AMN Reviews: Acousmatic Music as a Bridge to the Mundus Imaginalis – Denis Dufour: Complete Acousmatic Works, Vol. 1 (Kairos, 2021) Part Three

In this part three, I’m going to choose a couple more pieces from Denis Dufour’s The Complete Acousmatic Works, Vol. 1 that I think work well in conjunction with Henry Corbin’s mundus imaginalis (the imaginal world). One major point I want to stress before I dive in for the last time with this very incomplete survey… this whole box is a gem. Honestly, I can’t think of one work here that is sub-par compared to the others, it’s that good!

On CD 9, the work called Dix portraits, Op. 31b needs to be included in this write-up, not because the composer’s intentions were to evoke any kind of esoteric concept… but because, for me the piece demonstrates the “alieness” referenced in Part two and also, because it’s one of my personal favorites from his oeuvre. It’s a perfect example of brain + Acousmatic Music = a place visualized whose coordinates are NOT represented on any known map (as Corbin would say).

From the notes in the box, just for some perspective…

This composition, the electroacoustic compliment to the original mixed music piece, revives the French tradition of the portrait for which Denis Dufour has chosen ten people among his closest friends. On tape, he musically illustrates the character traits of his friends as he perceives them.

Jérôme Nylon

Dix portraits is a piece I’ve been familiar with for quite a few years and while the stated intent is interesting… especially when you compare the music with the portraits… I always followed my own mind trail with it, and it always leads to the same places. It’s a rare Acousmatic work where I come back to the same representations with each listen, and they aren’t portraits, in fact… they aren’t even remotely human.

Sure, I think it’s probably common when listening to music like this to conjure images of vast otherworldly landscapes, deep dark voids of space or glimpses of the eschaton but, in this case…the pure alien qualities of sound that flow through the work somehow achieve other states of weirdness. States that always repeat themselves with only small variations each time I visit.

Briefly, it goes something like this: It starts with a UFO abduction, continues with being laid spread eagle on a shiny cold metal table in a twilight consciousness, and finally… being observed and talked about in muffled voices by blurry, shadowy figures standing (?) over me. It ends there but it’s a very similar movie each time. Now, I realize that this sounds pretty cliche, even quaint but, here’s the thing. The description I just put forth above is just bare bones. What takes it into the “high weirdness” category is first, the clarity and lucidity of the visual aspect (Yes, I see you, I may not be able to make out your details but in my minds eye, I see you.) but more importantly, the physical, tactile sense of the environment. It’s always a cold damp place and the distinct sense of dread, anxiety and fear always hangs heavy. Synesthesia is definitely a thing! Sounds like fun… right?

Is this what my own private Eighth Climate visit is? Oh I highly doubt it. I can’t imagine myself being even close to “worthy” of something like that! In fact, private admission time right now… sometimes I feel hypocritical just talking about things like the Eighth Climate simply because I have yet to take the next step and get involved (instead of just reading and researching it) on a more active level. What that would look like remains TBD and not really relavant.

I felt I had to add Dix portraits into this write up, if only because of the highly evocative qualities it has. While other Dufour works tend to deliver a grounded or terra based landscape, Dix portraits comes in as pure alien-borne. It’s another quiet, yet busy piece and also, one that seems different than all the others in terms of sounding more synthetic. The source material seems more computer generated as if they were crafted in an… (you guessed it) alien lab. Your mileage, may of course… vary.

The final piece I’ll include here is the entirety of CD 7, a 70 minute work called Allégorie, Op. 83. The work celebrates the cycle of the journey of light, into shadow, into darkness, into light.

Allégorie invites the listener on a dream-like and minimalist odyssey; an alternative path through the forest of hidden (or secret?) signs that guide us like impish spirits towards the real world. Pygmy chants and Eskimo songs mark the worldwide presence of those cultures that take Mother Nature as guide, model and archetype. In these tropical and sub-polar climes, the cycles of sunlight and shade fulfill themselves in opposing manner. But a joyful acceptance of these cycles created in Nature and in the life of humankind provides the direction for an entire collective existence of wisdom and true knowledge.

Thomas Brando

I consider this final piece to be the clearest instance in this whole collection of painting a sound picture. For me, it’s a perfect sonic representation of illustrating a passing from (Sohravardi’s) mountain of Qaf-the sensory world into the mundus imaginalis.

One of the most compelling and beautiful passages as told by Sohravardi in Corbin’s paper is the description of someone who has gained the aptitude of reaching this world obtainable only by the active imagination… “that makes him like a balm, a drop of which you distill in the hollow of your hand by holding it facing the sun, and which then passes through to the back of your hand.”

I love that, Sohravardi is describing the actual moment of emerging OUT OF our sensory world, being on the outside or convex side of a spherical realm of what we inhabit now and finding ourselves in the mundus imaginalis! This:

Allégorie, Op. 83 sounds like it’s strictly a tape piece with all, or at least mostly acoustic sounds assembled and organized in the manner of a classic literary quest novel. Think Cormac McCarthy’s The Road or Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick or The Odyssey by Homer. It’s the sonic equivalent of (let’s get lowbrow here) The Wizard of Oz. Sound motif after sound motif act as a transport device to the interior of a realm of symbols, where the true self resides.

In this piece, Dufour joins the ranks of artists like Francis Dhomont, François Bayle and many other sound/image masters in creating a truly comprehensive “sound novel”. Just as lights unending journey to shadow, to darkness and then back again to light acts as a set piece for a monomyth of sorts, the ready and willing listener is given their own opportunity at becoming a Hero. Achieving access to the Eighth Climate certainly can’t be an easy quest but one… if taken, allows the Hero/Self to return… forever transformed.

It’s the classic “quest” story, only this time it can arguably represent the “quest for the real” if listened with that predilection. Like the cycle of light to darkness and back again, Allégorie, Op. 83 is EPIC!

I’ll stop it there but just know that the quality of the material on The Complete Acousmatic Works Vol. 1 doesn’t end with just the few pieces I’ve mentioned in this three part write-up. Across its 16 CD’s there are hours of good stuff. If you are unfamiliar with Dufour’s work and are inspired to hear any of it after reading this, I envy you… because you’ll get to experience it for the first time.

Using Denis Dufour’s music as a model, I’ve attempted to verbalize what I consider a compelling “way” of listening to Acousmatic music. Personally, it provides me with a deeper appreciation of what I consider a prime, if not THE prime raison d’être of the style… a vehicle to stimulate the active imagination. The examples I’ve given are there only as “suggestions” to a listener who might be open to them. If you’ve read this far, I’ll just say Thank You and also, please remember that I’m open to any comments or (especially) corrections of what I’ve put down.

Finally, thanks to Mike Borella and Chris DeChiara for help in organizing some of my thoughts throughout this write up.

Part One

Part Two

Mike Eisenberg (meisenberg1@hotmail.com)