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青​木​ヶ​原 {Otac​í​lio Melga​ç​o} [duration 32​:​56]

by Otacílio Melgaço

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青 木 ヶ 原

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 32:56] 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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"´Death is present every day in our lives. It's not that I take pleasure in the morbid fascination of it, but it is a fact of life´, once declared (without any hypocrisy - as was his habitude -) José Saramago. Otacílio Melgaço, without any subterfuges, presents this (eternally prevailing) ´motif´ to us from a very particular prism. What autarchy can we really have in relation to death? Regardless of the different cultures, let us speak ´archetypically´: the human being plus transcendence. And the plurality of its flumes.

Let's proceed: ´They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice ... that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person´, wrote Arthur Schopenhauer. ´An 'unemployed' existence is a worse negation of life than death itself´, complements Jose Ortega y Gasset. In turn, a statement by Mark Twain: ´The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time´. ´The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night´, Friedrich Nietzsche is direct and incisive. With more whiteness, helping us generate a cohesive text and a context, Anne Frank: ´I don't want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death!´ Jorge Luis Borges includes a fascinating note: ´To be immortal is commonplace; except for man, all creatures are immortal, for they are ignorant of death; what is divine, terrible, incomprehensible, is to know that one is immortal´. However, a vital (and enlightening) addendum on the part of Ludwig Wittgenstein: ´Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present´. Approaching the climax, impossible not to close with the golden key through the words of the old bard: ´To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and, by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub.´ At last but not least, Virgil: ´To have died once is enough.´

(...)

´The thought that I might kill myself formed in my mind coolly as a tree or a flower.´ (Sylvia Plath)

1) - 35° 28′ 12″ N, 138° 37′ 11″ E (Latitude and longitude of Aokigahara)

´Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic.´ (W. H. Auden)

2) - Broad Expanse of Dense Woodland (樹海 / Jukai)

´From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.´ (Edvard Munch)

3) - Sea of Green Foliage/Sea of Trees (青木ヶ原 / Aokigahara)

[Aokigahara (or Jukai) also known as the Suicide Forest.]

(...)

Being we now more versed in regard to the evanescent (or is it exactly the opposite?) scenario brought to light by O.M., let us take the sound direction in what concerns ´青木ヶ原´ (and, with due recircumstantialities, all monumental Melgacian discography).

Observing ...

i - The myriad ingeniously exposed minutiae here;

ii - The delicacy of each musical element as if they were meticulous needles of a thousand-year-old acupuncture entering our ´auricular skin´;

iii - A syntax with an immeasurable poetic content;

iv - An instrumentistic architecture of a very subtle finish;

v - Timbres that suggest atmospheres of a high metaphysical carat (thereby metamorphically enriching the paroxysmal feeling of solitude provided by the ´enchanted´ woodland);

vi - Is incomparable the sensitivity (of Otacílio) to make us immerse in a surreal density (over seconds, minutes or hours and hours) so that we may be, then, slowly invaginated by silence (let yourself be delighted with the original sequence of the three astounding Pieces and the experience will be, I assert, striking enjoymently transcendent);

vii - We identify Nipponese references, we perceive the presence of cosmopolitism too; the artist consecrates impeccable junction between what´s topical and what´s effervesced globally;

viii - The same happens in chronological scope. Sometimes we resume the past in traditional filigrees, sometimes everything is catapulted into a mesmerizing futurism, yet always the ´here & now´ is pulsing and realizing the systole & diastole that postmodern music has the verve (like no other) to do. And as if that were not enough, apotheotically all serving as a flow to a timeless substantiality;

ix - The ability to create both a sonic universe of great stature by itself and stimuli that excite our imagination to a fabulous imagetic narrative. In the valent case, this is emphasized by all Melgacian ambiences, in keeping with that thicket (as it´s explicitly known) which is synonymous with, in Japonic folklore, dwelling to spirits of the dead or 'yūrei'. In this instance, Otacílio sonorously erects a fantastic (marvelous) realism, the bewitching dimension that so captivates human beings in general. And we go further (this is a feature of cutting-edge music): by means of concrete paraphernalia, O.M. makes us approach there, enter the woods and offers us innumerable connotative epilogues. All the listeners have the freedom to experience what their beings demand inasmuch as, in respect of the magnitude of creation and the self-contained personality of its public, a great artist is always able to leave open ´the zeniths´.

[Another impressive prowess: this record is part of a series that reviews fragments of previous works, generating, from them, unprecedented productions. Rare are the artists who possess such a ample legacy that, at the height of their seminal capability, have the privilege of retaking the past as a cosmogonic seed. In fact, Melgaço deconstructs the notion of foretime and proves that everything must be/is ´presentable´ (in the sense of fatefully inhabiting and fertilizing the present); the everlasting is the nowaday. He do this on a conceptual basis, being fully aware that this sequence of harvests is a valuable part of his legacy because it offers us a planned re-reading, a revitalized outlook of the creator himself from its creatures - shifting them to the condition of novel generations];

x - The composure of the composer O.M. (before concepts like rhythm, melody, harmony and so many vertebrae that are their dismemberments) is (without allowing itself to be unpalatable) inventive, iconoclastic ... contributing so that the history of the music continues to evolve ascensionally;

xi - The multi-instrumentalist O.M. and his guests, technically and inspiredly, are vehicles (in its excellence) liable to give corporeity to a progeny often so subjective and abstract or even, not infrequently, supposedly untranslatable;

xii - The arranger O.M. is attentive, quantically attentive to the complexity in force, and keen to regiment and sew whatever is necessary for the Esprit's sake of each auscultatable fruit;

xiii - The mixer, masterizer and post-producer (I underline the artistic designer) O.M. actively influencing the whole result; altering, alquimizing, metamorphosing the sound (and, taking into account the sleeves of the discs, equally viewable) matter so that, finally,
he/´they´ can reach the shape that will be handwritten (and immortalized) in time and space;

... one by one of us may conclude that we´re facing a condensed masterpiece. Balanced, equalized, quintessential. Nothing, not even the most Lilliputian of the noises in this opus, is superfluous.

With contemporary music in the limelight, I undoubtedly consider the Melgacian ´青木ヶ原´ a landmark." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

"青木ヶ原 or 樹海 is a forest on the northwestern flank of Japan's Mount Fuji thriving on 30 square kilometers (12 square miles) of hardened lava. The western edge of Aokigahara, where there are several caves filled with ice, is a popular destination for tourists and school trips. Parts of Aokigahara are very dense, and the porous lava absorbs sound, helping to provide visitors with a sense of solitude.

As Mr. Paz has already mentioned, the forest has a historical reputation as a home to ´yūrei´ or ghosts of the dead in Japanese mythology. In recent years, Aokigahara has become internationally known as one of Japan's most popular destinations for suicide, and signs at the head of some trails urges suicidal visitors to think of their families and contact a suicide prevention association.

Aokigahara has been referenced in several media, including anime and manga, films, video games, literature, and music. I believe it´s noteworthy: Kuroi Jukai (Black Sea of Trees) by Seichō Matsumoto, a 1960 novel that refers to the popularity of the forest as a suicide spot and the Japanese noise collective ´Shroud of vapour´ that recorded three sessions in the forest, two of which appear on the album Suicide Forest Sessions.

´青木ヶ原´ by Otacílio Melgaço. It´s not a gloomy, mortuary, funereal work. Addressing issues that are beyond common sense, which extrapolate banal or shabby themes from a tendentially superficial quotidian, ... has always been something embraced by great artists. Often, we access controversial niches as is the case of suicide. Not as an apology, certainly not. But the search for new angles and dimensions, open to other faces of humanism plus mythology, philosophy, etc. Otacílio Melgaço invites us to penetrate this ´forest´, as a way of looking at ourselves with more scrutiny, boldness, depth. Even putting us side by side with life and death ... at every step; each intuition, sensation, thought, reflection ... of a journey both abyssal and stratospheric. And he challenges himself to accomplish such daedal odyssey through a care, acuteness, fineness, majesty, minuteness ... worthy of all laurels.

>> Symbolizing the plurality involved, some idiosyncratic (and controversial) points of view, among others, that seem to me to be covered by O.M. (and his exuberantly metaphorical and polysemic sound proles):

´Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to preserve it. Has it ever been said that a man who throws himself out the window to escape from a fire is guilty of suicide?´ (Jean-Jacques Rousseau)

Melgaço and questions that relativize enough the act of self-murder: relating it (each case is a case) with risks that are linked to the preservation of it (the eternity instead of synchronicity. Perhaps, in a magical thought, to cross the boundaries of infinity - and achieve the perpetuity of being - when it so decides). An extreme paradox that has relevance when, for some, belief in a postmortem life becomes a hope (ultimately, after warnings and elucidations and supports: the power of decision lies with the person themselves);

´Life is only a long and bitter suicide, and faith alone can transform this suicide into a sacrifice.´ (Franz Liszt)

Melgaço and the preponderantly ritualistic sense that surrounds the way we can glimpse existence/non-existence (and the conduits and yet shortcuts between them);

´Drunkenness is temporary suicide.´ (Bertrand Russell)

Melgaço and alterations in the state of consciousness (not necessarily through the use of psychotropic or substances intoxicants) that can happen if by the qualitative elevation/expansion/development of our perceptions, for example. [His music, by the way, is a vast stimulus to this: (to) a reinvention of sensations (plus other forms of ontological apprehension) and the integral metabolism (emotional, intellectual, etc.) of it.] The possibility that - in life - we may experience phenomena that seem to have extrapolated our waking conditions, instituting metaphysical punctures that surpass the said lucidity;

´There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide.´ (Albert Camus)

Melgaço and such heterodox synesthesia, i.e., the sum of several vehicles of human knowledge (of varied origins and precepts) in favor of the unveiling and dialectic of more tacit thematics such as suicide;

´Killing yourself is a major commitment, it takes a kind of courage. Most people just lead lives of cowardly desperation. It's kinda half suicide where you just dull yourself with substances.´ (Robert Crumb)

Melgaço and the dilemma: take own's life is an act of courage or cowardice? This also concerns the respect we must have for the freedom we all have to be, as much as possible, masters of our destinies. Often, cowardice is in the prolongation of an inhuman existence. For some, the ´post-human´ may be a promising path. None of this is generalizable, but we can not nourish a merely Manichaean stance (´right or wrong´, ´victim or culprit´, ´brave or caitiff´);

´Early on, if I was alone two three nights in a row, I'd start writing poems about suicide.´ (Jack Nicholson)

Melgaço and sublimation: reflecting on it, expressing about it ... are means of making the death (including by giving up living) a simulacrum (the art is so perfect for this!), and thus new life-giving perspectives have the chance to surface;

´Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.´ (Arnold J. Toynbee)

Melgaço and the dilatation of a concept that´s considered as individual and nontransferable (even when group, it´s still a cell and not an organism) to the point of raising it to the proportion of a nation and its directives if more (through political corruption, economic irresponsibility, social degeneration, cultural misrepresentation and so on) mortifying than vivifying. The attention here should focus on non-passive postures and thus helping to stop populations being puppets in unscrupulous arriviste hands. [Any similarity to a part of the current Brazilian conjuncture is not mere coincidence. Fortunately, (some judges, public prosecutors ...) another part has been struggling to get the country clean; and even this seems to me to be one of the messages implicit in such resounding spawn.] <<

Jukai (受戒) is also the name of a rite of initiation for Buddhists. A watershed. Principles are received. Like: ´To do no evil, to do good, and to do good for others.´ Mere co-occurrence? I do not believe. At the very least, by not allowing these subjects to become a taboo and when making their transfers to the artistic cosmos, the same prescriptions (as mentioned above) establish themselves, constructively, even more universal. As well as the intriguing and propositive creations of Otacílio Melgaço." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

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I - The forest floor consists primarily of volcanic rock and is difficult to penetrate with hand tools such as picks or shovels. The forest itself is very dense, and one can get lost easily if leaving the official trails. Because of this, in recent years, hikers and tourists trekking through Aokigahara have begun to use plastic tape to mark their paths so as to avoid getting lost. Past the designated trails leading to tourist attractions such as the Ice Cave and Wind Cave, the first kilometer of the forest is littered with tape and other rubbish left by tourists, despite officials' attempts to remove it. After the first kilometer into Aokigahara towards Mount Fuji within the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, the forest is in better condition, with little to no litter and few obvious signs of human presence. However, portrayals of Aokigahara where navigational compasses go haywire are false. The needle of magnetic compasses will move if placed directly on the lava, but compasses should work fine if held at a normal height;

II - Aokigahara has indeed become one of many destinations for suicide in Japan. For example, Aokigahara is sometimes referred to as the most popular site for suicide in Japan even though there is little evidence to support that claim. In fact, available statistics show many more Japanese choose to end their lives by jumping in front of trains in Tokyo than by venturing to the slopes of Mount Fuji.

In 2003, 105 bodies were found in the forest, exceeding the previous record of 78 in 2002. In 2010, the police recorded more than 200 people having attempted suicide in the forest, of whom 54 completed the act. Suicides are said to increase during March, the end of the fiscal year in Japan. As of 2011, the most common means of suicide in the forest were hanging or drug overdose. In recent years, local officials have stopped publicizing the numbers in an attempt to decrease Aokigahara's association with suicide.

The rate of suicide has led officials to place a sign at the forest's entry, written in Japanese, urging suicidal visitors to seek help and not take their own lives. Annual body searches have been conducted by police, volunteers, and attendant journalists since 1970.

The site's popularity has been attributed to Seichō Matsumoto's 1960 novel Kuroi Jukai (Black Sea of Trees). However, the history of suicide in Aokigahara predates the novel's publication, and the place has long been associated with death; ubasute may have been practiced there into the nineteenth century, and the forest is reputedly haunted by the yūrei of those left to die;

III - The lay Buddhist ordination (Chinese: 受戒; pinyin: shòu jiè, Korean: sugye (수계 and

Japanese: Jukai (受戒)

refers to the public ordination ceremony wherein a lay student of Buddhism receives certain Buddhist precepts.The particulars of the ceremony differ widely by country and by school of Buddhism.

In Japan:

Sōtō school
In the Sōtō school students take refuge in the Three Jewels (or Three Refuges), the Three Pure Precepts ("to do no evil, to do good, and to do good for others") and the Ten Grave Precepts. Students must undergo a period of study for their Jukai ceremony, which in most Sōtō Zen traditions is at least two years.

Rinzai school
In the Rinzai school students take refuge in the Three Jewels (or Three Refuges) and, similarly to the Chinese and Korean practices derived from India, they receive the five precepts for laypersons.

...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.

credits

released March 25, 2017

Hear more here:
soundcloud.com/otaciliomelgaco

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O t a c í l i o
M e l g a ç o {conception | composition | arrangement | synopsis | instrumentation | orchestration | engineering & sound design | art design [O.M., after Klimt] | production | direction}

Special Guests: Nausícaaa Ensemble

Estúdio Yoknapotawpha/BR + Unidade Euromobile

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Otacílio Melgaço Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Composer, Arranger, Conductor, Multi-
Instrumentalist
from
Minas Gerais,
Brazil.
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Official (English) Site
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"Music is like a bewitched Mistress." (Paul Klee)
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