An Ocean Of Time

An Ocean Of Time – Spotted Peccary Music SPM-9087

Time travel is the concept of moving backwards or forwards to different points in time, and some people might be traveling at different speeds, while agreeing on cause and effect, and measure different time separations between events. The past lies behind, fixed and immutable, while the future lies ahead and is not necessarily fixed. Music such as the music on the album of Time Being investigates being as being, often to find no real equivalent of our concept of existence. Again, the essential questions, perhaps the only questions that matter, are: does it sound pleasing? Will you play it again?

1. About the album An Ocean Of Time

Ambient cinematic electronic space music…

…that is vast, sparkling, slow, and detailed, symphonic with exotic instruments emerging and transforming, capturing time, eternity, and the presence of the current moment. The cover art is based on a photograph by Matthew Cooper, and the package design is by Daniel Pipitone. What you will hear is electronica created by hands trained for classical music, employing a variety of synthesized instrumentation, such as sometimes just a hint of strings, always light, not dense, yet with complexity. Always slow and interesting, consistently relaxing and engaging without requiring your constantly focused attention, the music both rewards focused listening and at the same time allows the listener float in their own thoughts, without external drama.

Phillip Wilkerson and Jourdan Laik, also known as Time Being, inspire a deep fascination about time and how we experience it. The flow of sand in an hourglass can be used to measure the passage of time amidst the swirl of experience going on around. Thinking of the present as being a point somewhere between the past and the future is further complicated by enlarging the scope from an hourglass to all the sands on a beach and all the dunes surrounding an ocean. And that ocean is in itself also captured within the sky.

An Ocean Of Time has 8 tracks that invite us to learn how to actively listen to music, not just hear it. The composers have captured the notion of an ocean of time using their ample imaginations, with audio tools and soundcraft, to create a listening experience suitable for relaxing, dreaming, thinking deeply and being in the present moment of time, as well as for enhancing the practice of yoga and meditation.

2. The tracks

A global ocean has existed…

…in one form or another on Earth for eons, and the notion dates back to classical antiquity in the form of Oceanus. In the first track, the title track, “An Ocean Of Time” (7:09) I hear a subtle sigh of surf under a night sky, gentle tones, with no repeating melody, from a fantastic ethereal piano, with a slight hint of strings shimmering for brief moments. Various objects pass through the stars never lingering. The sound portrays forms in fog that offer suggestions without resolving. Darkness within darkness, nearly revealing fragments of gradually emerging details in a wide-open skyscape, “Drifting Form, Ineffable Void” (5:47). There are significant differences between the way things are perceived to exist and the way things really exist, the “now” and the “not now” are part of the music.

A bridge crosses the Styx at Limbo. “Here. Now. Always.” (6:51) considers the ever-expanding present, depicted by colorful vapors and small thin clouds of desire. Form, and formlessness, the “present” is a relative concept different for observers in relative motion. The music invites us to muse in our beds about dreaming and multiple consciousnesses, death, collective memory, and the simultaneity of the constant presence of the “dreamer.”

When living consciousness becomes…

…coherent, the behavior of random systems may change. Life is raging all around, and every moment is magical. Time as an illusion, a mirage of strings touched and reverberating, patterns form in the haze. “Infinite Cadence” (10:35) suggests that there could be a correct understanding of the relation of the self to the external world but offers no actual proof. No matter, I just like the way it sounds.

The next track speaks of liminal experiences, radical subjectivity, and the great moment, only to wake into another dream. “Unfolding Way” (3:56) to me sounds like a series of sheets that are made of night. The sound has a flowing, surreal, dreamlike quality, neither affirming or denying what “is” or “is not.”

Human reason has boundaries, when we sometimes experience existential dread, anxiety, or anguish, the moment gets stuck and stands still, and to seek expectantly the possibility of the good is to hope, perfection guides us from inside. Following this principle allows us to live in peace with nature and to find tranquility. “A Perfect Heart” (9:44) brings a sound of motion deep within huge clouds. Later the sun comes out and is sparkling brightly.

A centaur is an example of poetic fiction…

…an illusion from antiquity, or perhaps a relic of someone’s dream. Humans are thus sometimes compelled to find or create meaning, authenticity is evidenced in acting, one should act as oneself and try to realize that in the most lucid dreams we are in control. “Momentary Illusions” (11:21) brings us deeper ever more, floating between the bottom of the ocean and the shimmering surface of the water. Does a dream offer clues for a deeper interpretation of waking reality?

The idea of lucid dreaming, of knowing that you’re dreaming and thus being able to exert some control over your dreams, suggests that the only things that exist are thoughts and ideas. In the closing track, “A Notion of Being” (15:30), the sound asks me, can there be a desert canyon under water? This is what the wind might sound like there. Time Being allows listeners to consider many impossible things.

3. Where to buy An Ocean Of Time?

You can buy the album An Ocean Of Time at the store of Spotted Peccary Music and Bandcamp.

Written by Robin James, October 20th, 2020