Fresh and creative as they come, Jason Koth's music creative a reflective space that leaves listener's feeling refreshed after hearing one of his work's. Incorporating both improvisation and electronics, What Peace May Be Found in Silence has given us the chance to explore music that is as much about creating a sonic world as it is about playing notes and rhythms.
What inspired your piece?
Specifically Max Erhmann's poem "Desiderata," and the writings and lyrics of singer/songwriter Jon Foreman. Both have had a profound influence on my life, and I view the music that I create as simply an extension of my being. Musically, I was listening to a lot of ambient and underground electronic music; notably Brian Eno, Max Richter, Jon Hopkins, and Nils Frahm, which filtered into much of the surface texture. On a deeper level, my love of hymns and spiritual music factored into the simplicity of the piece overall.
How did this inspiration influence the compositional process for you?
As is true with most of my music, I do not force myself to do a specific technique or aesthetic focus with any piece that I write. The resulting music is simply an extension of myself transferred into sound. The Erhmann poem is huge with this in mind. The title of the piece derives from the opening lines: "Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence." To me, this is a summation of how I try to live life. Every day there can be a million things against what I believe in, but staying grounded in these convictions (the silence) brings a temporary, but necessary, sense of peace.
Is there any aspect of the piece that you felt was specifically suited for Slipstream?
All four of the musicians in Slipstream are definitely true artists in the music that they play. I knew that pretty much anything that I threw at them would come out sounding ten times better than I had envisioned. I wanted to give them a certain amount of free reign (most notably the improvisation section in the middle of the piece), so in a sense they became a part of the entity that I had started. I knew that they could play intensely technical music, but this piece more highlights the other end (and equally challenging) of that, working on the macro level.
What inspired your piece?
Specifically Max Erhmann's poem "Desiderata," and the writings and lyrics of singer/songwriter Jon Foreman. Both have had a profound influence on my life, and I view the music that I create as simply an extension of my being. Musically, I was listening to a lot of ambient and underground electronic music; notably Brian Eno, Max Richter, Jon Hopkins, and Nils Frahm, which filtered into much of the surface texture. On a deeper level, my love of hymns and spiritual music factored into the simplicity of the piece overall.
How did this inspiration influence the compositional process for you?
As is true with most of my music, I do not force myself to do a specific technique or aesthetic focus with any piece that I write. The resulting music is simply an extension of myself transferred into sound. The Erhmann poem is huge with this in mind. The title of the piece derives from the opening lines: "Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence." To me, this is a summation of how I try to live life. Every day there can be a million things against what I believe in, but staying grounded in these convictions (the silence) brings a temporary, but necessary, sense of peace.
Is there any aspect of the piece that you felt was specifically suited for Slipstream?
All four of the musicians in Slipstream are definitely true artists in the music that they play. I knew that pretty much anything that I threw at them would come out sounding ten times better than I had envisioned. I wanted to give them a certain amount of free reign (most notably the improvisation section in the middle of the piece), so in a sense they became a part of the entity that I had started. I knew that they could play intensely technical music, but this piece more highlights the other end (and equally challenging) of that, working on the macro level.
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