ProjeKct Six. October 5th. 2006. Berklee Performance Center. Boston, USA.
Photo: Biff Blumfumgagne
A reflective breakfasting. ProjeKcts; music: holding the moment, moving to the next moment (how is the sense of progressing or forward-motion conveyed musically?), re-creating / re-presenting music of an earlier moment (“historic” & “classical” music). How is a moment opened & held? What is the duration of the moment? How is time conveyed, in musical terms? Music in its moment, music which looks forward, music which looks backward.
The question of how anything is represented in/through/by music: in all my extensive reading over decades, there is no convincing answer to this, although many suggestions. How we experience Music is as available to simple description as quantum physics, it seems; except the experiencing of music is simply & readily available to all. It’s the how & why of experiencing that is not easily pinned down. Music is a sonic event, but the mechanics of sound is not the properties of music. Is it psychology? How does music convey feeling?
Well. The mystery continues. There is no one simple answer. The work is to hold the question.
If any innocent reader of this might ask: how is this of any concern & practical use to the working player? I might reply: now you better know the difficulties being in King Crimson.
Also, reflecting on management. This not only because of my own ongoing search to answer the question: why did EG become the controlling, exploitative management that it did? (the what & the how is, sufficiently, a given); but also because a Crafty pal’s current dealings with the management of a leading English rock group. Crafty Pal is engaged in a creative relationship with an exceptionally & current well-known group & his relationship has been prejudiced by his dealings with their management. He went into the relationship with the musicians as a fellow musician; in his dealings with the management, he was treated as the enemy.
My own question: can the management not see that their actions, nominally on behalf of their artists, are in actuality prejudicing their artists’ creative & musical life?
I note that some management & lawyers seem to get their rush, their pay-off, their equivalent of music-coming-to-life for the player, by stitching up those, or some of those, with whom they have dealings. “Stitching up” was an expression I heard used by Mr. Alder, in his office at 63a, Kings Road, towards the end of my dealings with EG, when the repercussions of his engagement in the property & insurance markets were hitting the fan, but I was still managed by EG.
It is as if, for some business persons, the money-shot is to do down, hard-press, exploit, rip-off and/or diss someone they are dealing with. This is the field of aberrant psychology, psycho-pathology & disease, one example of which is the music industry. Is this any different from any other field? A cynic would say, no. I say, I don’t have detailed & extensive direct experience of lotsa industries; but of the music industry, I have expert knowledge.
[Excerpt from RF’s Diary - Saturday 16th. December, 2006]
“It is as if, for some business persons, the money-shot is to do down, hard-press, exploit, rip-off and/or diss someone they are dealing with. This is the field of aberrant psychology, psycho-pathology & disease, one example of which is the music industry. Is this any different from any other field?”
This is unfortunately, the driving force of Capitalism by definition.
You aren’t describing industry - you’re describing “economic” life which translates to “personal” life.
That which we are in our business dealings is who we are in our personal lives.