crucial

Space is the Place

In music production building a mix is like building a fire. You need space between the logs for the air to get in; the sound elements need to have space or it doesn't appear that they are moving at all. If everything is compressed and smushed then it becomes a single sheet of texture and everything sounds small. The way to get big sounds is to give them enough space to appear as big (another trick: put a very small sound next to it to show how big the big object is. The space in my track Ontological Ground of Being is achieved by using very small sounds to define the more distant horizon. Its because I believe that the space is that big and when I put in the little sounds it indicates that for you).

Another reason why I like Berlin : space. To think, to exist, to examine my self and my thoughts.



White space is important in design and in interfaces. It lets the viewer clearly perceive without having to do the work of separating smeared together elements. Visual clutter occupies part of the mind that should be free to consider more important things in life.

New York is cluttery.

The listener can only have emotions if you give him/her enough space to have them in. If you have filled every nook and cranny then there is nowhere for the listener's feeling to dwell. Feelings do dwell: they are like perfume floating off of the sound objects. They exist in the space left just after a Loud Thing happened, they happen when your attention is drawn to the trail of spacial effects that the percussion leaves.

"Its the space between the notes" - Miles Davis

You can tell a lot about the musician by listening to their attitude towards space, to the void, to the undefined Out There, to the Other. Its how the high hat or snare leaves off, what its attitude towards the non-sound is. Did the musician fling it up joyously like the universe of space is a world of golden dub ? Is the universe of space dangerous and needs to be kept at bay, observed cooly through your sunglasses as you ride your hummer through the ghetto; clipped snare, just enough to show the threat and muscle. Are you so excited about the track that you just let that sound go in a careless frenzy so you can go back down below to find more exciting sounds to show us ?

I'm not talking about reverb here. I love how even with just a 909 kick and high hat and the mixing board you can get things as different as Chicago ghetto trax, UK Garage, Angolan Kuduro, house, techno or mnml.

As any Buddhist will tell you, Space is the Place. Form is Emptiness; Emptiness is Form. Shunyata is the original word for Emptiness, and its better translated as Space in the sense of a screen or a stage : a space where something can happen.

These Things in life (material objects, obsessions, projects, things to do) are just there to give form to the Space. Without Things, we wouldn't be able to notice the Space. The heart dwells in the space, not in the things. Don't get too caught up in Things; but Things, when properly laid out are how you summon the Heart and allow it to exist. The Mind is not in space-time at all, but it is revealed here.

Links and things

I am timeblind on myspace. thanks for the add.

I am crucialfelix on del.icio.us which is where I link to all the interesting shit I come across.

I put my photos up on flickr

NYC events iCal : anything that looks good.

Berlin events (parties, shows, vernissage, films): subscribe to google calendar / iCal

When I listen to music at home it all gets echoed onto here and on my Last.fm page. Most of the time I don't use that cause I don't want you to see me obsessively listening to my own mixes, really bad working titles.

You can read some posts I thought were interesting from various feeds.

I've been doing the Dance Music Business Resource since 1995, back when it was on hyperreal.org. Articles and info for artists and small labels. Recently I've been posting interesting industry news items and adding some new content about downloads etc.