Whew, this one was rough on my psyche. Something broke during that Morrissey channel and I really struggled to get back into a groove here. Here’s my commentary since I just couldn’t bring myself to talk tonight. This is the most drafty one of these I’ve posted. Not sure if it’s ready for prime time.
Eden Bloom – Peace (Death, Peace, Time)
Death needs time for what it kills to grow
That’s the way it is supposed to go
As you grow death moves in slow
With bombs and drones and drones and bombs
You cheat death and time all at once
immediate extinction of those loved.
I don’t know. But I’ve been told
martyrs rise, children laid low
A new children’s army, what will be their crusade?
Martyrs do what martyrs gonna do
here we go round again,
And they’ll be coming for you
© Eden Bloom, Eschaton Life, December 19, 2023
Technical Notes: This collapses 2 sketches that I thought would be two independent songs. The dissonance between them challenges me but also hooks me to the point where mashing them together seems all I can do. Like an itch that my fingers are trying to scratch on the frets. I had also been attempting a time change between them but the train kept falling off the tracks. I had to banish the thought to get this recorded, which was no small feat. The heavy rhythm, which is rather obnoxious IMO, is an attempt to negate the internalized time change.
Subject Notes: This is definitely a case where, with more time, I would break out the books and do some research to get the most out of the techniques I reference below. I use 3 divergent chants here from contested faiths. Research time would give me the opportunity to include a greater diversity of expressions of peace and become more intentional in an attempt to “balance” the energies.
“Death need time for what it kills to grow in” is a William S. Burroughs quote. My “Hum Allah” styling def references Leon Thomas’ prayer on Pharaoh Sanders’ “Hum-Allah-Hum-Allah Hum Allah” – from Jewels of Thought.
This reaches way back to my study of Sufism with Vilayat Inayat Khan in the 90s. Somewhere I’ve told the story of how I picked up the phone at work one day and ended up supporting Vilayat Inayat Khan when he visited Tucson in 1996. I basically was hired on as his personal AV guy and was tasked with making sure he could be heard by attendees of a 7 day desert retreat.
There wasn’t much to do and part of the deal was that I got to participate as an attendee myself. In the evenings we would gather in a large common room, about 30 people, and perform rituals together. It was a silent retreat for all but Vilayat Inayat Khan who led us in what I now consider to be some of the most profound ceremonies I’ve been in.
By profound I mean transformative, they changed me quite a bit. It was very healing. One evening we collapsed chants for peace and healing from different faiths. I was in the height of my anti-christian posturing so I was EXTREMELY challenged to allow myself to reach for gnosis through ecstatically signing and moving with Ave Maria.
This challenge was heightened by the inclusion of chants and songs I was less familiar with but held as much cultural weight and power. It was VERY much a “spiritual” manifestation of Gysin’s cut up method and yeah, the future leaked out. Here we are. The chants here are an attempt to reach back to that healing ritual in the face of Gaza’s “bombs and drones.” Thanks for looking, 🙏🏻❤️
