Monday, April 27, 2009

Corrode and Engulf - Cognitive Dissonance VI - Final Chapter




This represents the final chapter and transmission of the Cognitive Dissonance process. Next, I'll share a few bits of what I've been working on lately, between things I'm bound by blood oaths not to talk about, extensive research into rhizomatic consciousness, chaos theory, extreme esoteric number manipulation and viral linguistics. A ton of creative output had been gathering momentum, and dissemination has been an afterthought, though I came to see that aspect becoming part of the creative flow. Further dissection of the sounds. In keeping with the original intent, I'm going to limit the final production notes to a bare outline of the process that got us here and convey gratitude to those of you who followed and added to the conversation.

The first thought I had at the outset was to track a simple album with a classic trio sound. I've done well with that, except for the added melody line at the beginning of the first track. Then a few stray ideas took root and grew into strange mutant entities. Major revamps, rethinks and re-visions, then sounds, images and artifacts suggested ever more forms and eventually, narrative, albeit of the surreal sort. With the album itself I took a very direct and raw approach. I've always preferred the sound of a human being playing instruments and singing to the mad scientists creation that is the protools version of injection molded plastic. (Not to be confused with electronic music.) Vocalists don't usually like to have anyone hear anything but the most spot on, confident performances, but I was going for a feeling and a story, and these are my sketches.

Cognitive Dissonance was a working title that became the final title, for the name fed the blossoming idea that tied the album together. A story that encompassed a vision split in four directions, a juxtaposition and melding together of the points of view of of same world/ two views, two worlds, same character observing and acting in them. The central idea is of a cognitive dissonance between first appearances and a closer look.

I recorded all the music, and then came up with the song titles. I decided the order according to how the titles felt. Then I wrote a short story starting from a cutup of the titles. I expanded that and took the lyrics from that. I think my machines freaked out and became possessed in the process. I had some radio signals coming through the guitar as I laid down the tracks, and I made liberal use of them. While I continued to track the album I released several transmissions. I thought I'd make the various stage escapes into their own entities, as opposed to a few stray mp3's.

Unlike the album itself, I layered, layered the layers and added extra layers to boot. I tried something different in the first, and with the help of the fine folks at librivox.org, I added spoken word from readings of public domain classics. We're hearing mostly Flaubert, Coleridge and Emily Dickinson.

Transmision II I made from the bass tracks from the album. Mostly you're hearing one track of bass with no layers but the real-time FX, though there are a couple points where the cello creeps in. A few inexplicable voices emerged that weren't recorded by me. If it fits as a soundtrack for your daily experience, I want to hear the story. throw these out of my head in quick bouts between working on two movies, my own moving image projects, not included, three comics, (not telling yet), and a sum total of five albums of various styles at different points of production.

Along with the sound transmissions, the lyrics were extending into stories. The lyrics to most songs I'd done so far were dreamlike fragments of one continuous tale. I wanted to bring some of the underlying structure into focus. At the same time I listened to others stories. I was especially interested to hear some apocalyptic tales. Ragnarok, Armageddon, the end of one life and the beginning of another. The death of the ego, the body, a belief. The hearing became expression, and the telling of the tale that resulted was an embodiment of experience.

Individual Files

Movie FilesMPEG4Ogg Video512Kb MPEG4

189 MB183 MB183 MB

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Cognitive Dissonance - Prolix/Bleeding Through



Passionate corruption – the sensation conjures incinerated irregular Sentinels. Dissent to foul restriction; approach with Caution the daunting pleasing fragments of lust inspired movements into myopic creation. An icy vein of suspension moves in me. Night access hallucinations illustrate Conception as an initiative influence of grey nothing. Willful, even if idiosyncratic artifice deems otherwise, you create a counteractive complex with an artist’s passion. The extractions of magnificence Interweave and metamorphose in the isolation on the strength of opinion.

Your intercession reinforces incisive prohibitions, though you tolerate how the revealed masses of the faithful establish your manifest righteousness. All the thought of a lifetime with no conscious evolution, One cannot recall where it began to slide. Stirring the spirit, Transitional colorless and uncompromisingly intent Organizations approach Regulations designed for illumination. Don’t mention it to the whispering dead. Outside attendance is not in the soul’s possession.

We lie side by side, blowing sparks, gazing into the screaming silence. Splinter delegations to trepidation drive automatons out on masses to merit their endurance. Truth be told, trust is never to be shown. Habit takes instruction from surfeit regard gone in the rush of outworn relics collapse. Borne away on seas of sound I cry out. The bitter realization contains the happy seed: yes, me. Position exposed on a great, cold, ardent bed. You are absent from your own convictions, your state of bemusement, the suppression of blood connections to coerce compliance in advance of your loathing. Furthermore the unremarkable drones’ first abundant surge survives through weakness, as the demonstration with poisonous error anticipated your insignificant ill-use of kindness. Corrode and engulf what went before. I am beginning a new direction of outwardly flowing disdainful, sustaining wisdom. Clothed in thorns, your throat is dry.

Friday, April 24, 2009

The G-Spot Episode #4

This was another step in the creation process for Cognitive Dissonance, taking the Cognitive Dissonance Prolix posts and turning it into a series of strange dialogues. In the process I managed to take the thousands of words I'd written out and begin restructuring as verses and shorter bits.

My fine colleagues at Alterati.com let me hijack the show and with the help of James Curcio and Anna Young, what you can hear here was dramatized:


This unique episode takes you through a number of open-ended tales, told by the voices of a schizophrenic internal monologue. It can be taken as the voices in the mind of a sleeper, on the brink of sleep, or a mental patient, strapped into a bed in a moldy room in an asylum. Maybe these events happened, or have yet to happen. That’s for you to decide.

In addition to your loving host, this show features the voice acting talents of P. Emerson Williams and Anna Young, and the music includes much atmospheric material from Veil of Thorns and Ariana van Gelder.

Strap yourself in, put on the headphones, and enjoy the show.

The G-Spot Episode 4: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Cognitive Dissonance - Prolix/Corporeal



Awaken, you’re still dreaming, unformed, immaculate, sanctified with impoverished yearning. Liberate yourself from sleep into the sanctuary of our defeat. Articulate to me of lamentation. I take pleasure in the aggravation; you are confined in your responsibility now that Sanity has departed, exhausted, abstract and unintelligible. I did not survive, though I act markedly responsive. A quiet current of impressions soothe my astringent psyche on my ruptured innate humanity. Wailing by the window in the grief of the proud, dread failings wrapped around us like shrouds.

I am forewarned. Curtains part automatically as the alarm fades into the voice. The bumps have grown overnight, my eyes burn appropriately and my back can feel the effects of the concrete slab I passed out on. The silk clings uncomfortably to my skin. I have it only because I need to feel my success. I feel the heaving all through my membrane, longing for my ascent. The voice is still there, chiming with increasingly ravaged tones. That querulous reprimand ringing in the background is my happy reminder of the failure of those outside my worldview.



Compelled to rally the dying, to take hold of an experience of disconnect, you direct your fragmented, cruel intellect at the division of ages into isolated headland. Scattered throughout the wary reverse of your former stance, subordinate classes are allowed to survive as long as the workforce is needed. Plant unmoved convictions in attendance in edifices of decline continue to exist. Social formations move about to subdue distress in all deference to convention. By indeterminate providence, the surveillance division has mastered the practice of avoiding confrontation. Shudder behind your beloved audience with a display of your improbable disarming paroxysm. I embrace obscurity, disordered ride out downward. Investigate in another place in the subjugation disclosed. I envisage manifest points in time to sustain this fitful refuge.



The haints come with parched, red grins, destined, flowing; glutted. The rotting populace Illustrates rebirth in my pleasure facility, breaking off a Conflagration advanced from opening the event within the scope of reason. The thoughts drift to the surface as I shake off the dream. I shouldn’t try to tell you about it. I’m living from two perspectives at once. I’m one point of consciousness in two places. Two worlds remain separate while the actions in one shape experience in the other. The voice in this universe screams itself hoarse, haranguing the mind of the active, dynamic mind in the other one. Funny how the one that hears voices acts with gloating hubris.

I find myself lying under the highway to bring about coerced elite. You’ll see. Thrash it out amongst yourselves as you flail about in an indistinctive objective that has no emotional impact, barring the superficial ripples from a staged interface drama. Now, consider a passing look outward. Send down mutually supporting actions from your central board room. Organization evaporates progressively false conceptions to resolve into extended control. One added instance, let’s heed the worn down and pull out our ecstasy like gaping arteries.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Veil Of Thorns - Cognitive Dissonance Phase V

Here are the first embryonic early tracks interspersed with short P. Emersonite bursts for you, my darlings. Vocalists don't usually like to have anyone hear anything but the most spot on, confident performances, but I'm going for a feeling and a story, and these are my sketches.

The mixes are my usual thick and resonating things, as they were before I sent them off to the masterful mastering of Ari. Contents need to be decanted as they may throw off a sediment....



The image is the gateway to the file, and the player below starts the stream.

Much love,

-333



Artist/Composer: Veil of Thorns
Keywords: goth; experimental; Veil of Thorns; deathrock; gothic; dark; music

Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial


Individual Files

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VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_64kb.m3u64Kbps M3UStream
VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_64kb_mp3.zip64Kbps MP3 ZIP13 MB
VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_vbr.m3uVBR M3UStream
VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_vbr_mp3.zipVBR ZIP39 MB
Audio Files192Kbps MP3Ogg Vorbis64Kbps MP3VBR MP3
V-CC-T-V.mp340 MB24 MB13 MB39 MB
Other Files
VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_files.xml3.69 KB
VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_meta.xml2.19 KB
VeilofThornsVeilOfThorns-CognigtiveDissonanceV_reviews.xml210 B

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

A Smattering of Updates

The news about the Pirate Bay conviction has gone all over the web over the last few days, and I was asked to weigh in over at Computer Shopper magazine after which I felt compelled to expand on my thoughts. I chose to do so at the kkoagulaa blog since some of the surrounding issues are addressed pretty thoroughly in thee kkoagulaa manifestoooo.

Read the full article here.

On the Veil of Thorns front, we have decided to show our support by releasing the full Veil of Thorns back catalogue as a torrent on the Pirate Bay site. We would appreciate it if everyone reading this would download the torrent, seed it for as long as you can to keep it alive and pass the torrent along. If you have a music blog, it would be lovely if you'd post any of these releases with links back to us, to the statement on kkoagublogg and weigh in with your own thoughts.

I would love to get a conversation going about every aspect of this issue. We're all in flux, and creativity in all things is needed more than ever.

More Cognitive Dissonance Transmissions coming later.

Torrent info:

There is a thought that occurs to me as I drive past the many gated communities in this ritzy area of Florida. I'm glad the real estate speculators, Disney executives and yuppies are walled in and kept safely from the rest of us. We just need to lock the gates from the outside. I would love to see the major labels and movie studios come up with the perfect impregnable DRM, so they can be left to rot within their walled gardens.

This time is the best possible opportunity for true artists to get creative with ways to make a living. Under the old label system, it was mainly the few, the malleable, the aspirational among artists who benefitted. The RIAA argument that piracy hinders artists from making a living is bollocks. Music has always been a hard gig, it's just that now the majority are on the treadmill of writing, production, release and touring for themselves instead of a group of suits who lend them cash in return for the artists indenture.

This torrent was created to show dissent with the ruling, and in the spirit of freedom, that creative chaos which hidebound institutions fight with the impulse for stasis and death.

-P. Emerson Williams

Location:

In the Space Between Space

Current Members:
P. Emerson Williams – (Choronzon, Network, Nocturne, Voyager, Lead Reign) - Vocals, Guitar, bass, cello, keyboards, programming
James Curcio – (Babalon, subQtaneous) – Drums
Ruddy Bitch – Drums, Electronic Soundwaves, percussive Manipulations

Former Members:

Catherine Chenoweth – (Smack Tan Blue) – Bass
Jarrett Laitinen – (Twentytwo Fourties) – Guitar
Peter Wagner - Violin
Christopher McClain – (Theatre, Cheryl's Twitching Limbs, Amateur Bondage, Byzantine Slave Drug, Perma-Grin) - Bass, keys, sequencing, programming

Releases:
Demo 1991 – Cassette – Remastered 2008
Study In Decay Demo – Cassette - 1992
Legemet Og Stemmen Demo – Cassette - 1993
Lust Beyond Flesh 7» ep - 1994
Cafe Flesh CD - 2002
Birthed CD – 2002/2006
Legemet Og Stemmen Demo Remastered CD - 2006
Manifestation Objective CDR/Online Release - 2005 – Remastered Edition + Bonus Tracks 2009
Cognitive Dissonance CD – 2007
The End of the Beginning – First album sessions 1992 – Remastered 2008
The Dead God Sessions CD – Second lineup album sessions 1996 – Remastered 2008
Live WMFO 1991 – Fall 2008
Live Halloween 1992 WMFO – Fall 2008
Bats in the Belfry 1994 Live – Fall 2008
Salon Apocalypse - Winter, 2009

The book will be out in the Summer of this year so if you know there’ll be a release, with title, for late 2008 release please include that.

URL's:
veilofthorns.com/blog
mythosmedia.net - Label
alterati.com/blog – James Curcio, Managing Editor, P. Emerson Williams, contributor

Initially the intention was to play dark Jazz with electronic/industrial and orchestral elements. This vision has yet to be realized, obviously. The world of Jazz rejoices.

Download Torrent At The Pirate Bay
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