侘 寂

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 19:19] all rights reserved

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The artist Otacílio Melgaço has two official curators in the virtual world. A curator (from Latin: ´curare´, meaning ´to take care´) is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e.g., gallery, museum, library or, as the present case: sound archive) is a content specialist charged with an institution's collections and, highlighting the context in force here, involved with the interpretation of personal (heritage) material. Both, Mr. Paz and Mr. Campbell, are, therefore, reviewers of the Melgacian works. To learn more about their missions, tasks, assignments and responsibilities by means of valuable informations regarding the compositional process, the performative rhizomes and other special features, just click the following link: otaciliomelgaco.wixsite.com/preamblebypsp
(O.M.Team; P r e l u d e)

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"Many Japanese arts over the past thousand years have been influenced by Zen and Mahayana philosophy, particularly acceptance and contemplation of the imperfection, constant flux and impermanence of all things. A contemporary Japanese appraisal of this concept (侘寂) is found in the influential essay ´In Praise of Shadows´ by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, for example.

´Impermanence of all things, constant flux plus acceptance and contemplation of the imperfection´ can be beautiful connotations given to this EP. ´In Praise of Shadows´ too. Although such shadows, in Melgacian ´Wabi-sabi´, seem to me quite solars. The exciting jazzistic incursions that open and close (the first and most part of) the Piece, the whispers in Japanese language ... are elements that, for me, prove the aforementioned impression. On the other hand, yes, the way the horns were atmospherically approached, certain ambiences that we find at the epicenter of the work, are also faces of a fascinating penumbra.

´侘寂´ is a vertical version of (revisited and now synchronic) fragments composed by Mr. Melgaço for a dance spectacle. With butoh influences. The inclusion of trumpets becomes the differential that indicates a guiding thread throughout the sonorous offspring.

´To Taoism that which is absolutely still or absolutely perfect is absolutely dead, for without the possibility of growth and change there can be no Tao. In reality there is nothing in the universe which is completely perfect or completely still; it is only in the minds of men that such concepts exist´, said Alan W. Watts. Artistically this is a relevant topic. Which undoubtedly is explored by O.M. in a precious futuristic sonic manifestation. Being in pursuit of imperfection becomes synonymous with being alive, on the rise, and constantly metamorphosed. The mobility that is so essential to music as a kind of impermanent/fluxuous path and not the arrival at a destination (that immobilizes). Just like in Spanish poet Antonio Machados's words: ´Walker, there is no path, the path is made when walking.´ This is what exists in the mind of Otacílio Melgaço, I can say." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

"Wabi-sabi (侘寂) is a concept in traditional Japanese aesthetics constituting a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that´s ´imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete´. It´s a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence (三法印 sanbōin), specifically impermanence (無常 mujō), suffering (苦 ku) and emptiness or absence of self-nature (空 kū). Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes.

Some of these terms would suggest being antithetical to the complexity of focused audible ´Wabi-sabi´. But I do not think so. The difference is that the Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist O.M. made these processes somewhat fragmented and he proposes to us to listen to them simultaneously. The possible vertigo is a conceptual elevation and not a negation of.

´侘寂´ is serene melancholy; a spiritual longing; understated elegancy; quirks and anomalies arising from the procedure of construction, which add uniqueness, grace and polish to the sound object. When the life of the object and its impermanence are evidenced in its patina and wear, or in any visible repairs. Visible, beyond: hearable.

In today's Japan, the meaning of Wabi-sabi is often condensed to ´wisdom in natural simplicity.´ The Melgacian simplicity is wise, but its nature is filled with meanders, simply and wisely kaleidoscopic. Because it´s not a reductionism: it´s a decantation of what´s, in essence, multidimensional although not always perceptibly. The result is both celebratory and alchemical. Like a Zen garden, during an ecstatic and listenable gale." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

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I - According to Leonard Koren, wabi-sabi can be defined as "the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of traditional Japanese beauty and it occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West." For Richard Powell, "[w]abi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect." Buddhist author Taro Gold describes wabi-sabi as "the wisdom and beauty of imperfection";

II - The words wabi and sabi do not translate easily. Wabi originally referred to the loneliness of living in nature, remote from society; sabi meant "chill", "lean" or "withered". Around the 14th century these meanings began to change, taking on more positive connotations. Wabi now connotes rustic simplicity, freshness or quietness, and can be applied to both natural and human-made objects. Sabi is beauty or serenity that comes with age, when the life of the object and its impermanence are evidenced in its patina and wear, or in any visible repairs.

After centuries of incorporating artistic and Buddhist influences from China, wabi-sabi eventually evolved into a distinctly Japanese ideal. Over time, the meanings of wabi and sabi shifted to become more lighthearted and hopeful. Around 700 years ago, particularly among the Japanese nobility, understanding emptiness and imperfection was honored as tantamount to the first step to satori, or enlightenment.

...for purposes of pragmatism and clear exegesis,
quotes have Wikipedia as a source...

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Between two parentheses...
(Atonalism, Twelve-Tone, Serialism, Musique Concrète... Acousmatic. Eletroacoustic. Magnetic Tape. Expressionism, New Objectivity, Hyperrealism, Abstractionism, Neoclassicism, Neobarbarism, Futurism, Mythic Method. Electronic...Computer Music, Spectral, Polystylism, Neoromanticism, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism...are addressed by Melgaço. Paradoxically New Simplicity and New Complexity also.
Art Rock, Free Jazz, Ethnic Dialects, Street Sounds are occasional syntax elements.
All the possibilities mentioned above and others that were not mentioned are the usual accoutrements of the composer/instrumentalist to establish his ´babelic´ glossary. We can prove this in a short passage of a single composition up along the entirety of a conceptual phonograph album. All distributed over a career and idiosyncratic records. Have we a universe before us and I propose to see it through a telescope, not a microscope.
I propose not handle very specialized topics here. Otherwise would be, with the exception of musicians and scholars, all hostages of a hermetic jargon. Because more important is to present Otacílio Melgaço to the general public and not to a segment of specialists. Faction of experts not need presentations, depart for the enjoyment beforehand. For this reason there is no niche here for intellectual onanism and encrypted musical terminology. The reason for these parentheses is to establish such elucidation. The non-adoption of technicalities leads to more panoramic, amplifier reviews. Are You always welcome. Those who do not dominate contemporary music and are introduced to the world of ubiquitous O.M. [autodidact and independent artist who, being more specific, does not belong to schools or doctrines; artist who makes Music and that´s enough; music devoid of labels or stylistic, chronological, historical paradigms or trends] and Those who belong to the métier and turn to enjoy propositions they know and also delving into advanced Melgacian sound cosmogonies...
I conclude poetically. ´Certeza/Certainty´ by Octavio Paz. ´Si es real la luz blanca De esta lámpara, real La mano que escribe, ¿son reales
Los ojos que miran lo escrito? De una palabra a la otra Lo que digo se desvanece. Yo sé que estoy vivo Entre dos paréntesis.´ If it is real the white light from this lamp, real the writing hand, are they real, the eyes looking at what I write? From one word to the other what I say vanishes. I know that I am alive between two parentheses.
We´re all more and more a-l-i-v-e now.)
- P.S.P.