Sounds of Silence

A new post in the series - Light and Sound

When a picture searches for its music, or a piece of music finds its right picture...the result is a magical experience of Light and Sound. 

I think at various points in our lives we have all heard the sounds of silence. But have you heard silence speak like this? 

Jon Hassell,  Album: Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street

Tracks: Blue Period and Light on the Water

Jon Hassell, the American trumpet player and composer, gives a whole new sound to the silences in this piece of music. Don't you think so?

I was first introduced to his music through a World Music collaboration he had done about 15 years ago with the noted Indian bansuri player Pandit Ronu Majumdar and American guitarist Ry cooder. That album, titled Hollow Bamboo is a must-listen for all world music lovers. Two tracks from Hollow Bamboo were also featured on this blog, here and here.

But let's come back to the music for today. Listen to the sounds of silence in this piece of music. 

Listen to it again. And again. Can you feel the silence entering into you, deep? Doesn't it smoothly take you into that silent space where you are alone with yourself? Does it sound mysterious, hypnotic, a bit haunting even, but in a positive sense of the word?  

"...what I mean is that there is an inner condition in which the external form is not the most important thing; it is the origin of the music, the inspiration from beyond, which is important; it is not purely the sounds, it is what the sounds express." (The Mother)

What do the sounds of this music express for you? 

For me, the sounds also express what I see being expressed in this picture below: 

Photograh by Marataeman, Source

  

I can't tell you how many times I have looked at this picture in the last year or so, ever since I stumbled upon it on the net. There is something so inviting in this, something so quietly and silently inviting. Perhaps an invitation into the world of silence, into the sounds and sights of silence. 

Kind of like the music by Jon Hassell.

This one image made me curious enough to look up some more work by this brilliant photographer, and I find almost all of it so amazingly beautiful in its quiet grandeur and embracing vastness. Take a look, here and here.

I am always awed by the beauty of the experience, of the moment when sounds and sights come together in such perfect harmony. Such perfect silence.


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To see the previous post in the series Light and Sound, click here.
To see all the posts in this series, click here.

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Linking with Blog-a-rhythm, Wordy Wednesday, prompt: Shadows of Silence.