Inspired by Wholeness and Emptiness philosophy, Silentaria manifests its slogan: “The Voice of Emptiness”. But how can an Electronic New Age fusion music with elements of Progressive Rock claim to be so?
Deep down inside, in places we do not tell our cool friends about, there is a part of us that loves to live different, question the beliefs fearlessly without worrying about “What comes if I do so?”. Silentaria music is intended to become in contact with that potentially rebellious part and awaken the rebel who is hiding somewhere inside.
People often consider rebellion as a destructive and vicious objection in outer world against political or social norms, but it can be a form of constructive self-criticism when it is applied and interpreted in raising questions against restrictive beliefs and mindsets.
The rebellion concept has played a significant role in the evolution of contemporary music. Concepts and attitudes along with costumes and hairstyles have expressed various forms of rebellion in music history. Rixa White, a long-haired man in plain white, hiding his face behind a white mask is Silentaria’s iconic image. This mysterious image demonstrates Emptiness on the one hand and visualizes Rebellion against all masks that we wear in life on the other hand. “One mask to hide them all” as he says in his autobiography or perhaps he needs a mask to play a true story he carries within, as Oscar Wilde noted: “Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
It still seems a very odd move to present rebellion concept in New Age music and Rixa White might be the first New Age artist that has been raising questions and encouraging his listeners to activate an inner revolution instead of forcing them to relaxation and serenity. In fact, Silentaria invites listeners to experience the life as it is and opposes presenting any step-by-step instruction or belief system since persuading a particular constant direction will lead to conformity and obedience.
By observing and releasing the deep chronic sense of insecurity and dissatisfaction, rather than escaping, controlling, suppressing or denying it, the inner space will be unoccupied for Emptiness to descend. So, fear not and let the pure experience happen and observe both frustration and frenzy, witness them all and embrace the infinite possibilities that are unfolding from Emptiness.
Listening to multi-layered yet harmonious music of Silentaria opens a door to silence and as music depends on silence to distinguish sound, Rebellion becomes the key to Emptiness.
Listen to Silentaria’s Rebellious music; hear the quiet voice of Emptiness within.
If a collection of music in this century is a reflection of its moods, this one is a close approximation. “Mirage” in particular exemplifies how difficult it is becoming to discern what is real from what is imagined. The skillful and yet unfettered imagination brings about real things with a speed that is unmatched, and usually what is impossible today becomes a stark-deafening reality tomorrow.
“Oceans of Illusion” seems to delight in unreality but one could easily form bodily patterns that match or succumb to its rhythms, as modern dance can be both resonant with and antagonistic to musical themes.
“Vital Doubts” celebrates doubt as a fundamental emotion of the twenty-first century: it picks up the tempo as if to pay homage to it.
“Curtains Over Eyes”: if modern experience is like a drape, to look behind it is not only necessary but inevitable. The temptation cannot be overcome. The background includes a bouncing ball rhythm, which drops with metronomic uniformity and then ends abruptly. This piece is proclaiming loud and clear that there is nothing periodic in this century: one will always be fooled by any seeming regularities.
“Sorrowful Truth”: Here the music is seduced by gravity. It is pulled down to earth just like the truth always is: raw, naked, and difficult to accept at times, but always beautiful just like the melodies in this piece.
Much more malevolent is “Deceived”: the music twists the psyche just like lies always do, however they are crafted and whatever their magnitude.
“Real Fantasia” is a temporary diversion from the superposition of monotony and exhilaration that so characterizes modern existence.
Whispers wake the listener in “Consciousness” and stay steady throughout. They are gentle nudges that however signal the burden/joy of decision-making and its consequences for the conscious being.
“Diversion” from chosen paths is the rule rather than the exception today: this piece pushes the listener to accepting this stark realization.
“Echoes From East” again is a reminder that repetitiveness is an anathema and an impossibility in the twenty-first century. There is so much activity, so much work and play, that they become indistinguishable.
After a long silence, Rixa White introduced Silentaria, an Electronic New Age musical project, in late 2010.
Silentaria is a made-up name with two parts of “Silent” and “aria”, indicating a quite hymn or tune. The combination is pointing to the silence of human inner side as a temple of silence which is the source of every sound. The questions are “What does Silentaria music signify?” and “How does the music communicate with its listeners?”.
Although Silentaria music is categorized in New Age, Rixa’s music is neither therapeutic nor related to any belief system at all. Tracks like “Lament of Being”, “The Ruined Innocence”, “What’s Real?” and “Vital Doubts” bring up the suspicion that this music is a kind of revenge against usual soft titles like the most relaxing New Age music in the universe.
Silentaria’s multi-dimensional fusion music benefits from emotional melodies and diverse instruments and devices to create multi-layered themes with cinematic atmospheres, progressive orchestrations, polyphonic harmonies and hypnotic rhythms. This emphasizes elements of mystery, sorrow, epic, rebellion and energy, alike a melody of the whole and releases the inner frustration to embrace infinite possibilities unfolded from emptiness. It brings Rixa’s vision to mind which is inspired by the Wholeness and Emptiness philosophy and manifests in Silentaria’s slogan: “The Voice of Emptiness”.
Beside aforementioned elements, Silentaria music encourages a pure experience of life. It insists on facing the life burden as it is and not pretending that everything is fine outside while suffering inside. By this way, we do not need to hide our true-self and stop throwing ourselves into good mood. Rixa White believes that music can be a cure, if we let ourselves into a pure experience beyond our conceptual beliefs, observe the trap instead of ignoring it and become a witness, a Silent Witness.
The last not the least, it might be impossible to get caught in usual New Age music monotony while listening to Silentaria music. It turns from soothing instrumental (Farewell, Sorrowful Truth) into cinematic Epic (One Last Quest, Return of the Lost) and from energizing Electronic (Beyond Destiny, Real Fantasia) into thundering Rock (Deceived, Curtains over Eyes). But it is quite easy to surround yourself by this hybrid music that demands your sub-conscious for exploring strange sonic shores.
“There are Oceans, Endless Oceans, Oceans of Illusion.”
“Oceans of Illusion” , the 3rd track in “What’s Real?” album, is the featured track of this week. This article gives a brief musical and conceptual understanding of the track.
For detailed information about “Oceans of Illusion” click here .
Music
“Oceans of Illusion” has been produced in Electronic New Age genre with elements of ambience. The first four parts of this instrumental track are low-beat, containing mellow and soft Classic instruments and Strings harmonized with Electronic Synths, while the final part starting from 04:32 mark is an up-beat piece and fades out in Guitar and Flute with drums in background.
Following the album pattern, “Oceans of Illusion” points to the blind beliefs in unreal man-made concepts. The illusive atmosphere of the track demonstrates an awakening moment to explore the depth of illusion that widely surrounds us.
The track position in album storyline emphasizes the fact that only by constant questioning “What’s Real?” (second track in album), we may see the well-kept truth.
Concept
A descriptive meaning for the word “Illusion” is a distortion in reality, shared by most people (Wikipedia). However, from a point of view, illusion can be interpreted as a belief about a person, a thing or a concept that is blind and different from reality.
Media frequently injects blind beliefs about people and things into our mind. So, the new beliefs implant themselves in our mind particularly when it is hard or impossible to test or experience them.
Gradually, we consider these beliefs as truth and never challenge them. And the more essential they are, the more unreal decisions we make during shaping our lives, our relationships and our characters and this ends up in an unreal life.
Another type of illusions is general belief in man-made concepts. Concepts like perfection, wealth, power, success, social position, possession, becoming someone, safety and security, … are too popular to doubt them. In spite of the necessity of these man-made concepts for a social life, they cannot help us in developing an inner-relationship with ourselves and we remain alien to our true-self.
Initially, our parents and later schools, teachers, friends and media multiply the list of illusions. Even we ourselves extend it by implanting some new illusions to our unconscious belief system.
We have breathed and believed in these illusions for so long that questioning them becomes a challenge of a life time. They control our decisions, interests, relationships and even our last will and testament. We are the slaves of our own illusions and they actually rule our lives.
“A fish cannot be aware of the ocean, before jumping up out of water.“
Only few people are aware of the illusions that shape their lives, as its trace cannot be easily found. But we all will face the choice between what is right and what is easy. Although drowning in illusion is inevitable, when the time comes, we can at least jump up out of the ocean, even for a moment to become aware of it.
Conclusion
“Oceans of Illusion” is a sad story but not a disappointing or pessimistic one.
It is an invitation to observe the illusion, even for a moment.
Silentaria | An Electronic New Age musical project by Rixa White 