The perceptual "something" is always
in the middle of something else.
Merleau Ponty
❮ out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field… ❯
out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field…
Dreaming of islands—whether with joy or in fear,
it doesn't matter—is dreaming of pulling away,
of being already separate, far from any continent,
of being lost and alone—or it is dreaming of starting from scratch, recreating, beginning anew.
Gilles Deleuze “Desert Islands”
Dreaming of islands—whether with joy or in fear,it doesn't matter—is dreaming of pulling away,of being already separate, far from any continent, of being lost and alone—or it is dreaming of starting from scratch, recreating, beginning anew.
“"Geographers say there are two kinds of islands," - said Gilles Deleuze at the beginning of his "Desert Islands." Continental that are accidental, derived, separated, "born of disarticulation, erosion, fracture," and oceanic - the originary, essential ones.This same-titled sonic esse occurred in a manner of the first type.The only sound source for this work comes out as noise that appears between disconnected or partly unplugged wires. Its dense artefacts, and analogue textures convoying the energy discharges, which I made way for through my hands, lay in the basis of this work. A radio antenna, serving as an accentuator for electricity flows, was used as an additional medium to emphasise the active role of social media in the current extreme communication crisis. The starting point for this work was a war for free will in Ukraine, then "deterritorialization" happened.
There is a struggle between earth and sky, with the imprisonment or liberation of all four elements at stake. The isle is the frontier or field of this struggle.
There is a struggle between earth and sky, with the imprisonment or liberation of all four elements at stake. The isle is the frontier or field of this struggle.
Gilles Deleuze “Logic of sense”
There is a struggle between earth and sky, with the imprisonment or liberation of all four elements at stake. The isle is the frontier or field of this struggle.
To liberate this material from its formal envelope, to exceed the contextual start, I exposed it as a point to spring off from, as a launching pad for a sonar discovery or a journey in search of something that would go beyond seeding tensions, something that would not represent the environment, the conditions, this sound itself, with its signifiers and functions, nor something particular else, but the very process of becoming.
The traces of this work are not gravitating towards any finite position, nor exact facture, nor any desired sonic event, as it usually happens within a traditional composition. Rather, they aspire to discover the possibilities beyond my expectations, to question the "author's" position and perception of the situation, to unfold an interior space of sensibility to sonar transmutations, to articulate the movement itself.
Technically, it's an electro-acoustics that came into existence through the spontaneous combination of initial noises with themselves, but shifted in time/speed/frequency/resonance using Max MSP and other software. The work starts with the raw sounds of disconnected wires and moves towards their dissemination in transformation through a multilayered procession in a series of improvisational live sessions.
The composition of the album, though, has its own narrative structure, independent of the concept and context described here, and consists of thirteen steps.
Their end is embedded in their beginning and their beginning in their end.. like a flame in a burning coal..
"Their end is embedded in their beginning and their beginning in their end.. like a flame in a burning coal," says the ancient kabbalistic text Sefer Yetzirah regarding the Sefirot of Nothingness to unwind the unification of time (as a spiritual world) and space (as a material one) in the process of emanation.
The word 'coal' ( גחלת) has the same numerical value as the word 'truth' (אמת). According to Kabbalah, it is Truth that binds all opposites together. This is indicated by the word itself.It begins with Alef א, the first letter of the alphabet, and ends with Tav ת, the last letter. They are embedded in one another, but not through closeness or resemblance.
Their embeddedness is accomplished via Mem מ, the middle letter of the alphabet, whose meaning, broadly construed, might be described as a matter or a physical world, or a womb, a water that brings life, but is dead on its own - what will remain from the Truth (אמת) after taking the Alef (א) away is death (מָוֶת)
Thus, the end meets the beginning through matter.
Mem is the river, the bridge, and the rupture all at once.***
Using Merleau Ponty's language, Mem is a flesh of the world, a primordial matrix, that unites contradictions and opposites, but by doing so it might bring "a vague feeling of anguish or mystery which upsets the life", as the wind from the desert at the midpoint of this journey.For the hidden truth of the work may be lightly unveiled through its first, last, and middle points, following the kabbalistic logic.
*** Here, and elsewhere, even though I use the universally recognised sources both of mystical and philosophical terms and notions that one can rely on, I approach them rather as points to spring off from towards further synthesis, not to follow precisely, hence my intuitive insights or conclusions of these or that meanings might deviate slightly or even sound heretical in relation to the traditional ones.
n the ideal of beginning anew there is something that precedes the beginning itself, that takes it up to deepen it and delay it in the passage of time. The desert island is the material of this something immemorial, this something most profound.
Gilles Deleuze
The narrative structure of the album unfolds in the form of a sonic fiction essay, divided into three thematic chapters, each comprising 4 - 5 - 4 tracks, respectively. They might be assigned the letters mentioned above, as I have done in the retrospective reflections below.
As follows or otherwise:
Alef (א), being encompassed widely, signs to the spirit, an initial will that precedes creation. Just as Tao, it can not be manifested by any means, and, surely, this track does not pretend to do this. Rather, it speaks of initiatory "seeking" imagination and premonition.
Amodal perception is an experience of seeing beyond that which is given or can be seen (in a particular situation). It is based on precognition, independent of the structural representation of the world; at the same time, this imaginary is data-driven.
This is the first step on the island's land, touching the soil, feeling the air through the haze of the breath.
This track opens the first con- and trans- versational chapter, featuring the four steps within.
The "Haunted Frontier" opens the meeting with the Real and the second chapter of 'life and death struggle'.
א
To know is to traverse. To love is to allow oneself to be traversed.
Vincent La Soudière
מ
Besides being a signifier for water that brings life, a "flesh of the world" that unites opposites,
Mem, with its numerical value of 40, signals an intense spiritual battle and a trial of faith.
This letter has a dual nature, so what we find at its central place is extreme hesitation and tension.
In "Commedepartisan," we meet the loss and failure of our hopes.
Yet it's precisely because of this failure that we have an opportunity to discover what and who we are and define our values independently of the demands of this world.
Thus, this failure appears as a secret triumph of the second birth, which takes place as a spell in the next track, F-rosary.
Yet, the struggle continues and culminates in the "Close the Window".
It is an audio-visual prayer to stop the war.
It touches the air of wild, deathly wind through an overtone window with timid fingers of the unprepared psyche..
But what is truly frightening here is the feeling that war might be everlasting..
ת
No one knows what has happened in the "Gaze projectile."
The imagery of this shot, which marks the beginning of the final chapter, was perceived by me as an escape. The escape by sea under the fire.
Can we sign that which supervenes as an afterlife, or was this getaway a successful creative endeavor, a line of flight, who knows..
Yet, there is an apparition of the horizon fluttering in the wind.
The horizon that cannot be reached.. without its ceasing to be a horizon.
It is something that... we are moving towards, yet it might barely be called a destination. Paradoxically, it is rather the point of departure..
As Gilles Grelet noted in his "Theory of the solitary sailor," discussing the notion of freedom, "One only arrives at it if one sets out from it."
Freedom is a point of departure, not a horizon. One only arrives at it if one sets out from it.
Gilles Grelet
the real beloved is only the occasion of a ‘marvellous flower of the imagination
Friedrich Schlegel
to think is to cast a throw of the dice
Gilles Deleuze
Forming visual surfaces of this album, I resorted to a few tools, such as "Unreal Engine" and "Gaia," a generative landscape software, within which I elaborated on the speculative geography for a series of postcards attached to a printed version of the album. The postcards embody the conjoint of geography and imagination, as Deleuze ordered, and consist of fragments of imaginary landscapes and a number of incidental quotes from the notes I took during work. Among them are quotes by Deleuze, Lyotard, Laruelle, and others. The attached postcards contain a unique "oracular" message, as they were chosen by chance.
A few of them you can see on the pages of this booklet.
The deserted island is the origin, but a second origin. From it everything begins anew. The island is the necessary minimum for this re-beginning, the material that survives the first origin, the radiating seed or egg that must be sufficient to re-produce everything.
Gilles Deleuze
Liberty is becoming, the passage from one state to another.
François Laruelle
This work would not be possible without the ambiance of the time and space where I found myself situated, as well as my desperate attempts to go beyond them, the broad spectrum of flows and forces, as well as my relentless attempts to play and dance within them, my close and faraway environment, the real and imaginary friends, as well as my inept attempts to sound authentic among them..
I would love to thank all the phase angels I have met on this road!
First of all, Dasha Zvezdin, Andrey Guryanov, and Mike Iv, as well as many others involved in this game of change, both directly and tangentially.
The amount of effort, words, and images I put into this initially brief and spontaneous ode to change might be justified solely by this invisible involvement, as a gesture of gratitude for the sacrament.
I believe we will not be the samein the end..“...I’ll meet you there...”
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,there is a field. I’ll meet you there
© Alienation Index 2025