Follow SoundOkapi and others on SoundCloud.
In ancient Greece ataraxia was a tranquil, untroubled condition of the soul, by some philosophical schools achieved by not judging anything. I have named these sound-sculptures Ataraxia 1-4 in the hope that it would bring calm to anyone listening to them. And because it might involve refraining from judging in order to open yourself for the mix of different sounds.
All 4 Ataraxias have a common structure: I have recorded three loops of different lengths and just let them play out for about half an hour. That way you hear the same elements coming back time after time, but the relation between the elements is not the same, and the resulting soundscape varies this way over time. I wanted a very diverse range of sounds, not a family of related sounds, so in the Ataraxias short and long sounds live together, soft and harsh sounds, light and rumbling sounds and so on. However, in the series Ataraxia 2 is a bit more consistent than the others - and Ataraxia 3 is wild...
You can of course listen to the music while just relaxing and letting your mind wander, but what I myself really like to do is for example:
1: find an easily recognizable element and notice when it comes again - how long time passes between the returns?
2: listen to the different surroundings of this returning element - do the surroundings change the perception of the elements character?
3: find two easily recognizable elements and notice if they are coming closer to each other from return to return
4: focus on the backgrund, the small, inconspicuous sounds - are there both short and long sounds in the background?
5: focus on a frequency area (bass, mid or treble) or on the left or right channel - which sounds live there?
This way I can go on and on exploring the musical landscapes, that at first might seem a little messy, then perhaps boringly repetitive. I hope you too will enjoy this special kind of music - and that it will help you achieve ataraxia 🙂
PS: For the nerds: all sounds come from the Haken Continuumini synth and the looping station used is Boss RC-300.