Untitled,
a Demo Compilation
by
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
"…aesthetic pleasure in the beautiful consists, to a large extent, in the fact that, when we enter the state of pure contemplation, we are raised for the moment above all willing, above all desires and cares; we are, so to speak, rid of ourselves." (The World as Will and Representation, Vol. I, § 68)"
My initial plan for this project was to investigate the transcendent quality of music as detailed in the above quote from the 19th century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. It is my belief that musicians, or really artists in general, have a tendency to focus their efforts very heavily into pursuing this transcendent and often therapeutic experience. It was in this pursuit of sublimity in my own music that I discovered just how precious and rare the ability to adequately transfer that experience into a work of art for the consumption of others really is. While this was certainly discouraging at certain points, it also offered me valuable insights into my own progress as an artist. During the recording of these demos I was forced in part to leave the mindset of the musician and of the songwriter, adopting instead that of the novice recording engineer and producer. In doing so I had to confront my art through a new lens that offered an objectivity that had been clouded through years of habit. I had to reconcile with the sounds I was producing down to their most basic frequencies and to learn how to treat what appeared as mundane audio equipment with a certain musicality. The process of music making had suddenly become far more complex and abstract than it had previously been, and yet I found consolation in the new perspective and possibilities that this transformation offered. In searching for a sublime music, I found instead a very earthly one. It is a music that serves not to transcend the everyday, but rather to document it.
With this in mind I offer you a series of demos that I have selected from the past few months. They consist of songs in varying stages of completion and of varying levels of quality. In these vignettes you will hear spur of the moment recordings alongside songs slowly carved from the air over the course of weeks. You will hear nocturnes alongside shoegaze and poor attempts to invoke the sounds of Revolver. First and foremost, you will hear all manner of imperfections. There will be static and there will be lost time, there will be imperfect harmonies and the sounds of guitars detuning in the desert heat. While I cannot guarantee that you will find anything of transcendent value in these compositions, I do hope that they will serve as a sort of documentation of these past months and as a portrait of an artist during the pandemic.
Please click here to listen to my demos
