Where do we go?

Where do we go? The past is gone, the future open, the present now! That’s a choice of one, here now, the present moment. It’s all we have, had, and will have. Throughout eternity that’s now! At times we reach ahead a bit. We try to plan, we dream and envision. Then again we look back, clean house one way or another, deal with accumulations. Dust settles traces of trash and treasures. Sort through experiences and things. Together we can get somewhere. Alone we wither away to pieces. Such is life and love. I need you, and you need me. The choice is dual, love or fear. And beyond that we all are soul. Where do we go?

It’s clear, here and now. Simple and free, follow your destiny. As circles and cycles close upon themselves, doors open to step through into new worlds that have always been present but more or less neglected, ignored, or even pushed aside by all the happenings and choices made by and for oneself, goals accepted and aimed for, what was achieved, and what was missed or was not to be. For all that is to be, indeed was, is, and will be. Whether we rejoice or cry makes no difference, except for oneself. Thus it’s clear where we want to go — to rejoice in the freedom and confines of the present moment, continually in love and with divine spirit.

Where do we go?
Backyard glazed in frozen fog after the air cleared — January 2022 — Grächwil, Switzerland

Tonality of the month: BlueMin

The February 2022 tonality of the month is BlueMin, a tritone or blues tonality.

BlueMin — calm sound sample — Nov. 2021 — 2:56 loop — plays until stopped or you go to another page on this tab
BlueMin — rhythmic sound sample — November 2021 — 1:42 loop

The tonality of the month of February 2022 is BlueMin, a tritone or blues tonality. As the name indicates, the octave of a tritone or blues tonality includes the tritone. Further it includes one or more Reach steps (augmented seconds), generally off the fundamental or quint. And there may be consecutive half steps. As such, BlueMin, a fully anchored tonality, is exceptional in that it contains three consecutive half steps or four consecutive halftones. However these may not (or only very rarely) be all consecutive.

You may enjoy a sound sample or tonality loop as sound mantra for contemplation or meditation. This can help with upliftment, purification, and focusing. Or it could simply be used as soothing background sound for relaxation and regeneration. If you care to hum, chant, or sing along, you could do so using a spiritually charged syllable like HU or Ōṁ / Aum ॐ, or another mantra syllable that suits you.

Tonality of the month: BlueMin
Partially frozen waterfall — December 2021 — Wasserfall Hall close to Admont, Austria

January 2022 Tonalibus update

This January 2022 Tonalibus update highlights an upcoming cooperation concert in Basel. Then it touches on playlist expansions in the Fidibus shop. And it announces the recent release of two new Tonalibus singles on global music platforms. It concludes with inspiring quotes and a sweet image.

Tonalibus cooperation concert in Basel, Switzerland

January 2022 Tonalibus update

In the Happy Garden — sound & song

February 10, 19:30, QuBa, Bachlettenstr. 12, Basel — with Marcel Haag, an avid troubadour song writer, and Ulrico.

In this concert, exotic sound worlds — from gongs, bells, fujara, vichitra veena, and other instruments — meet poetic songwriting in German, Thurgau dialect and English, accompanied by classical guitar. The two solo artists Ulrico and Marcel explore new ways of sounding together in uplifting songs and soundscapes.

New and expanded free playlists in the Fidibus shop

New playlist Tonalibus Cooperation A

This all new playlist features a selection of twelve spontaneous improvisations with Christina Braun, voice, and Ulrico on various instruments. These unique musical cooperation creations span more than an hour with recordings from the past year and a half.

Playlists: Tonalibus D

Expanding playlist Tonalibus D

By now, this still expanding playlist High Mountains on Fire, Light, and Sound has grown to eight pieces. So far, they explore the far reaches, the simplicity, and also inversion contrasts of harmony. The latest one of them received its own blog post, चैतन्य Chaitanya. While the second most recent piece, Blue Courage (below), is a blues in a regular diatonic tonality.

Dorian mode blues medley — 8-string guitar, singing saw, tingsha cymbals, crotales, gongs, and voice — January 2022 — 5:08 — as loop on a separate tab

New Tonalibus singles released on global music platforms

The following two singles were released in mid January on all the global music platforms also used for the album Tonalibus A, B, & C. They include Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Amazon, and many more.

From the Future to the Present and Back

This piece is part of the collection Tonalibus D. Initially it swings into what later turns out to be an inverted harmonic contrast; and it gently resolves some far reaches of harmony into unity beyond duality.

From G# TetraNa with touches of its F# Upcor inversion progressing to C# Ionian (diatonic major) and back, connecting the far ends and melting contrasts into a unified whole — 8-string guitar — December 2021 — 9:45 — as loop on a separate tab

ॐ मणिपद्मे हूँ Auṃ maṇi padme hūṃ — Blues

This spiritual blues is one of the most popular pieces of the album Tonalibus A, B, & C. Thus it now became available also as a single.

PentaMix / PentaDor (Egyptian scale) — triple 7-string guitar and voice — 8:28 — as loop on a separate tab

January 2022 Tonalibus update quotes and a crystal kiss

“Do not partake in the evil of another. If you are quiet and calm, your calmness and quietness will make a greater effect on the other than his anger — so that true resistance is the practice of contentment.” — p. 32
“[This] is love. The love that makes all things beautiful. Yes, and breathes divinity into the very dust you tread. With love shall life roll on gloriously throughout eternity, like the voice of great music that has the power to hold the hearer’s heart poised on eagle’s wings far above the earthly world.”
— p. 40, Stranger by the River, Paul Twitchell

“If you see many here, they are in reality only a few . . . if any.”
منطق الطیر, Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr or The Colloquy of the Birds, Farid Ud-Din Attar

January 2022 Tonalibus update
Mystical ice crystal beings stretching their necks for a sweet kiss — December 2021 — Grächwil, Switzerland

चैतन्य Chaitanya

चैतन्य Chaitanya manifests in so many ways
Sounds, courage, persistence, harmony
So can I see you – and can you see me?
At times so distant, and then so close
Waves come and go, always present
Looking, listening, and mostly being
It might seem an eternal embrace
When the moon and sun so dance
In this world the winds of change
All has its beginning and ending
Some wait for one or the other
There are many but a few if any
Will aim for and realize their way
Pure conscious self, enthusiasm
It carries all far on eagle’s wings
Personalities and ego left behind
No more higher or lower, but now
Here in this very moment present
Hearts embrace the sun and moon.

“चैतन्य Chaitanya — Blues”

G# Mixolydian with D# TetraNa / A# Norcor inversionvichitra veena and double 3/4 violin — January 2022 — 9:47 — as loop on a separate tab

Chaitanya — meaning

Chaitanya (Sanskrit: चैतन्य) refers to awareness, consciousness, conscious self, intelligence, or pure consciousness, as well as energy and enthusiasm.

चैतन्य Chaitanya
Listening to the call of soul — December 2021 — St. Lucia — photo by Michael Sacchet

Courage it takes

Courage it takes
To be oneself
Fulfilled and free
To be all true
Standing up tall
Surfing the winds
That rip and rattle
To shake it lose
And liberate all
To be detached
Let go entirely
In the present
Moment upon
Moment again
Until here now
I am that I am
And that is all
As well as nothing
Ever and never.

“Blue Courage” — a Dorian mode blues medley

Dorian — 8-string guitar, singing saw, tingsha cymbals, crotales, gongs, and voice — 5:08 — as loop on a separate tab

Grammar of animacy

“I come here to listen, to nestle in the curve of the roots in a soft hollow of pine needles, to lean my bones against the column of white pine, to turn off the voice in my head until I can hear the voices outside it: the shhh of wind in needles, water trickling over rock, nuthatch tapping, chipmunks digging, beechnut falling, mosquito in my ear, and something more — something that is not me, for which we have no language, the wordless being of others in which we are never alone.”
Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, p. 48

Courage it takes to step out

Courage it takes
Looking out from the safety of woods into the cool winter world — January 2022 — Grächwil/Meikirch, Switzerland