artists focused more on how they were promoting and marketing themselves and using online tools rather than dedicating more time to the art itself. While the art is beginning to take priority once again, the industry and the artists are blind to what the future has to hold.
This has created a pocket.
The pocket is someone that can be both an internet persona and a sonic needle mover. As of now, the post-TikTok generation has yet to see an artist do both, meaning the next needle movers are up in the air.
These conditions create an opportunity that the music industry has never seen, in which every individual, be it a label head, a manager, an artist, a producer, etc. have equal opportunity.
This has created a superposition between our present, and what our present was predicted to be. Fisher discusses hauntological music quite often, referencing Burial, Boards of Canada, Yeezus, etc. A hauntological view is increasingly relevant in our current climate, as internet culture has drastically increased the amount of noise that we receive on a daily basis. This noise, both from the past and present coagulates together, and references have begun to overlap.
A callback to the 2010’s carries a flood of 90’s and 70’s nostalgia, blurring what made the decade unique from others. 808’s, sends through analog preamps, synthesizers, and resampled internet slop create a Gesamkuntswerk of noise aiming to capture a unique emotional space.
birthed in silence with nothing around
holy fire, the walk of the crown
a beautiful hill, I wish it was still,
I wish it was still.
In the same way the baby boomers are considered out of touch, I see similar patterns with my own parent’s generation. There was a shift somewhere in culture that felt too far for some. Gender as a social construct rather than objective truth seems to be the biggest barrier that many feel is unecessary. I see adults greatly struggle with this, often refusing to move with change, likely because it is past their time for the need to change. Regardless of what is changing, this is a phenomenon common in every generation.
What suprises me is the explicit parallels between the old generation and the aging generation, and the failure of the latter to recognize said parallels. Every aging generation feels as though they aren’t as stubborn as the last, while refusing to admit that they are equally as immovable when faced with changes they don’t enjoy.
Refusal to change is hauntological in a sense, in that rebellion comes from an unrealized past future, or maybe the (impossible) continuation of the past into the future. The aging want to keep what they had in a younger time, a better time, and when it doesn’t happen (as it never does, and never will), the weight of that realization is easier to refuse and push back against than to accept and move away from.
At the very least, recognizing this gives one the choice to never become what they found so frustrating in previous generations, or to become exactly that, knowing its easier than changing.
When this is gone, it is increasingly difficult to be bored and open to your surroundings as there’s no reason to be. Everything feels like a procrastination for the ‘task at hand’.
This is combined with a desire to start the day efficiently. If this isnt done, there’s an unconscious self-sabatoge that feels like the day was wasted.
Ironically, this is all exponentially more unproductive than being present to what the day actually offers.
There is a guideline for presence, though. It is as follows:
- Past = thought happening now
- Future = thought happening now
- You are not your thoughts
- Present = no thought
- You are never not present
(Guideline Credit: Instagram Reels)
across my back as we fall, a rush of blood to the head,
your skin is air i enhale,
if you let me, i’ll do well,
you love to hate yourself,
but you cant escape the sound,
the sound of stars falling down,
a lapse in what is coming
trapped inside your judgement day
who needs ammunition
when you flee the camp?
in superposition, I stand
Yet, something still feels unresolved
Moments in time trying desparately to be relived just long enough to be translated into sound. But how does one translate ineffibility?
I am reminded of the stargate scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Dave [ha] is traveling through space in silence, with an everchanging canvas of light beams being spewed across his view. vibrations and movement emphasize color and the slit-scan machine used to create the effect. There is a quality to this scene that resonates with me deeply, as it captures an awe without any sound or language; It is purely witnessed and felt.
Conversely, sound can achieve a similar effect. A couple of months ago, I witnessed music duo Los Thuthanaka perform track 7 off of their self titled album called Parrandita “Sariri Tunupa”. as the snow fell onto my face that night, a wall of indescribable weight crushed my being with existence. It had sounded like every moment I have ever experienced was layered on top of one another and played back to me. There was something ghostlike, but not anything hauntological. It felt more ancestrial, and all that could be done was stare at the sky with tears pouring down my face.
I talked to Elly (one half of the duo), and he told me it was meant to sound like stars falling into a lake.
All I can do is practice daily in hopes of achieving such a feeling in my own work.
There is no grid with which we are so accustomed to, nor is there an aspect ratio, a looped sound, or a sequence of quantized noise. There is instead a borderless field of senses being composed, written, and directed as it makes it’s first and final appearance all at once. The sunset of pale blue has dimmed and desaturated, as have the chats and chirps.
Nature is the only true Gesamkuntswerk
The proposed stage design is a 9 foot tall monolith, created entirely from speakers. I will perform in front of this monolith, with equipment on the floor.
An agglomeration of noise and references. Callbacks to previous eras when the cracks of this paradigm weren’t visible
This has now become the primary reference point for this performance, and will serve as the entry point to what is likely going to be one of the most formative rabbit holes I will enter.