I do not remember how I came across this term. I guess I was searching for something which is simplistic in its approach but quite nuanced in its meaning. I do not think there is an ideal definition for this word, as I have come across multiple meanings for it. But the gist of it seems to resonate with the idea that nothing truly beautiful is truly perfect.
When the Winter is beginning its slow retreat and is an exploration of all things soil, earth, wood, sky and water.
A lot of philosophers have spent a lot of time trying to understand this and explain this concept. But as you can imagine, this is probably the most difficult thing to explain. In fact, the explanation of it , in itself truly contradicts the actual meaning of the term itself. Because in trying to define it perfectly, it loses the core essence of it being nebulous and un explainable. It is the vagueness, the incompleteness, the strangeness that is the core of this concept.
I have spent many hours trying to finish some of my creative projects. It sometimes seems impossible to reach that point of being certain of its completeness. I do not know if others have the same feeling. It happens when there is a feeling that the present state of the project, whether it be a song or anything else, can be more perfect, more accurate, more refined. But at the same time there is that opposite pull, of reduction, subtraction, clearing, making space. All this works together , the push and pull somehow , is guided by a gestalt of the work itself. It is as if the work has its own energy and when I try to work against it, or shape it to more than it wants to be, it steers the process towards doing less, slowing down, zooming out, dimming the foreground, and bringing a background into gradual light, until the foreground and background seem to merge into a sum greater than the parts.
I always think that is why one of the meanings of WABI SABI is Everything is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”.
In this way it encapsulates the entire meaning of existence, not just human existence but the entirety of it all things as a whole, the aesthetic of things in existence.
Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall; Death is the fifth, and master of all. - Arctic Proverb
The artwork and the video are inspired by my long winding walks, through forests, sometimes during which I can spot the elusive wildlife that resides there, among the trees and shrubs. It portrays how wildlife blends into the scenery and becomes a part of it, and how it takes attention and patience to discern their presence in wilderness.
Composition notes
This composition is an offshoot of a different track I was working on. The beat seemed to call me to experiment with of a different feel, a different aesthetic that could work with it. There is quite a lot happening with the guitars in this track. The idea was to create spacious floating sonic backgrounds as well as the 'Wall of distortion' based deep textures. Therefore, there are multiple layers, clean, high gain, delayed, panned, doubled so as to create a kind of space between the channels, but also sometimes just reinforcing the middle completely in the hard rhythm sections.
I hope everyone finds their moments, of WABI SABI, in whatever that they do, in whatever they experience and they have a space for whenever it manifests in their lives.
Thank you for reading and listening.
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