Neuroscience Contemplative
Released August 30, 2016
Mycologue,
Montreal, Québec
Neuroscience contemplative is a personal musical reinterpretation of the ten chapters of the book Waking, Dreaming, Being by the Canadian philosopher Evan Thompson. Thompson’s work explores Consciousness and Self through a juxtaposition of contemporary neuroscience and philosophy of mind and the rich Indian philosophical tradition (mainly Buddhist, but not exclusively).
An analysis of myriad states of consciousness (wakefulness, hypnagogic sleep, regular dreams, and lucid dreaming, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, etc.) color ten tracks, each corresponding to a chapter of the book, which reveals how contemplative traditions can greatly enrich our scientific understanding of consciousness and self by proposing different ways to define and explore these notions, different from our current ones influenced by Cartesian dualism.
Neuroscience contemplative beyond the fact that it is a concept album, marks a shift from previous music by Mycologue. Leaving almost completely aside the sequencer as a compositional tool, the music of Neuroscience contemplative is interpreted almost entirely at the keyboard, often from improvisations. Moreover, by putting aside the IDM influences of previous albums, Mycologue offers this time a much more ambient album with a certain amount of experimentation and even some sporadic references (without irony) to the new age music . Each track offers an electronic subjective reinterpretation of the impressions left on Mycologue by the chapter to which it refers.
The album cover is a modified version by Mycologue of an image painted on the walls of Lukhang temple in Lhasa, Tibet.
* Complete reference of the book: Evan Thompson, “Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation and Philosophy”, Columbia University Press, New York, 2015
** A quote from the book is associated with each track. To access to the quote, open the track in another page by clicking on its title.
Tags: electronic experimental montréal ambient experimental electronic instrumental kosmische musik meditation new age psychedelic Montreal
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