Asian Fans

Liner notes

The Archive´s Vault

Liner notes

The Missing Link 2007

Liner notes

Charlotte fait du Jazz

BWV 1130

Duo Between the Worlds

Transports   

The Inverted Tree    

           

www.gilles-zimmermann.com

About (my) music

I always felt like an alien with my musician colleagues, especially in music genres invented by others, as I had made my own building from the beginning.  

I do like many styles of music, but when I play, I make my own, because this is the only way to be authentic, my French roots drive me to push the rules as far as possible, though staying modal, rhythmic but not only, between the 3 worlds, i.e. between spiritual, psychic and physic worlds, and cultures and times.

Mostly instrumental because I´m not particularly gifted at writing lyrics, which suits me fine, as I have a very good reason for it. (I explain why in my newsletters).

With an open mind, through music I try to initiate thoughts that will emulate the listener to make his own "world", still surprising him/her and opening new "dimensions" along the way.

My real home is live on a stage anywhere.

Most of the music we´re force-fed today is kept as simple as possible, thus lowering the general intellectual level of people (6th grade level?). So is my music literally loaded with concepts and symbols, as in a film score without pictures but where the listener makes his own (or not). Most of my ideas come from my discoveries in metaphysics.

I understand the marketing need of having a "special target audience", but as my listeners are between 8 and 70, and all say they felt listening to my music was well worth the effort (yes, this is not background music), if you really want a genre for Spotify, then I opt for the "inspirational" definition for the time being.

Or: open-minded music.

Open-minded music?

I could also call it neo-classical maximalist, as it opens to new strains of ideas over a sensuous experience. Mind means here the spirit, not the soul.

Neo because it´s rather new

Classical because I use classical harmony, with a balance of rhythm, harmony and melody, and the exception that I put all instruments on an equal level of quality, like, for example, I´ll use a bass line which will have its function of stabilizing the harmony, but allowing it to also participate in the melodic level. Classical also because it is not entirely traditional: what can the "righteous" do when the basics have been destroyed?

Maximalist, because it tends („ism“) to maximalize the effects wanted (aiming at the Infinite is maximal enough, isn´t it?). Maximalist also in the way that if I hear another line behind some others, I´ll try to manifest it more, even if it means adding another line to 4 others (listen to my composition „The City“, with up to 12 coinciding lines and no chords over a 12/8 rhythm).

The advantage being that one can discover new things even after years of listening (and when performed live, improvisation is part of and will multiply the process of interpretation). Maximalist because a musical idea will be developped to its natural end, regardless of the compulsory 3 minutes on radio before the next advertising block, or the supposed limited attention span of our contemporaries.

There is a disadvantage though: Comparing the obligatory mp3 format of the Internet with wav 16 bits for cds, I am appalled by the loss of quality and depth, but I have to live with it, therefore please try to listen to my music in the 16 bits cd format.

 

Style is the man, and by no means the essence of art

A.K. Coomaraswamy

 

Michel bougie 600 - DSC00382

 

Nevertheless, real music is live, as recorded music misses its most important ingredients.

Real music supposes musician(s), playing instrument(s), AND an audience, at a given place and time. If one of these elements is missing, music is at best frozen, at the worst a sacrilege.

Unfortunately, I have to record my music to give people an idea of what it is, but they should know that it is not the real live thing. Sorry, this is modernity.

Musica sine metaphysica nihil

What´s that?

Now I understand the word (metaphysics = "beyond nature“) might sound over the top, it is, actually. But only because this subject has been thrown out with the bathwater, replaced with the illusion of modern ordinary life, and disinformed.

 

did you?

 

For those who still give it some kind of reality, metaphysics is at best a mundane philosophical hobby, at the worst an alibi to justify some creed built upon a confusion between spiritual and psychic levels.

Nevertheless it really is the most important thing in anybody´s life, and indeed very practical, especially when it comes to manifesting art (being human is an art). In particular applied to music, metaphysics can help to establish a hierarchy of emotions and their nuances, for the betterment of the piece of art and its effect on the listener.

There is no uncertainty in metaphysics, it comprehends and thus explains everything one needs, though sometimes it hurts (but did you need it in the first place?). Approaching Truth helps thus to understand and correct errors.

The Primary Cause is always accessible to anybody interested, and as it is timeless, even a so-called prehistoric mind did understand and use it.

Or a child

Bébé Gilles Zimmermann vers sepia- 2 1100

 

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