The Abscondo Weblog

Video from our Sungod Abscondo concert

We played our first concert as a full, 4-piece band this week.  I put together this playlist of 10 songs from the show.

New video for my song Strangled Into Gray

You start to get a sense that a song means something to people when they feel compelled to not just listen to it, but reference it, analyze it, or use it in a derivative work. 

This video was taken from a short film created by an American film student whom I've not met.  One day I was searching YouTube and came across it, then asked him if I could use the footage to create a proper music video.  This wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't licensed my music under "Creative Commons", whereby anyone can do whatever they want with it.  In fact, this is precisely what I had hoped for when I freed my music into the public domain.

On a side note, I found another attempt by someone out there to create a video for this song.  This video is kind of cute and takes the song very literally.

Moments

I was listening to Leonard Cohen this weekend...I mean really listening. Consider the lyrics to a verse in the song "Suzanne":

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you've always been her lover
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.

This song was written probably more than 40 years ago. Perhaps it was written about a moment that actually happened to him. There was probably no real future for him and Suzanne. But to hear it sung takes you right there, makes that moment real, important, and immortal.  When we are really listening, the best songs remind us of the importance of the moment in our lives.

We are so caught in our plans, our fears, our goals, society's rules and arbitrary morality...that most people don't understand the importance of a moment. Yet when you listen to this song, lying in a sunny room on a Sunday afternoon, it overtakes all of those other things.  The idea of a moment becomes big and important.

And what if Leonard Cohen had been afraid or too busy to go down to that river? We would never have that song...that moment never would have been.

I suppose I have a slightly different take on this theme in my song "Insecurities".  It isn't as effective as Leonard's because I'm not describing a single moment..but it makes the point of this post.

I know you've got those plans and all
I want to take you from this mall
Ride bikes far from this urban sprawl
Lie side-by-side in leaves beneath a tree so tall

You want this lifestyle to last forever
When you can't even stand today
You see fears where I see colors
Don't live a life a day away

Sungod Abscondo play live

I posted a few videos on YouTube from our Sungod Abscondo concert last night in Presov. The song A System is posted here, and several more are available here. 

Stages reviewed on a UK blog

The album is so new that not many reviews have come forth yet, but I wanted to share this review from a UK blog:

"I reviewed the first Abscondo album a while ago, and actually still listen to it a fair bit. So I was actually quite nervous about downloading the second one in case it didn’t live up to my expectations. Thankfully Stages builds on Midnight Snow, whilst at the same time not deviating too much from the style that made the first album so enthralling. It’s mainly all about the lyrics, which make me think a lot, and which are both political and personal without making me feel uncomfortable. There are also a couple of melodies that stick in my head like glue, which makes me think I’ll be dipping in to this album over and over again.

It’s availabe for free from Jamendo, and from the artist’s website, and available to buy from iTunes."

Stages song lyrics posted on Jamendo

Just click on the song links here for the lyrics.

"Stages" released today!

Today I'm starting the process of releasing my follow-up to Midnight Snow.  The album is called Stages and it consists of 10 new tracks.  I'm also releasing an Artist Commentary video in support of the album, which I think is the best way for me to present and explain the work.

Like Midnight Snow, the album is being released under the Creative Commons license, which means you can download it for free and use it in any way you like as long as you give the artist credit.  For now, the release is centered around the French music site, Jamendo.  In the coming weeks and months it will also be made available wherever digital music is found. 

I hope you find the album enjoyable and meaningful.

Goldfrapp

I don't fall completely in love with an album too often, but have to say that the new album by Goldfrapp, "Seventh Tree" is everything that music should be.  Download it and please give it more than one listen.  The interesting thing about "Seventh Tree" is not just that every song is good, but that it works both on Friday night and Saturday morning...in darkness and light, sunshine and rain. 

Alison Goldfrapp is a beautiful woman inside and out, and I hope she inspires you as she has me.

Creative Commons: the new Internet Folk Music movement

What is the history of folk music?  At it's most basic, it was music by and for the common person.  As the product of authentic culture, it was written locally and shared locally to the extent that it eventually became part of, and even helped define, that culture.  Folk music was only performed live because it existed long before recording technology.  So the only way for it to be passed on was from person to person, community to community, from generation to generation.  Only that which was good enough, and meaningful enough, survived.  It typically wasn't published or copyrighted.  Popular songs were performed by anyone who felt inspired to do so.

The ability to record music is what killed what we now call "traditional" folk music.  In more advanced societies, these songs became artifacts.  Once they were recorded a few times, there was a sense that they were preserved...and the shared, communal responsibility to remember and pass along the songs was removed.  Music had changed.  What was once local and alive was replaced by that which was national and recorded.  By the time Rock & Roll came along in the '60's, the music industry had completely shifted the way we conceive of music.  That which was big was what mattered.  The authentic, local community was eventually replaced by celebrity and the global community.  And while folk-like styles of music persisted through the "folk-revival" music of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Woodie Guthrie, and Leonard Cohen, "folk music" in the truer sense of the word was dead.

Then the Internet came along to change music yet again.  Napster and other file-sharing networks were the first clues.  While the industry fought it, music fans sensed at some basic human level that music was meant to be shared freely.  Despite what we are told by the forces of global capitalism, we are humans first and consumers second.  Our human impulse was to let the music play.  So the music of the mega-stars and the 2nd-tier, "minor stars" of the indie world was traded freely and spread virally (though impersonally).

I say "impersonally" because the P2P networks aren't really social.  We don't really interact when using Bearshare or Limewire.  So the next step was for communities like MySpace, iLike, and Last.fm to reintroduced the social relationship back into music.  These Internet communities put the music fan at the center and encourage fans to interact with each other...with musical taste at the center of those interactions and relationships.

So what am I going on about?  What does any of this have to do with folk music?  Before I explain, let me more accurately define some of the characteristics of folk music:

• It is evolving, living, breathing
• It is rooted in authentic culture (ceremonies, events, traditions, interwoven with other art-forms)
• It is created by ordinary people with instruments available to them
• It is shared with ordinary people without any institutional intermediaries
• It is communal / shared freely
• It is not owned by anybody

Considering these characteristics, I believe that Creative Commons will enable the new folk movement.  The Creative Commons copy-left model provides various options for artists to set their music free.  It is a logical extension of the idea that no new music is truly new or truly original.  Every new song is a mutated version of what the artist has heard before.  But never mind that; every artist wants his or her music to be heard and experienced.  To me it is simply inconceivable to allow the music industry to say who can and can't play a song...to stand in the way of an artist and potential fans. 

So the licensing chosen for the Abscondo and Sungod Abscondo debut albums allows anybody to do anything they want to with the music -- share it, perform it, alter it, sell it, use it in films, podcasts, etc. -- as long as proper credit is given. 

At this point it should be clear how Creative Commons, brought to life with social sites like Jamendo (my favorite), iLike, Last.fm, and many others, make it possible for a new "Internet Folk Movement" to emerge.  We think of folk music as a style that usually involves acoustic instruments, but that's only because these were the only instruments available to folk musicians historically.  "Internet Folk", as I'm defining it, isn't limited by genre.  Ordinary people have computers and can afford the basic equipment to produce any sound at all.  When that music is shared directly with music fans, without an institutional intermediary, and when that music has been set free to evolve, it is living-and-breathing folk music!  It is a modern strain of something that has been dead for so many years!

While the first wave of this modern folk music movement will remain primarily centered around the Internet, I believe it will eventually become more local.  People will become exhausted by trying to keep up with thousands of talented musicians around the world, and will begin to care more about those who are in their own communities.  There will be small but very loyal followings of musicians who perform in small, local venues.  The music will get better because artists will respond to perceptive fans who actually care.  When this finally happens, the new folk music will be alive and well.

So the time has come for more and more artists and music fans to finally look beyond that which is big, expensive, and marketed.  It will take some time for both fans and artists to change their basic assumptions like, 1) music is expensive to make, 2) musicians are celebrities and aren't like us, 3) talented musicians ought to get rich, 4) being a musician should be a full-time job, and 5) all the good music makes it to the radio anyway.  None of that is true anymore, and in time these beliefs will fade.

This new, Internet Folk Music movement will eventually overtake the music industry as we know it today.  Music will, once again, be claimed as something authentic and part of the local culture and community.  While music was once purchased to be listened to for a while and then remain forever stored away on some dusty record, cassette, or CD...Creative Commons music will live and breath.

I'm proud to be part of this new movement.  Who wouldn't want to take part in such a beautiful thing?

My debut solo album, "Midnight Snow"

Today I'm deeply excited to start the release of my acoustic album, "Midnight Snow".  You can follow the links on this page to download every track from the album and learn more about it.

I might even say that "Midnight Snow" has turned out even better than I expected.  When I started recording just 3 months ago, I actually had no idea what sound I was going for.  All I knew is that I wanted it to be a dark, soft acoustic album.  After so many twists and turns and dead ends, I finally feel that I may have discovered a sound that is slightly different.

When I listen to the album, I realize that it is "me".  In fact, it is so deeply personal that it makes me slightly shy to share it! 

Well anyway, this morning I made my final edit on the album, and now there is nothing I would change.  It may seem a bit strange or even foolish to work so hard on something for months and even years, and then just give it away for free from a weblog.  But I learned from releasing "Imperfect People", the Sungod Abscondo album, that I'm no longer interested in investing thousands of dollars and months of my time getting radio airplay only to reach the small fraction of music fans who are willing to buy an album from an unknown band.  So while "Midnight Snow" will be made available on iTunes and other on-line outlets, it will also be given away for free and licensed under a Creative Commons license that allows anybody to do anything they want with it as long as the give me credit.

I know you've heard a lot of crappy, ameteur independent music.  I sincerely think you'll agree that this does not fall into that category.  I hope you put me on a good set of headphones or a decent stereo, sit back, have a drink, and enjoy.