a brittle ocean sings by Anqi Liu

recorded from a setting of my modular synthesizers. it is a single drone recorded one time through without stopping yet any afterward editing. entirely pure analogue signals.

it's part of the experiments of microscopic spaces of partials within modular synthesizers. along with "a train coming underneath the ocean floor; and they sing" (https://soundcloud.com/anqiliu/oceanog), are part of my phd qualified exams.

The virus brought pain, chaos, and struggles to people all over the world, and for a while, I started to realize how frustrated I was in a situation like this as an artist in that there was so little we could do. Little by little while I was doing this project, I became concentrated on deeply listening to and almost traveling in those microscope spaces the synthesizers built where I found tranquility.

In the ancient Tao philosophy, there was the belief of one’s mental situation and willpower did not change through the circumstances as well as the geographic constrains. Poets like Kangju Wang talked about a hermit who could only find solitude in the remote scenery was not the real hermit, and the real hermit found solitude and tranquility even from the extreme chaos. He used examples of Lao Tzu whose political proposition was to ask the ruler class including the emperor to take no actions but follow the most reasonable, realistic and natural situation of things, known as Wu Wei, worked in the political power center at his time, to further address the issue. At Wang’s time in Jin dynasty, many literati abandoned themselves in the remote landscapes to seek for the so-called innermost tranquility, but Wang inherited the idea from Tao regarding the real tranquility that came from one’s innermost spirits and this didn’t change through the variations of geographical locations as well as the concurrent circumstances. Wang’s contemporary, Yuanming Tao also addressed the similar idea when he wrote the poem of building his residence in the busiest streets with crowds and noises but in his innermost heart, he always kept the most pristine Shangri-La where he could solitarily witness the poetic scenery of a man picking up the chrysanthemums in the mountain mist floating above the sheen of the sunset. Hundreds years later, another poet, Juyi Bai further expanded Kangju Wang’s statement by separating three layers or phases regarding the hermit. Bai thought those who saw through life but often wanted to live in seclusion without disputes, noises and crowds by disarming and returning to the field and nature, as the first phase of the hermit and living in seclusion in the nosiest streets, ignoring the crowds and the chaos but seeking the tranquility inward from the inner heart as the middle phase of the hermit. The highest hermit was someone who was a figure with a strong voice in the power center, facing the filth and turmoil of the world, but still maintained a pure and tranquil state of mindset, kept the pristine original intension always in mind and knew who and where they were and came from. They lived a leisurely and contented life. This was the highest state of retreat. Such talents were real hermit, and it was the "Great Hermit”.