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Five Seasons’ utilises archive recordings from my sessions collected over the past four decades. Treated piano, cello, violin, saxophone, harmonicas, guitars and voices, have been blended together to reflect the seasons and the elements in a series of cinematic sound collages.
‘I felt the desire to create an assemblage of works unencumbered with words - a series of sound-scapes to allow the listener to create their own imagery.’
Each season is associated with the elements: Spring with Wood, Summer with Fire, Late Summer with Earth, Autumn with Water, Winter with Metal.
When in harmony the elements support each other in a creation cycle: Water nourishes wood, wood feeds fire, fire creates earth, earth produces metal, and metal produces water through condensation. But when the elements are out of balance, they have the capacity to damage each other. In the destructive cycle, water extinguishes fire, wood separates earth, metal chops wood, fire melts metal, and earth absorbs water.
And holding this all together is Cosmic Glue.
The results are a departure from my song-writing, but since owning my first reel to reel in the late 1950s, I have been obsessed with the power of sound to convey images often more vivid and engaging than image itself. I grew up in an age of radio, where the simplest audio device could convey the razing of a city to the ground by fiery inferno, or the other worldly sounds of life on the edges of our universe. To create a work unfettered with words or song forms has been a liberating experience and one, I hope the listener will enjoy.
We look for equilibrium, balance
Firstly, we hear the five seasons broken down into six parts, followed by ‘Cosmic Glue’, the Great Universal that binds everything together.
To break from the confines of the accepted ‘four’ seasons I have delved into folklore where these five seasons link organically with five elements that create the circle of life.
Spring is by no means a benign season. There is turbulence at work beneath the soil, violence in the rising sap of the new shoots and the tight wound leaves.
Spring is the time for us to reach outward, develop deeper roots and remain flexible in the wind. Spring is the season of ferocious activity, of re-birth, of new beginnings.
SPRING – WOOD
Spring, and its associated element wood, is a season of re-birth, a time of turmoil and violence and new beginnings.
SUMMER – FIRE
Fire is about warmth, transformation and dynamic, sparkling movement. Summer brings fire through the heat of the sun, long days and energized bodies. “In the five elements cycle, the fire phase describes a stage of peak power,” writes Gail Reichstein in Wood Becomes Water: Chinese Medicine in Everyday Life (Kodansha, 1998). “Fire, then, is about peaking – reaching a maximal stage of activity.”
If you have an excess of fire, eat cooling foods, such as cucumber, sprouts, watermelon, apples, lemons and limes
Set up power lunches and meet with friends, because fire is linked to social connectivity
LATE SUMMER – EARTH
Earth is unique among the five elements in that it corresponds to two unusual time periods. First, it’s related to the short season called “Indian summer,” those last warm, light-filled days in September or October, just before the cool weather sets in. Second, earth is linked to times of change throughout the year: those few weeks between seasons in which autumn changes to winter, winter to spring and spring to summer.
Earth is a stabilizing force during these times of transition. After all the activity of spring and summer, nature’s time to grow and bloom, earth can help us get centered and balanced in late summer as we organize ourselves for the autumn harvest and begin to prepare ourselves for winter, the season of rest.
AUTUMN – METAL
Autumn brings the harvest of crops, shorter days and preparation for winter. The metal element, from rough ore to sparkling gemstones, symbolizes the process of refinement and its resulting products. In this season, it’s time to make sure everything pure and necessary is used and maximized, and that anything unnecessary or wasteful is eliminated.
The Chinese do not include the element of air in the five-element system as Western systems do. But metal has similar associations. “For example, both air and metal energies concern mental and spiritual activities, including the workings of the mind, the intellect and communication,” writes Janice MacKenzie inDiscovering the Five Elements: One Day at a Time (Wind Palace Publishing, 2002). In fact, she continues, “The inability to be open to new ideas or the rigid holding on to old thoughts and useful information could both point to an imbalance in metal.”
. Autumn is associated with late afternoon and evening time, and getting ready for sleep.
WINTER – WATER
Winter, the cold and dark season, is a time of inward reflection, rest and restoration. It is associated with water, the element of pooling, tranquility and flow. In the body, the water element is connected with circulation of the blood, perspiration, tears, the bladder and, most significantly, the kidney.
Winter may be a time to conserve energy, but that doesn’t mean you need to stay completely still. Like the element of water that moves downhill, we can learn to find the path of least resistance and to practice fluid movement. Tai chi, qigong, yoga and dance are great practices for the winter months.
Associated with introspection, receptivity and nighttime, winter is a particularly good season to pay attention to your dreams. Try writing about them or processing them through other creative activities.
. Winter is associated with introspection and receptivity.
Paying attention to one element at a time is a wonderful way to begin noticing their effects. But, ultimately, you should balance all five elements within your body, because they work together in a rich, complex system.
When in harmony, for example, the elements support each other in a creation cycle: Water nourishes wood, wood feeds fire, fire creates earth, earth produces metal, and metal produces water (through condensation). But when the elements are out of balance, they have the capacity to damage each other. In the destructive cycle, water extinguishes fire, wood separates earth, metal chops wood, fire melts metal, and earth absorbs water.
Making efforts to find just a little more balance with the elements in your body can go a long way toward better health and vitality. So go ahead, go elemental, and reap the healthy rewards.
credits
released January 18, 2018
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