key terms
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tempo: density of beats per unit of time
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play tempo: tempo of the mixed song
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play time: how much clock time passes when playing the song
prelude
2023 started with a well-defined plan for initiating my study of the quadrivium, the second leg of the classical liberal arts, to investigate quantity or number. After learning arithmetic to understand number in its most abstract sense, i’d proceed to geometry. After understanding number in space, i’d progress to music. After number in time, i’d conclude with astronomy to securely cement my understanding of number in both space and time. Thereafter, my mental faculties firmly liberated, i could seek the unknown and make sense of it for posterity’s sake.
however, unbeknownst to me, the unknown sought me...here, emerge motifs 👾
the last 6 months have been, well, a time
On May 20, Ammini Susan Mathews (my paternal grandmother) fell asleep in The Lord (ref. ~ dream grass). The ensuing chaos unmistakably left me with a strong sense of target confusion, palpable enough to slice with a single-ply napkin. How does her passing impact my memory of my past, which consisted of every single second i remember prior to this instance? How does it influence my experience of the present and preparation for the future? How does my experience of her experience of time during her final days affect the rest of mine? Each question, and its conceptual cousin, restlessly buzzed around my brain.
My neat plan quickly fell into shambles. Surely, i couldn’t study number in space or in its most abstract sense when time’s voice cried the loudest. Thus, as i’ve done time and time again, i leaned into my instinct and rocked with my intuition.
over the last 6 months, time has never been, well, more fluid
Since then, i’ve felt time's inextricable nexus with how i perceive it. Mayhaps, you've even sensed time quickly passing you by, slipping even?
Arithmetic, step aside ~ it’s time’s time.
experiential scaffolding
music is liquid architecture - architecture is frozen music*~ johann wolfgang von goethe*
As outlined above, the classical liberal art of music formally introduces one to structurally experiencing time. Nevertheless, i shirked structure and dove headfirst into contemporary music. Admittedly and ashamedly, i started abusing it to satiate my longing for low-value dopamine hits. No longer desiring to further dig my pit of passive consumption, i decided to actively produce. Hopping into the driver's seat should ostensibly simplify my temporal study, or so i reckoned.
As i continued mixing, i made note of particularly poignant observations. When their accretion approached critical mass, i realized that preserving my experience of time’s fluidity in terms and propositions necessarily limits the future’s ability to connect with my experience - certainly, more so than other topics on which i’ve mused.
communication | mediated and unmediated
Terms and propositions mediate how the intellect communicates. My intellect, as the writer, translates the essence of my understanding into terms (i.e., words used unambiguously) and organizes those terms in propositions (i.e., statements used unambiguously). Your intellect, as the reader, processes these propositions and terms. Then, it indexes new insights in your memory for later reference. (note: the intellect is one of the intellectual human powers, and i’ll prepare a thorough exposition of the human powers, both super and otherwise, one day soon)
On the plane of mutually beneficial, ordinary discourse (i.e., that of first imposition and intention), you can neither affirm nor deny any of my propositions unless you engage with my reasoning. Furthermore, i cannot hope to convey my reasoning, the order of my logic, to you without language, for logical and psychological elements characterize language.
Logically-deficient language makes communication impossible, whereas psychologically-deficient language makes it difficult. Some deficiencies follow from capacities within our control (i.e., deficient writing and deficient reading), and the rest follow from those outside of our control (e.g., different languages, different generations, etc.). Interestingly, these elements make translating poetry from ancient lands in eras existing only in the deep recesses of our collective memory far more difficult than doing the same for the Sumerians’ Cuneiform accounting tablets. The latter operates on the level of logic, while the former leans on psychology.
Let’s refine our focus on language’s psychological aspect and, more broadly, psychological communication.
Since you and i, as different individual beings, must have unique psychological experiences, even the most beautiful language, at best, merely approximates my experience. Consequently, some of the experiential substance of my understanding gets lost in the translation – on my side, as i write; and, on your side, as you read.
Accordingly, in addition to publishing my contemplations about time’s essence, i prepared tempus ousía. Audible arrangements (i.e., music) help me immediately communicate experience – terms, either improperly used or understood, and propositions, either poorly structured or processed, no longer stand between our experience, which we may share as one now.
guiding principles
some quick notes before you spin
Although i hope you enjoy some of the songs in this collection, i didn’t curate it for your enjoyment. Rather, i publish it with two goals in mind.
First, it evidences, what i believe to be, art's teleological purpose: to explicitly help the experiencer remember that he experiences. Truly, the subject of art's final cause deserves a lengthy discussion reserved for it and it alone, so let's set that aside today.
Second, and key for the present discussion, i wish to demonstrate time's malleability. Almost every song you've heard to date probably had a steady 'play tempo'. In fact, i wouldn't be remotely surprised if ‘slowed & reverb’ artists simply taper tempo down from one fixed quantity to another. Nevertheless, every collection of songs you've heard carries with it an essence that weaves it together. In tempus ousía's case, its time of remains in motion from start to finish. Of course, i didn't tweak ‘play tempo’ for every planck unit of ‘record time’, so each song features temporal plateaus where time effectively stabilizes. For your reference, i commented the BPM range @ 0:10 of each song. Hopefully, these temporal shifts happen imperceptibly, but if you - lucky you! - ever perceive time changing, make note of when, how and what? and ask it once more :)
when did you notice that time changed?
how did you know it changed?
did you know that it changed as it changed or after it changed?
what does that reveal about your experience of the world?
Also, i keyed down each track by 3 keys (note: inexplicably, single-digit prime number changes produce the most pleasing results). Had you heard the song before, i wanted to present you with an experience that balances soporific novelty and dynamic familiarity. If you're curious about how much this adjustment affects the song, i made the key change in the middle of a few songs (hint: their titles have umlauts in them!). For your reference, i commented the key change at @ 0:20 of each song. Even the artists who originally produced the songs may extract meaningful insights from the experience: fingers crossed that actually happens 😁
Separately, i chose the lyrical songs because i enjoy them – some (read: most) of them i’ve enjoyed for many sunrises and sunsets. Some include explicit (like explicit explicit) lyrics, and i sincerely tried to limit how many such songs cleared the publishing filter to be mindful of past, present and future audiences. However, i’m quite envious of you if these lyrics make you feel some type of way (e.g., frustrated, appalled, disappointed, etc.) because these feelings are foreign to me in this exact context. At the moment of observing negative reactions, rejoice in the fact that you feel anything at all instead of smoldering under its fire. Although you may never experience the experiencer in its totality, experiencing that you’ve experienced is a blessing in and of itself. Finally, given how long i’ve been tangoing with the same handful of tracks, i felt sufficiently justified in selecting songs that i need not force myself to enjoy.
Lastly, similar to paragraphs in a standalone essay, i took great care to sensibly curate the order of songs so that they evoke a certain array of emotions - i’ll leave you in suspense and refrain from revealing them…for now 😌 On your first listen, consider listening from the start with shuffle off. If you're in a time crunch, consider listening to the last six songs, from 'gagana nee' to 'the end'. Pro tip: if songs enter particularly instrumental phases, pay careful attention because those sections afforded me the greatest latitude to extend the inquiry.
tbv's choice
shameless plugs 😇
Listen to caskey, for he's an elite poet. Listen to killy, his songs uniquely inspire. Listen to maya jane coles, she’s a locus of generational good vibrations.
Absolutely ask doug to sing ya ali, but wait for mama to start recording first 😊
closing thoughts
As i’ve grown up (still in process lol), the importance of precise word usage has become increasingly apparent. i should not discuss important matters in prose if i lazily employ words, for that which i use to convey substance would itself lack substance altogether.
Supposedly, according to the concise oxford dictionary, time is the most used noun in the english language. So, allow me to be very frank: i believe accurately approximating a normative explanation of time remains a crucial yet incomplete existential task for us not only as individuals but also as a species.
why should i honor the past or the future if non-truths modulate my relationships with them?
if today isolates me from yesterday — a proposition i outright deny for the record btw — why should i desire to build a better tomorrow?
Truthfully, i prepared this album to help me make sense of time for posterity’s sake. You're welcome to embark on this journey with me, so think of this extended intro as an explanation of the rules of the game before you go play if you're up for the challenge.
My reflections will duly follow, and i’ll reserve however long i need to make sense of my own ramblings so that you may flourish. Worry not that i need time, for time is mine to make :)
as i have and will continue to do, let me know where this line of inquiry leads you! pls observe and report back to the team
P.S. - teaser of the concepts that may be discussed in the comprehensive write-up: creativity, biorhythms, wasted time, temporal dynamics, noticings per minute ("NPMs") and the sublime
first-time reading? please check out the sailing manual for helpful guidance!