kodwo-eshun-more-brilliant-than-the-sun-adventures-in-sonic-fiction

10[172]10[173]volume + LSD = Energy MusicIf Sound is Mystery, then Volume is Holy and Noise is a Blessed State. OnJohn's '65 Om, this amplified lysergic equation generates Energy Music,the frequency which Coltrane uses to tune into the Om state: 'Om' is theHindu access code to the sonic origin of the universe.Coltrane's multiphonic overdrive already demanded extrahumanbreath cycles. Om draws breath up from the diaphragm in an autoinspirationthat turns the body into a human resonating chamber. Thegroup becomes an Om medium, chanting verses from the Rig Veda: 'Andthe offerings made to the Ghosts of the Father, the Mantra, the ClarifiedButter, I am he who awards to each the fruit of his actions, I, the Oblationand I the flame, I make all things clean, I am Ohm, Ohmm Ohmm.'O*hm Sweet O*hmFor Coltrane, Om is a serenade to Ohm. The John Coltrane Orchestra is asono-spiritual generator, a powerplant transmitting Om power. As hisprotege Sanders insisted: 'It is the most powerful word in the universe.It means God, it means peace, it means the beginning of things. 'Close-miking expands the noise spectrum into the quietude ofmeditational jazz, crackling with the instant archaism of primaudialsound: the transient tones of bell trees, woodblocks, cymballicsussuration, a desolate calm.You 're inside the storm, assailed by screes of SonoMatter.At 10.30, the Orchestra chant 'Om, Om ' in a dazed despair, as ifthey're drowning. At 12.33. eerie sax echoes a Sun Ra tremolo. At 15.07,lowing sounds: unlocatable texture swoops and tumbles just like thehornets of a Sun Ra synth tone. Bowing violin, squabbles, buildingtension in waves that contract and release until you feel astralized. Bythe final chant, all voices are drained, guttural.The Psychotechnics of Energy MusicWith the '65 Energy Music Trilogy Om, Ascension and Kule Se Mama,John Coltrane engineers the Sonic Design for the Afronaut and thehippie. The PsychoTechnics of Energy music function through the neuralcircuit that Ben Sidran diagrammatizes, for how the future feels: 'Thetime feeling Coltrane generated created a new kind of tension that didnot resolve at the end of bars or in expected places. This in turn creatednew anticipations in the listener and musicians began likening this newfeeling to "freedom".' Tomorrow every Afronaut and every hippie wakesup to a Universal Sound.Kule Se Mama's drum rolls, percussion rills, brushed cymbals andbells give a hallowed tintinabulation.At 13.14, sax plays a 2-note refrain, forlorn and dying. Juno Lewis isintoning: 'So we sang this meee-Ioooo deee', drawing out vowels,switching to fictional Central African chants. Sanders and Coltraneoverdrive the tenor sax, hitting a point at 7.55 when the sound blisters,boils, becomes a giant steam-powered sunship heaving its ghastly bulkinto lift-off.Bass clarinet insinuates snake tones, as 2 basses sound like echoingSun Ra synths. Bassist Art Davis heard more in this metamorphic effect:'I always thought using two basses sounded like an African water drum,like the drone effect of an Indian tamboura. Sometimes we'd sound morelike two members of a string quartet than bassists.'Shooting the Sun with a Miniature Sextant: Pharoah SandersNavigational AlignmentWith the 30-min doomsday decree of Out of this World from '66's Live inSeattle and the merciless monotony of Saturn, Mars, Venus and jupiter on'67's Interstellar Space, John Coltrane reactivates the predestination ofastrology. Energy MUSic becomes Universal Sound which makes audiblethe cosmic order, forehears the masterplan in an act of clairaudience.Astrological ConsciousnessAstrology assumes a human . >cosmic interface, a remote-distance link-upbetween human and starsign. Universal Sound needs an operating systemlike the chart Coltrane designs, which is 'a musical one with 12 tonescorrelating to the 12 zodiacal signs.' Astrology is a remote-distanceprophetic system that collapses past and present, a revived archaic techthat gives its code operator prophetic capabilities.Constellations preprogram futures . Sanders' astrological tracks - Sunin Aquarius [Part I [j Part 21, Capricorn Rising - induce the sense of vastplanetary bodies moving slowly into fateful conjunction. The Sandersalbum leaves the sunship behind to go astral travelling.For Alice Coltrane and Sanders none of the future, the present andthe past exist. History is immediately swallowed by primaudial time