Jon's thoughts and compositions

bt:

djlepin:

So you’ve more than likely gathered that I’m a huge fan of the musical artist BT.  Today, February 2nd, 2010 marks the release of his latest studio album These Hopeful Machines.

Let me just put this in perspective for you.  Imagine you’re back in Renaissance Italy.  Michelangelo is about to unveil his latest work of art; two years in the making.  The proverbial sheet is pulled off and viola!, the Michelangelo Pieta is revealed.

It isn’t about how this album is important to the Electronica genre, it isn’t about Rock, Pop, or even Classical music.  It’s about Music as a whole.  In terms of technique, conceptualization, emotion, detail, and composition, These Hopeful Machines is very much the equivalent of a work of Renaissance art that has spent four years in the making.  Something that touches every level in the creation of music and elevates it to another level, and BT is a modern Renaissance master.

These two interviews: Sinning in LA, and SonicScoop provide some insight in to the conceptualization and technical mastery that went in to the creation of These Hopeful Machines.

If you typically wouldn’t call yourself a fan of electronica but you do consider yourself an appreciator of art and music as a whole, I highly suggest you take a half step outside of your comfort zone and at least listen to These Hopeful Machines.  The Sinning in LA interview has links to album previews.  However if you want the full experience you can invite me over and I’ll share a listen with you, or just buy a copy.  Quite literally, it’ll be like owning a Raphael painting.  Seriously.

bt:

BT Releases His Double-Disc Sixth Studio Album, These Hopeful Machines, as Two Individual Tracks on iTunes and Amazon

January 27, 2010, NEW YORK, NY - Internationally renowned artist, visionary producer, film composer and technologist BT has always been known for being unpredictably groundbreaking. From his artist albums to his film compositions to his production for superstars such as Sting, Madonna, and Britney Spears, platinum-selling artist BT is consistently looked to in the music community as an innovator and pioneer, constantly pushing the envelope of what is possible in both music production and innovation around the modality of his music.  In an unprecedented move, BT has chosen to release his new album, THESE HOPEFUL MACHINES (February 2, Nettwerk), as two individual tracks on iTunes: Disc 1 and Disc 2.

“I have always believed in the album experience,” recounts BT. “So much is lost by picking and choosing tracks and shuffling them together randomly. I strive to create an active, rather than a passive, listening experience. I am always opting to engage listeners in a meaningful way. The experience of music should be just that: an experience. Not a passive or secondary activity. These are my fondest memories of music, listening as an activity, and this is the experience that I wish to share with my audience.”

These Hopeful Machines is a double-disc opus that carries listeners through 2 hours of sweeping orchestral arrangements, pulsating electronic beats, heartfelt vocal melodies and even simple acoustic guitar. These Hopeful Machines embodies BT’s ability to weave both his technical prowess and compositional mastery that reminds listeners why he is the composer that all other composers and producers study.

This album is the follow up to 2006’s This Binary Universe, an album that created an entirely new genre of evocative electro-acoustic music. Keyboard Magazine wrote in a review, “In a hundred years, it could well be studied as the first major work of the new millennium. It’s that good.”  These Hopeful Machines continues to evolve BT’s distinct technical, lyrical and compositional vision and execution, but his usual melodic complexity and bleeding-edge electronic techniques permeate the album from start to finish.

From an early age, BT, born Brian Transeau, demonstrated a remarkable aptitude for playing and understanding classical music. He was heavily influenced by avant-garde and romantic composers such as Stravinsky, Bartok, Debussy and Rachmaninov. His biggest influences, however, were from everyday sounds that most would take for granted, from noticing the meter of the grandfather clock in the foyer to the micro-rhythms of crickets and cicadas to the ambience of passing trains at night.

“When examining my creation process, it makes perfect sense why I am a forced technologist,” he explains. ”I frequently face the fact that the tools I need to compose music simply don’t exist. It is like being an architect without bricks or mortar. I routinely create my own bricks and connective tissue as the diving off point to the compositional process.”  The drive to actualize the tools BT envisions has led to his evolution as one of the most cutting-edge programmers and technologists in music today. He has expanded this reach into a visionary software venture, Sonik Architects, which launched its critically- and commercially-acclaimed iPhone application, Sonifi™, last fall.

Says BT, “My ultimate goal is to keep the emotional counterpoint and the integrity of the song intact, even when pushing the envelope with style and technique. The faster things get, the less people are willing to take in a body of creative work. There are so few things now that will engage us. The intent of consuming music is usually to have an awareness or a feeling, to have a truly, empathic connection to others. My hope is to create something that makes people feel that they have consumed something that completes a void. I want to create something lasting.”

These Hopeful Machines track listing:

Disc 1

1. Suddenly

2. The Emergency

3. Every Other Way

4. The Light Of Things

5. Rose Of Jericho

6. Forget Me

Disc 2

1. A Million Stars

2. Love Can Kill You

3. Always

4. Le Nocturne De Lumiere

5. The Unbreakable

6. The Ghost In You

Stay tuned for more news from BT…

http://www.facebook.com/bt
http://twitter.com/bt
http://bt.tumblr.com/

I just did a google search for “Experimental Christian Musicians”, The results confirmed my belief that Christian musicians are not pushing themselves to express themselves fully.  This may need to become a focus for my writing, however, the music I write rarely contains lyrics, so it’s hard to determine if I would be considered a Christian musician.  Besides I hate being shoved into any genre.  Perhaps it’s best to write what I write and let others decide how to categorize it.