The Sound of Art

We have been listening to a lot of ambient music lately. It serves as the perfect background for focussing on writing, or making art. The aural textures and tones appear more like paintings.

Musical soundscapes are often reminiscent of abstract paintings. In fact, Brian Eno — whose ambient albums we are listening to lately — has often used cover art that is abstract. 

This overlap between visual arts and music is quite fascinating. The imagery evoked by music appears like moving pictures projected on the canvases of our imagination. The motifs that emerge out of the listening experience can often be layered with complex forms and shapes, accentuated by interesting colours and cool shades.

At times, the immersive expression of musical imagery is indistinguishable from the experience of viewing an abstract landscape by someone like Rothko or a surreal scene by Dali. 

One my favourite soundscapes by Pink Floyd (Shine On You Crazy Diamond) often unfolds inner vistas of broad sweeping oceans and planetary terrains. Crystalline frequencies flow mellifluously as quivering notes of guitar get suspended gracefully in the dynamic motions of water-colour-like waves. It is as if some sort of a sonic tapestry has been choreographed in hyper-dimensional space.

As a matter of fact, during the creation of almost every picture by Monad there has been some music playing in the background. I wonder how it all connects as a mechanistic process of creation — one art form feeding seamlessly into another.

Imagining such an inter-miscible continuum of electro-chemical and electro-magnetic fields, resonating and interfering with each other in a physiological context, is itself a striking metaphor for this audiovisual phantasmagoria.