Sonic Bardos
Listening to Maarja Nuut and Ruum's Music
with Spiritually Sensitive Ears
How to Listen to their Music Spiritually: A Suggestion
Let their music pull you into liminal states
within which, in the blink of an eye,
insights for the fullness of life may emerge. Let
these liminal states simultaneously introduce you
to dimensions of the universe, to what the Tibetans call bardos.
The bardos are slightly different from the ordinary world of tables and chairs.
But they are as real in their way as is an eye-blink, or the beat of a dragonfly wing.
They are real even if they last only for a second - or for a million years. Process is Reality.
After all, add the process philosophers, we live in a multi-dimensional universe,
with all dimensions intersecting, all the time, and with every dimension,
and the sentient beings within it, whether gods or demi-gods,
hungry ghosts or animals, human beings or hell-beings,
on a journey, as are we who roam within them. The key
to listening to Maarja Nuut and Ruum's music is to let the bardos
speak to you, for however long they last, embracing the
liminal states the bardos evoke as spiritual teachers in sonic form.
You can listen prayerfully if you wish. You can try to let your heart
be guided by the cosmic lure toward richness of experience,
who is the deep Bardo, the divine and cosmic life,
within whose musical and loving heart the universe
lives and moves and has its being, moment by moment,
spontaneously, evanescently, one eye-blink at a time.
The One whose life includes all the beings in the six realms, who
loves them all, and who is vulnerable, sharing in their sufferings and joys,
forever beckoning them toward life's fulfillment,
in a Bodhisattivic way, and whom some call God.
"Estonian duo Maarja Nuut & Ruum operate in a musical interzone between light and shadow, connecting the deep-rooted, intuitive worldview of days past with the hyper-mediated realities and seemingly limitless technological possibilities of the present and future." -- from their website
Their new album, Muunduja, is "a bravura exercise in creating a sound that advances on all fronts, the creation of a public worldview that envelops and almost saturates the listener. Muunduja means ‘shifter’ in Estonian, and it’s appropriate that the music drags you into liminal states, dives deep into the imagination’s netherworld, or creates gloriously transcendent sonic interfaces that could, still, dissolve in the blink of an eye." -- The Quietus
What is a Bardo? (from Wikipedia) |
Notes while listening to MuundujaMuunduja is sacred music presenting a public worldview that includes netherworlds -- worlds which are as real in their way as are physical bodies. These netherworlds are what Tibetans call Bardos. They are within us yet more than us, and it is possible that, in a continuing journey after death, we re-awaken to them. With its recognition that we live in a universe with multiple dimensions, and that the soul is itself more than the brain, process philosophy offers a way of appreciating the cosmological side of Muunduja and the availability of its worldview to all. |
More about Muunduja
The presiding spirit of “Muunduja” (Shifter) is a state of being between states, the warping of time’s arrow using sound. Maarja Nuut & Ruum’s music often lures us into unimagined conversations with elements of our psychic selves that we may have otherwise forgotten. Whether the listener reacts through out-of-body experiences, glitches in cerebral programming, or old fashioned magic is immaterial. We experience the phenomena presented to us, and we take new insights from them. Essentially the recording of two musicians’ inner travels, “Muunduja” is a release that relies heavily on gesture and spirit. Rich, rounded and expertly arranged, the music is also presented as a series of contrasts, heavy on shifts of tone, texture and mood. (from the description on Bandcamp.)
Videos and Sounds
|
|
|
|
|