A growling, murmuring voice mumbles towards the ground. My eyes focus on a boorish stature – in front of which, a long wooden desk awkwardly has been arranged. Unsure, whether the murmur was directed towards me – and taken caught off-guard by the unusual sight – I stay silent. A few moments pass by until a slowly arisen head meets my eye.

You now may want to tell me that I possibly could and should have sensed that – in fact – it was I, who the murmur was directed to. Nonetheless, I could not help but vividly be taken aback by the gestalt’s powerful glance. All-engulfing inevitability. This is what the stature’s gaze instantaneously had produced in me. And, as you may have learned just like me: People – most paradoxically – are dispositioned to flee from inevitability. I am no exception to that rule. This may explain me being so frightened as to making an unintended retrograde step. But let us now continue with what happened.

Likely, much longer than I would like to admit, I prolonged the quietude. Me, still ravelled in the process of analysing the exact meaning of this utterance, that so nakedly has been thrown into the air of the room. Most certainly it also had something to do with the subtle undercurrent lying in the air surrounding it. An undercurrent suggesting that anything ill-equipped is going to be pulled to shreds. To my detriment, it was going to take me a few more instances of time to ascertain that it was not above utterance, but me, who was ill-equipped for all-of-the-awaiting.

What most of all puzzled me about this obscure experience was the nonchalance this line was delivered with. Not the kind of nonchalance, that regularly accompanies that saying – as in the usual ways people humorously adduce that sentence under a variety of circumstances. But rather, a kind of sincere nonchalance: The kind of nonchalance, ice cream vendors are associated with when wanting one to make a choice of flavour. Only that I – in that instant – seemed to be obliged not to opt for chocolate & strawberry (an excellent combo, by the way, for many reasons): No, much on the contrary: I shall opt for something that poisons me, kills me. Luckily, whatever would be going to kill me, would only do so in the utmost of bureaucratic ways (which is what the way of deliverance ironically seems to suggest). Albeit this knowledge – for reasons that are obvious – would have been totally incapable of tempering my state of shock. Still, to this day, I am unsure, whether the notion of “being killed in a bureaucratic manner”, even is capable of carrying any genuine meaning. Notwithstanding, this is how it felt to me, in that moment.

“It’s always the same”, Bob goes, “you never are not confused”. “Your cluelessness astounds me”. “Here…”, the brute figure clad in undersized dungarees suggestively points downward towards the wooden surface. Once more, I am taken aback by the view of an array of sorts. Or more precisely, some kind of assortment of flasks weirdly reminiscent of a chemical student dorm room’s ornamentation.

Which may seem like a an oddly random interrelation my brain came up with, but it just seemed so unbelievably fitting to describe what I saw.

“Let me explain”. “You are at that point of your life you constantly have been awaiting in dread”. “It is time for you, to make a choice”. “And contrary to what you all think before coming here, no. No choice you make will bring you, where you want to be”. “With great naïveté, all along your lifetime, supposing there were “right” or “wrong” choices”. Bob sighs. “I am here to show you wrong; make you regret your senseless stupidity”. “Also, quit looking at me that deerish way Daniel.”

“It is time: Now choose your poison”.

The post Choose Your Poison appeared first on Blog by Daniel Vassiliev.

Two eyes are met by my visual trajectory. It seemed to already have been looking. There is no movement at all, mere stasis. And still, in this kinetic lacking, there is some type of instant exchange. Some hard to grasp primal feeling is what one cannot help but succumb to. Most would not assume much, though it is undeniable, these black dots want to transfer something to me. There is almost some type of inherent helplessness to the way these oval-shaped diamonds seem to look my way. Their inquisitive nature makes me wonder about the purpose of this uncompromising fixation. What is their intention? What are they saying? Or rather what are they asking?

Rationally, there is no answer to be found. But even without the need for inquiry, the answer seems to have been there all along. The plain on which it unquestionably emerged from makes it inaccessible to verbal description. In some sense, even if it could be accessed, the expression would be lost. The realm of the ethereal is dictated by laws incompatible with the want for understanding. In spite of this truth, the acceptance of the former – in some paradoxical way – still manages to give way to the transmission of some sort of inexplainable impulse. This exact impulse then, in an inexplicable manner, seems to surreptitiously transform and bend in an unearthly way.

Any remaining perceived distance is diminished into nothingness. If one – in this moment – could even conceive of the concept of inter-objectual difference, it would almost sound silly. Like the mention of an afterthought, like the remembrance of a painting consumed by time itself. Maybe this – for once – is an ultimate truth? Maybe all appeals before made to what we still think to be the fruitful mode of inquisition were wrongly construed? What if we have been foolishly ignoring something nature wanted to make known to us all along? What we take to be the simplest, the most minimalistically constructed, out of this new observational lens unequivocally demonstrates itself to be woven in an utmost intricacy of complex material.

Later I return to where I was before. The space on the stairs below – once occupied by the queer-looking creature – now vacantly provokes my eye.

I wonder: Where could the cat have gone?

The post A curious encounter appeared first on Blog by Daniel Vassiliev.

No matter which part of his discography one listens to, there always lingers this homemade vibe, this very welcoming feeling of youthful energy that does not know any restraints or pre-existent rules. Prior descriptions are also perfectly captured by the name of his first LP release in 2016 called “In My Room” which – to no surprise – equally has been entirely recorded from his private room.

Now, dawning in the beginning of the year 2024, is Collier’s fifth official studio album release, which will be called “Djesse Vol. 4”. Following three prior albums, this soon-to-be released LP is the sequel of an ambitious four-album project that intends to represent as many kinds of various music and culture as possible, while still getting its own jacob-ean spin onto the tracks. From start to finish, the musical scenery changes from big, searing orchestral string/choral arrangements (Vol.1), to warm and private acoustic folk & African music (Vol.2), to (what Jacob himself calls) “negative space” electronical pop music including r&b/neo-soul influences (Vol.3).

All these prequels are to be concluded by the mentioned up-coming album, that tries to marry all prior musical directions into one, uniform idea. Collier compares this cycle with the way either a day or a life progresses: first, you start off in a dimension of youth-spirited exploration and go out into the world (morning; childhood) then to be gratified on your return from the journey with the sun setting (dusk; older teenager) after which, the fictional character “Djesse” ventures out into the nightlife (midnight; college student (?)). Trying to fit the new, soon-to-come addition into this cycle, it could be interpreted as a revisitation of all former stages (morning/sunrise/adulthood). Here, the character “Djesse” (possibly even an alter-ego of Collier) reembarks upon his journey by reflecting on what life has offered to him so far and what he has learned along the way; perfectly concluding the depicted cycle.

Overall, one can say, there definitely is proper reason to be excited about the release. Certainly, Collier’s music might not be for everyone, and there is no denying that there are dozens over dozens of hypertalented multi-instrumentalists and promising artist on the horizon. But one must admit that there is no one else that creates music as Jacob Collier does. Everything this artist creates is completely unique to him, while his uncompromising nature makes it impossible for Collier to sacrifice authenticity even slightly to gain more mass-appeal.

Isn’t this what an artist should be celebrated for?

When I think about Jacob Collier, I notice that there are reasons for me putting his music on that high of a pedestal that cannot be understood by solely analyzing his music: While trying to define his music and put into words what exactly makes it great, it gets apparent quite quickly that there are some reasons that lie outside his official/formal releases. One of these dimensions can be encountered on YouTube, where you see Collier teaching advanced jazz theory to his viewers in a very casual setting (you will in fact find dozens of such videos). Without wanting to boast about his knowledge in any way, he humbly – for the music’s own sake – tries to show, what makes him tick, what drives his compositional intent. Said in other words, just seeing him explain his process and expressing his musical knowledge, made me appreciate his work on a more profound level. In fact, this concept/occurrence interestingly does not seem to be that rare of a phenomenon. Similarly, the TED talk of Benjamin Zander with the name “The transformative power of classical music” (2008) discusses this concept, where after verbally explaining the intent of a composition and giving some insight into the musical innerworkings of a piece, an audience can have a significantly heightened emotional reaction to the music. Therefore, it seems like, to fully engage in such music, it is sometimes necessary to possess certain information that is not entirely inherent in the audible part of the composition. This poses the question, if maybe exactly this could be the reason for people’s very split opinion about musicians that compose the way also Collier does. Music in general that is set to break free from boundaries, that intends to – at least partially – simultaneously pose as some kind of progressive development of art itself has worked this way most of the time (e.g. 20^th century atonal music by Arnold Schoenberg; Igor Stravinsky concertos; maybe even Miles Davis’s modal jazz from the 60s (…)). Observing Collier’s music through that lens, one can see instances, where he composes out of that exact mindset and that is also where a lot of criticism will come in and belittle the composition for being “too stimulating” or simply “too much” (you will find many of such comments on YouTube). There most certainly is no consensus about if this mode of art-making should be considered favorable or the contrary, as one could argue against it given that it is made less accessible by expecting the listener to have some amount of prior analytical-musical education. Consequently, inaccessibility of (for example) classical music is commonly criticized, there are comments about it being gatekept and thereby made harder to be broadcast and enjoyed by a wider audience.

Regarding this topic, I refuse to make a final statement or decision. Though, what one potentially could take away from this is how to get into the music of specifically Jacob Collier and similar artists. Humans in general are intent driven. We care about WHY others do what they do, not just about WHAT they did exactly (at least if we want to get a deeper understanding of someone’s actions). So maybe instead of listening to the music of an artist, we should listen to them explain it to us first.

It could be quite enlightening to see how that changes our experience. 

My song recommendations from the albums:

A cappella: “Moon River” & “You and I”; Acoustic: “Make Me Cry” & “Lua”

The post Jacob Collier’s new album in 2024 and a comment about intent in music overall appeared first on Blog by Daniel Vassiliev.