6. Discussion
I set out to find out how ambient textures are created in an improvisational way and how the mindstate is influencing the creation process, only to realize that both of these questions hold answers for each other in a mutually benefitting relationship. ”The creative experience flourished within a sense of mindful clarity in response to the way that the textures and gestures are interconnected and respond to one another in an iterative process” (Mayall, 2021, p.15). Here Mayall (2021) is reflecting on the mindful quality of the musical textures that a real-time duo performance on slow improvisation produced through an intuitive and gestural use of layers, echoes, delays, reverbs and rhythmical elements (p.15). This reveals how similar qualities can be found in Mayall’s experiment and in the findings of this artistic research when defining the effect that the musical textures have on the mind in improvised music making. Although Mayall’s experiment was done in collaboration with another musician, it was done via remote connection with sound latency that ”forced to embrace the uncertainty of the environment and technology” (Mayall, 2021, p.1). Such uncertainty does bring to mind the unpredictable environment when working with multi-layered ambient loops. While reflecting on another remote duo performance, an experiment with a distance over 2,660 kilometers between participants, Mayall (2021) stated that the prominent latency in sound demanded deep listening and reflection in order to contribute to the music in a sensitive way, as each sound and texture would influence the emergence of every following musical gesture (p.14). This statement resonates with the findings in my research, since it seems to be hinting towards the same interlocking cycle between the mind and the machine.
The slow buzz, as suggested in this study to be the resulting mindstate from a sustained practice of this interlocking cycle, seems to have connections to Luke Jaaniste’s ”ambient mode of being” by being a state where the mind’s attention is directed to everything around equally. However, Jaaniste (2007) explains that it is almost impossible for an ambient sonic work to be operating in the ambient mode because in order to make a sound, one has to make it with something that creates visual excess (such as speakers, cables, performers and instruments) which in turn establishes a foreground background relationship in the visual-scape (p.102). He further clarifies, that because the ambient mode does not have foreground and background, any sound installation, whether how subtle or how well mapped with the surrounding environment, cannot operate in the ambient mode when creating visual excess (p.102). Yet, I would suggest that through an improvised ambient music practice or other similar sound art practices, it is possible to reach a state of mind where the everyday thinking mind starts to shift and the mind becomes one-pointed towards the concentration itself, therefore resulting in an all-around perception of the surrounding environment. Jaaniste (2007) explains that for us to be able to get into the ambient mode (a mode of being where everything is experienced as an all-pervasive ambient field) requires dissolution of the everyday familiarity or ”de-worlding” (p.64). So, I am presenting a question whether the ambient mode is accessible through an ambient sonic work if the performer, although creating visual excess by performing, attains one-pointed concentration through a sensation such as the slow buzz and successfully transfers that mindstate then to the audience. If the audience experiences the same, then everyday concepts such as cables and speakers would not exist anymore, and everything would be experienced as part of the surrounding environment without a focus on worldly labels. Yet, further research would have to be done regarding whether the slow buzz is transferable to listeners during a live-ambient performance, or is it just a sensation that the performer can experience only by themselves. This is where the range of my knowledge ends.