It’s with great pleasure that I announce the release of my new ambient work, Ghost Ship on a Black Sea…

10 years on and the Ghost Ship on the Black Sea completes the sonic trilogy that began with Huronic Minor (2001) and was followed up by The Phantom Light (2005). This series of recordings were an ode, or an homage, of sorts to the natural power of the Great Lakes but also evoked the feelings of the stormy, seasonal solitude of life in the Great Lakes basin in the winter months.

With this  trilogy of dark, long form ambient works, I intended to capture the feeling of the dark winter months on the open water, a place where the dark of night and the glow of the moon reflected against a white-cap sea is one where life and death have existed for time immemorial, and the emotional duality of nature’s power to give and take away.

The sea is not a new theme, but Ghost Ship on the Black Sea, which consists of 95 minutes of new music (thanks to the limitless format of digital releases) captures more than previous recordings, in the trilogy, a sense of place and musical impressionism that I first discovered in the Claude Debussy’s master work  La Mer (The Sea). While the timbres and technologies for executing this sonic picture have more than a century between them, the sentiment and sonic colors are quite similar.

You can buy Ghost Ship on a Black Sea at iTunes, Amazon and many other digital download sites. Click the icons below to go to the most popular sales destinations:

You hear a lot about these two things in my line of work. This makes sense considering it’s an interdisciplinary work. Whether I’m looking at something from the communications and marketing side of things and trying to foster creativity or just get some creative thought around problem solving, I end up needing the skills of creativity to get to the core of these things. On the other side, when I’m undertaking things from an IT and Web perspective, we’re always looking to innovate, problem solve and find solutions to things that we haven’t been able to figure out before.

These, seemingly, right and left brain activities, depending on the area you’re working in, seem disparate, disconnected, and I’ve seen folks approach them in that way, but the reality is that whatever it is that gets one to innovate or create comes from the same place.

If you’re going to try and innovate or be creative, you need to put aside pre-conceived notions, “blue sky” as we sometimes call it in IT, just brainstorm and let the creativity flow. You can’t try to organize the thoughts, harness it, or whatever, not initially, instead you have to just let it flow, document what’s coming out of the sessions and then go back, later and start to begin the process of dissecting, reviewing and critiquing the ideas.

I’m thinking of this now, because innovation and creativity in most organizations is kind of like pushing a cart in Ikea, or even worse, pushing a cart against traffic in Ikea. You’ll get somewhere, but it will be an unpleasant experience and one that you won’t embark on again. At the end, will you have achieved the creativity or innovation that you had hoped to? Maybe, but probably not… Managing creativity and innovation is like cooking a small fish, too much poking ruins it…

When you’re creating, I mean, when you’re really in that creative mode it seems like the creativity will never end. Maybe you decide to take your songs to the street or your art work or whatever, and before too long, you’re relying on your art, you’re needing it to live, maybe you’ve given up your job, or whatever, and you’re making a go of it with your art.

That feeling of bliss and creativity is kicking in full gear, but then one day comes, and the elation is gone. Instead of butterflies of excitement about your next creative idea, your gut just feels heavy and your stuck like chuck, trying to think about what to do now that everything in your existence relies on your creative output. This is a crap place to be.

Seasoned musicians and artists know this is part of the deal. This is a part of the ride that doesn’t feel good, and it makes us consider our worst fear: that when it’s gone, it’s gone and it won’t come back, that thing that makes us creative, whatever it is, but somehow it always seems to come back. That’s not to say that it’s not scary as hell when you wake up feeling like beat down, tired and uninspired especially when you’ve got a show to do or work to do.

I would submit that this is, generally, when pharmaceutical, illegal or otherwise, come into play and have for many artists through the ages, but I say, like with anything give it a break and wait for it or just go through the motions and see what happens… Creativity on demand or brilliance in a hurry is a life that many of us have made for ourselves, and there’s no supplement to feeling inspired, but sometimes we just have to suck it up, and work. Go through the motions, put process in place of inspiration.

Eventually, the inspiration comes back, and you’ll be back at it again… the best thing that you can do is not judge the feeling or lack of feeling, but go through the motions. If you can’t feel inspired, at least you can keep things moving, even if it’s not your most inspired work. Usually the malaise will lift in a couple days, sometimes it can go for months, but we’re adaptable, that’s part of working and being creative.

What is an artist? Semantically, I bounce around a lot using musician and artist interchangeably, sometimes going specific and referring to one as a painter, sculptor, writer, etc… I try to avoid the term “creative” like when I’m referring to a person as a creative… that’s my least favorite term used to describe someone who creates things. Ultimately, though, what I’m going after or trying to talk about is the artist, defined thusly, by Wiktionary:

A person who creates art; A person who creates art as an occupation; A person who is skilled at some activity; Artistic

So that’s it, it’s settled… the artist defined for future writings on this here site.

Artist’s take vision for granted. If they couldn’t see their vision in their mind’s eye, or hear their vision in their vision in their mind’s ear, then they would have a heck of a hard time creating anything. The artist creates things from nothing, whether carving a beautiful shape out of a block of wood, or organizing vibrations and frequencies into groups of melodies and harmonies, or manipulating shades of light on a canvas or a computer screen. The artist doesn’t go very far without vision.

The curious thing here is that companies all over the world are struggling to get these kinds of visionaries. Steve Jobs was heralded as a great visionary and he himself really just considered himself an artist. Considering oneself an artist is freeing, because it means you can create, just creating towards the end of creation. Business thrives when the creativity is harnessed and turned into interesting products and innovative ideas, but they all come from the same place, the artist’s vision.

Is the artist born with this vision? Some would say so. I don’t really know, myself. I have vision, but I don’t know that I feel like I was born with some kind of special aptitude. I can tell you that I definitely know how to create the right environment for being creative. I know my process and what works for me, and I know how to work with others to get a creative output, but vision is a wholly mental and emotional process that happens in the mind of the individual. We can talk about it, we can experience other people’s visions, even bring our vision to others, but does everyone have vision or the capacity to have a vision? I guess as I type these lines, I think that each human must have the ability to be visionary, it’s just a matter of that aptitude or process being tapped.

Point is: Artist’s take their vision for granted, but if it wasn’t for the artist and their vision it would be a very dull world with very little exciting or beautiful going on… or maybe we’d learn to live a life more in tune with nature and it’s inherent beauty.

This morning, as I meditated on Dr. King’s work, I was reminded of what some consider Dr. King’s last goal: The eradication of poverty. Poverty is the great equalizer, it affects all of us in some way, shape or form. As Dr. King said, “The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. … The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct, and immediate abolition of poverty.” This was known as the Poor People’s Campaign. He also talked about poverty in one of his last speech’s, which I’ve linked to here.

Below, I’ve also embedded a YouTube video that I watch sometimes when the world doesn’t seem to make sense, and the clarity that I thought I had about the trajectory of life is more opaque than usual. The words of Dr. King always lift me up.

All of this is to say, and this is also a reminder for myself, as much of my written work is, that we not only have to be grateful and thankful for everything we have, but we also can’t forget our responsibility to help those who are in worse shape or in more dire straits than ourselves. Dr. King understood this and taught this, leading by example. In some weird way that I feel, but don’t understand, we as humans are all connected, so whether through the creation and sharing of beauty, volunteerism or cash donations, helping others is helping ourselves.

Alright, so 52 Songs is looking like a bust, at least if I intended to do 52 Songs in 52 weeks, straight… I’m going to still be posting songs… so the tag on this series of 52 Songs in 52 Weeks or bust… well, the bust is my public acknowledgement that I couldn’t keep it going… What’s crazy is that I’ve definitely been writing songs, I just can’t seem to get them written, recorded and posted… matter of fact, I wrote a great song the other day, one of the better ones I’ve written this last month about cadaver dogs from World War I. Actually, it’s a lot less depressing than it sounds. I have to blame some of this on the fact that I’ve been just immersed in Dave Liebman and Eberhad Weber’s back-catalog the last few weeks, so if the project got derailed at least it was for a good reason.

A few gigs with Teag and PK coming up over the course of the next few days and then we’ll break with gigs for the January. As well, Teag and PK will be going into the studio to record our first tune for our first release… more to come on that. Very exciting, though.

For the sake of a quick reader query: Have you missed the 52 Songs project?
I’d love to know what people think about this, as there’s been a bit of radio silence of late.

Listening to the Dave Liebman Group recording Further Conversations gifted to me by main man and creative collaborator, Michael Teager has gotten me thinking about improvised music and why it’s always, almost innately, appealed to me.

My earliest memories of improvising music in a group setting go back to when I was sixteen with my first band. There was no self-awareness of musical improvisation… that would come much later, but I knew I loved the freedom of just giving it a go and see what came out through the process. I knew nothing about music, improvised or otherwise at that age. I didn’t have any kind of musical background. Mostly, I was in a bit of a punk rock and metal phase as a guitarist and bassist, and had no awareness of the jazz, or John Coltrane, or Miles Davis, or of bands like Phish or the Grateful Dead who were known for their lengthy improvisations. I just knew that it felt freeing and very present to sit down and do something, musically, that I almost certainly do the same way twice.

This latter part has always been a point of major frustration to my friends and collaborators who’ve wanted to control the beast. Musical group improvisation can go either way… It can leave you elated and on cloud nine, but it can also leave you feeling lost, disoriented and like you just wasted a period of your life. Though, the latter has been easier to get a handle on manage from a craft vs. art perspective over the years, but I digress…

I think that the really killer thing about musical improvisation in a group or solo is that you never know what’s going to happen. You step up to your instrument and/or setup and you bring your past experiences, your history, years of practice, your perspective, your sensibilities as an artist, your skills as a crafts-person and a technician – time stops – and there’s just you, your art and the moment… I love that about improvisation.

This post is already getting a little long, but something that really strikes me about improvised music, is that like anything we improvise at in our life, we get varying results, until we get used to the being in that context, arrangement, situation, or whatever, and our second nature takes over — some would call that the Zen mind. I found the Zen mind when I was sixteen and I’ve spent nealry every day of my life since then trying to find that place as often as possible..

It’s no surprise to anybody that knows me that ECM Recordings, their style and approach, as well as many of their artists are something that I hold in very high esteem. The last few years have had me immersed in the Tord Gustavsen Trio and the Marcin Wasilewski Trio… I’ve also really discovered Eberhard Weber in the last few months, but more about him a little later. Right now, I’m really enjoying Arve Henriksen, a Norwegian trumpet player who brings great texture and a sense of place to his music.

As I’ve evolved as an artist who’s worked in the ambient genre, I’ve really come to appreciate those artists who can make a contemplative ambient music without relying on electronics, tape delays, reverbs and the like, things that I very much have relied on. Some artists that come to mind are Jan Garbarek, Matthias Eick, Tom Heasley, Bruce Kaphan and Paulie Oliveros. For me, creating that kind of contemplative ambient music where the instrumentalist/vocalist carries much of the weight, that is using the echo of a room or even minimal uses of electronic reverbs and tapes is something that I’m striving for, artistically.

Curiously, I’ve come to this place via the singer/songwriter approach. While there’s a part of me that needs to be jamming with Teag and PK and really pushing the music, rhythmically and sonically, there’s another part of my creative personality that intends to also pursue a quieter side, probably within the context of Teag and PK. No doubt, these will be two different audiences or venues, but I think that there’s a music that kind of jams and there’s a music that really relies on space, much like my earlier ambient performances did. In any case, listening to ECM Recordings, and Arve Henriksen, in particular reminds me of that sacred space.

I totally skipped a Happy New Year post this year. Not because I’m not happy it’s a new year, actually, much like birthdays, I like to think of it as just another day, so as to not create too much of an expectation or anything like that around a calendar day. Some people think that’s a bummer, that’s Ok. I like to think of every day as a celebration of life, birth and all that is.

I spent much of the last couple weeks relaxing and spending time with family and writing or reworking songs. There’s also been some preparation for the series of shows that I have coming up in January, and we have nearly a dozen shows already booked or in the works into 2012. Certainly, this is looking to be the year of the Matt PK Borghi – the singer/songwriter. Michael Teager and myself are also preparing to begin work on our first recorded Teag and PK outing.

There’s a lot planned and I’ll be talking about that here. I am looking to get 52 Songs going again here, more regularly. The holidays didn’t bear the fruit that I had hoped from a Christmas tune perspective, but I definitely wrote some just never set them to music.Teag and myself also have some other plans that if they come to fruition, I’ll write more about here… I’ve learned about doing too much talking about plans that aren’t yet happening, so that’s all I’ll say now.

52 Songs – Song of the Week #14 – Imperfections

This is a piano tune that I recorded a couple weeks ago. I’ve been sitting on it, as I’ve been promoting Ghost Ship on a Black Sea, but I’m looking to keep moving on these tunes, so I’m posting. Enjoy.

Song: Imperfections

Lyrics:

Instrumental

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This post and recording are part of the 52 Songs project, where I’m working to write, record and upload a new song every Wednesday – 52 Songs in 52 weeks or bust – Please feel free to share and enjoy, but kindly give credit to Matt Borghi and MattBorghi.com