At Water’s Edge looks into unexplored corners of ambient electronica to uncover beauty in unexpected places. Music is everywhere–sometimes pretty, sometimes dark, always beautiful. awe.fm
Music is everywhere, in everything: in the hum of a city,
in the pulse of construction machinery or a heartbeat,
in footsteps, in laughter, in breath, in the shuffling of an impatient audience…
and, like John Cage’s “Four minutes and thirty-three seconds”,
all you have to do is sit and listen.
At Water's Edge, 11 July 2015: Aural Sex
Just as a lark, during the At Water's Edge chat a few weeks ago, we played around with the idea of doing an episode centered around the theme of sensuality. This program is the result.
This week we feature a blend of existing and older works alongside recent releases, and even a couple of tracks that were created especially for this edition of At Water's Edge.
In the video version, we display fine art paintings and drawings, both from antiquity to the present, that features love and sensuality. There is no pornography, we promise, though some images are rather erotic. We had fun putting this program together!
In many--dare we say most--of our artworks throughout history, there is an underlying tension, even in the most chaste and pious of images. We're speaking of more than paintings, as well--one can also observe this in music and literature: a yearning toward ecstasy, real or imagined.
That ecstasy might take the form of religious transcendence, but in the human animal, spiritual and material are intertwined and interdependent. Transcendence of a religious nature is closely related to the frenzy of sexual connection, even when we attach pious labels and constraints to it (perhaps even more so then, as the truth of the tension becomes sublimated in cultural constraint). and so we strive for it in every manner possible.
Artistic expression is part of our attempt to attain ecstasy, often unattainable except in the briefest moments, but those moments making it so worth striving for again and again…
playman54: Venusian Dreams (2015)
playman541.bandcamp.com/album/venusian-dreams
- "Orbiting Mystic Venus"
- "Through Venusian skies"
- "Venusian Dreams"
- "Ghost choirs of Venusian flora/fauna"
- "Wind's Volcanic chants"
- "Singing Vapour waves on Venusian shores"
- "Dancing Spectres Venus night"
- "Departing sweet Venus"
it was a goodbye with a hint of sadness, like the end of a love affair...
Jazzdefector: Themes From Imaginary Films About Love (2015) auralfilms.bandcamp.com/album/themes-from-imaginary-films-about-love
- "Am I Dreaming"
- "Hush What's That Sound"
- "Midnight Black Coffee and Rain"
- "Unspoken 1"
- "Unspoken 2"
- "Why So Sad - Chapter 1"
- "Why So Sad - Chapter 2"
- "Why So Sad - Chapter 3"
- "Why So Sad - Chapter 4"
"One More Sunrise" - Eddie Entropy - Blot Out the Sun With Sex (2010)
"Escapist" - Emmanuel Farley - Awkward Sex (2005)
"Fundamentals of Sexuality" - Dr. Sounds - Aquasphere (2009)
"Psychosexual Sexterrestrial" - Randomajestiq - UnclassifiEP - 2003
"Summery wanderings" - Stephen Briggs - (unreleased, created for this edition of AWE) (2015)
"sex in strange rooms" - Ade Hodges - Reality Hackers (2015)
"Sexus" - EugeneKha - Green Quest (2012)
"Soothing Image 43" - Bing Satellites - Soothing Images 31-47 (2012)
This track inspired a poem of its own by Robert Matejko aka Robby Baby Dark Poet of Amour. Both the track and the poem can be found at bingsatellites.bandcamp.com/track/soothing-image-43
"Ligeti Voyage" - Joe McMahon - (unreleased, created for this edition of AWE) (2015) - soundcloud.com/joe-mcmahon/ligeti-voyage-1
* The track was created as an experiment by Joe McMahon and is based on a performance by yours truly of Henri Duparc's "L'invitation au voyage", a wonderful art song using Charles Baudelaire's *very* sensual poem as its foundation.
L’Invitation au Voyage
Mon enfant, ma sœur,
Songe à la douceur
D’aller là-bas vivre ensemble !
Aimer à loisir,
Aimer et mourir
Au pays qui te ressemble !
Les soleils mouillés
De ces ciels brouillés
Pour mon esprit ont les charmes
Si mystérieux
De tes traîtres yeux,
Brillant à travers leurs larmes.
Là, tout n’est qu’ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.
Des meubles luisants,
Polis par les ans,
Décoreraient notre chambre ;
Les plus rares fleurs
Mêlant leurs odeurs
Aux vagues senteurs de l’ambre,
Les riches plafonds,
Les miroirs profonds,
La splendeur orientale,
Tout y parlerait
À l’âme en secret
Sa douce langue natale.
Là, tout n’est qu’ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.
Vois sur ces canaux
Dormir ces vaisseaux
Dont l’humeur est vagabonde ;
C’est pour assouvir
Ton moindre désir
Qu’ils viennent du bout du monde.
- Les soleils couchants
Revêtent les champs,
Les canaux, la ville entière,
D’hyacinthe et d’or ;
Le monde s’endort
Dans une chaude lumière.
Là, tout n’est qu’ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.
Charles Baudelaire
(translations available at fleursdumal.org/poem/148)