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The Higher Earth ( Paulo Alex A. Silva) steps up to the plate again. The composition in question is We Are Contemporary, Gentlemen. The Higher Earth’s music is always a challenge to review, but never dull. His comments to the world are just as cryptic as his music, which is saying alot. Here we go.
We start out softly, lilting... delicate notes played against a pivot point. Next some blue notes appear, with the characteristic lack of time or consonance that Higher Earth floods his music with. We move again into some semblance of structure, sometimes pretty, always disturbing. There is a pregnant pause followed by some errant banging out of notes at war with themselves again. Upon reflection, I felt that the composer paused because he realized he was moving toward structure, melody and harmony and had to correct his course. The pivot point returns and the delicate melody tries to resurface, and succeeds at points. I’ll have to say that at times the music completely took me away and became very visual. I’m a silent movie fan, and this felt like I was watching scenes from an old film with a modern soundtrack. There are times when the artist’s composition seems to want to achieve greatness, and then comes the attack of the no-meter, bang on the keys, notes-a-tumbling wall of sound. Ignore the artist’s statements and comments on his page and message board; just based on listening to his work, I feel like I’m listening to someone’s descent into madness. The latter half of this piece seemed to work for me more (I’m not sure on what level). It is still at odds with itself, yet seems to be trying to rise to the occasion...except for the little interruption by the return of the demented, hopping notes, again POUNDED out with passion!
Upon reading back over what I had written so far, I made an interesting discovery. I assume most readers can gather what I think of The Higher Earth’s taste in musical structure, or lack thereof. However, I read how many times I had written about how the music made me feel and ultimately that’s what we, as composers, try to do...make people feel. This music is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea; but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard music that I liked and it played in the background while neither I nor anyone else took notice of it. It was familiar, friendly, and safe...and probably boring, too. We need that kind of music. We need all kinds of music for every facet of our lives. BUT...we need music also that makes us think, makes us feel, makes us argue with each other on this site whether something is good or not. This music bothered me, disturbed me, confused me, angered me, escaped me, and insulted me. Good for it! Maybe The Higher Earth accomplished exactly what he set out to do. Most composers can only hope they achieve that goal. Sometimes we need madness in our lives.
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