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Ellipses (notes musical & philosophical)

by DOCTOR STEPHEN TROMANS

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To the West 10:54
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Noh music 05:55
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Wh(Y) 07:49
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about

Ellipses is a triple album. Its tripartite happenstance was improvised in word and music on 18
December 2020 at Sansom Studios, Hollywood. Every note, every syllable, each interaction
between voice and instrument happened in the event of its happening: Event as happenstance.
I am also improvising this sleeve note. The circle is complete (never whole, but complete: a
complete philosophic method).
This is a solo album. This is not a solo album. (Is solo even possible, given the complex
system of performer / instrument / studio / venue / engineers / friends / practice / history /
movement / process et al?) I talk, I play. I play and talk. My good friend, the great Courtney
Barrett, joins the session halfway thru the third album to present his extraordinary
composition for solo guitar (Q: is a guitar ever solo, given its strings, its body, the body of
work, the legacy of the instrument, history of its performers?). I accompany in improvisation.
Predominantly via my right hand. This is for Keith Jarrett. This is my hand: manifest.
Q: Why make a triple album? Why call it a triple album in this age of unlimited content?
(And what is content, what is form, anyhow? How does one make a distinction?) Triple,
tripartite, for the triptych-ness of the magic number: 3. OM. Where are the divisions? Every
six tracks. Thrice six makes the number six of the magic number, twice the thrice of the
magic number: 33, 33, 33, 333, 333, 333333. The magic of threes. (Aside: When faced with
two impossible choices, choose a third. This is the philosophy, the method, of the third way.)
Q: Why talk? Why talk on a solo piano album that is not a solo album, or even a single album
entity? To practise what I preach. To “profess” and not to linger in silence. A public (now
public) demonstration of the demonstrative: “So, you are a musician-philosopher, a Doctor of
Philosophy of Time in the musical-philosophical, huh? Demonstrate it, what’s it all about?”
You can read my thesis, my doctoral exegesis, or you can listen to this album. Choice is
yours. Each is different, each is the same (strike “same”, not same, but similar, similitude, of
the same kind of frequency, resonance, plateau, plane, different in themselves but also
difference in itself. Thank you Gilles Deleuze.)
And why Ellipses?
. . .
The answer is above. You can figure it out. Think in the connections between. This music,
this philosophy, these words, these notes, are now yours, dear listener.
DOCTOR STEPHEN TROMANS

credits

released December 25, 2020

With full credit to the extraordinary sound engineering skills of Sansom Studios.

Olly, Elliott, my deep thanks as ever.

sansomstudios.co.uk

With thanks to my good friend, Phil King, for his time and his excellent photographer's eye and musical sensibility.

With thanks to Courtney Barrett for his beautiful composition and guitar playing, his questions and contributions to the genesis of the project.

With thanks to Gilles Deleuze and every historical figure who was present in the room, on the day. The Eventum Tantum.

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tags

about

SOUND-ART-PHILOSOPHY UK

we are :

doctor stephen tromans
m c t / musiconceptime
OMMIGOD
jisei

we make :

• electronica
• ambient
• dark beats
• i.d.m.
• spoken word
• improv
• solo piano

Profile photo by Phil King / blazeneon
... more

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