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 Back To Ampersand Index PAGE 1 - Preface - I do not believe that any form of art requires an explanation or analysis. In this sense, I feel that creating art is similar to creating any other product being placed on the consumer market; it is yours to experience in any way you wish. I also feel that any discrepancy between the experience a listener has (or conclusion a listener reaches) and that defined by the original intent of the artist, bears no invalidity upon either. The artform known as music is made for purposes of audible consumption by people, for enjoyment, and nothing should get in the way of that. With a concept as subjective and relatively frivolous as art is, why should one let a twisted/inaccurate version of the current consensus of what is "right" or "wrong" interfere with the reason you want to experience a form of art in the first place? Having said that, I felt the desire to share details about the creation of this record, possibly to enhance future listening experiences, but also quite possibly just to document my own thoughts. I am an avid enthusiast of DVD audio commentaries, and have listened to well over 300 of them. Directors are very willing to share their most personal thoughts and in a very real sense, pass on their knowledge and experience of the creative process to anybody interested in listening and learning. Through the same logic that I've learned an incredible amount about making records through the thoughts of film directors, I hope that this written commentary can in turn influence people in any way it can, not necessarily confined by its own musical context. One of my favorite directors, who incidentally has some of the best (if not the best) audio commentaries I've heard, is Tim Burton. Towards the beginning of the commentary for his 1994 film, Ed Wood, he offers some wonderful insight about both Ed Wood's films and his own films. "From film to film, there was a thread of his language and his sort of themes... Even in a film like Plan 9, it's not like Glen or Glenda, but you can see the symbols and things [that are] important to him. I mean, that's something that I always tried to do in any film, whether it's a big film or a small film; you have your own kind of cryptic messages in there, or cryptic things that most people wouldn't understand but are important to you. You know, things that that you don't even verbalize to the studio or anybody, but kind of keep you going through the process." Good films (in an objective sense) are not necessarily likable films, the same way that if music is well executed, it bears no impact upon whether or not it will be memorable. Also, there have been at least hundreds of filmmakers easily definable as much worse than Ed Wood, but the reason he has been immortalized is because of the dichotomy created by the extent to which he poured out his heart and soul into movies while simultaneously showing a blatant disregard for any semblance of high production standards while making them. Even if properly executed, pouring one's heart and soul into a work of art can result in very embarassing results if taken out of the paradigm of current trends. In the words of Spinal Tap, "There's a fine line between clever and... stupid." and despite the obvious intended humor of the statement, I believe that full heartedly. The most I can ever hope for my own records is that they will mean something to me, and that it will be obvious to others that I invested a lot of myself in them, no matter how ridiculous they may seem 20 years from now. By all means, this written companion to Ampersand is not required or even recommended in any way, but because of the amount of time spent on this project, I was able to take the opportunity to add less abstract, conceptual creative devices, of which I will attempt to document (if only for my own benefit, before I forget what many of them were). While my main focus during the production of the record was the fashioning of the abstract expressiveness of each moment, (and not the concepts behind them), those intentions are difficult if not impossible for me to convey outside of their own existance, which is the reason I made them in the first place: to express something otherwise inexpressible. In this dimension, the music can speak for itself far more eloquently than I ever could, so, I will try not to talk about my own subjective and emotional reactions to things as much as I will try to provide concrete facts. I will leave it up to you, the reader, to decide for yourself if audio commentaries or written companions such as this will inhibit your own ability to experience the work of art to the full extent you are capable of doing so. I hope that this written commentary provides you with some useful insight to be used however you see fit. -Brian Peters January 2007 Back To Index |