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Posted: 06-01-2003 04:41 Post subject: the Oblique Stategies

have any of you ever come across Brian Eno's esoteric card-based system for figuring out musical methods and decisions?

"These cards evolved from our separate observations of the principles underlying what we are doing. Sometimes they were recognized in retrospect (intellect catching up with intuition), sometimes they were identified as they were happening, sometimes they were formulated. They can be used as a pack (a set of posibilities being continuously reviewed in the mind) or by drawing a single card from a shuffled pack when a dilemma occurs in a working situation. In this case the card is trusted even if it appropriateness is quite unclear. They are not final, as new ideas will present themselves, and others will become self-evident."

here are a few links:

http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/obliques.html

http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/oblique/oblique.html

http://members.telocity.com/~bryrock2/eno/oblique.html

the "strategies" given on the cards are quite thought provoking, as simble as they may be

Posted: 06-01-2003 05:32 Post subject:

Heard of them. Downloaded a little program that gives out random ones. I don't write music, so its not much use. I don't really see anything esoteric about them.

My sig's from an Eno song.

Posted: 06-01-2003 05:33 Post subject:

well they're esoteric as far as music goes. it's a pretty unique device...after reading them i instantly wrote new song. it just gave me a slight notion of seeing things from a different angle

Posted: 09-01-2003 18:24 Post subject:

agreed synthwerk!

I dabble in a bit of music, and i've found them very interesting and useful indeed. I tend to refer to them when i've gotten to a point where im thinking "ok, so what now" or "hmm this isn't working". They really offer a fresh outlook onto whatever your doing.
I've got the palm(pilot) version which is really cool, id be happy to email it to anyone who's interested.

On the topic of music and it's making , does anyone else ever get that sensation, where you'll be kicking ideas around for a while, a couple of minutes to a few hours, sometimes it'll be days or longer, and you'll just have that one moment where the music goes "CLICK" and it just works .
I love that Smile

Posted: 09-01-2003 19:30 Post subject:

Posted: 09-01-2003 20:15 Post subject:

right on the mark!

my most interesting ideas come to me when i'm either jogging, walking, biking or making deliveries; never in my room when i am surround by my intruments and devices. when i am working on an idea and everything *clicks* it's like a chorus of angels singing "Halelluia"...it's like creating life without a partner.

the Oblique Strategies helped me break away from my obsessive writing methods. i'm too conscious of too many things when writing. it's a great mind cleanser. it gave me some fresh options like "using a cliche" or "do the opposite of what you do most"(and that's purposefully going off on forced tangents instead of letting things flow)

what kinda music do you make taras?

Posted: 09-01-2003 20:30 Post subject:

I'm messing about with a bit of Squarepusher-y jazzy drum and bass at the moment, but at present I have about 20 separate 1-to-3 minute-long projects. In music class at school a few years ago, my teacher's main complaint was that I never finished everything, and I hate it but it's true.

I also have a lot of "concepts" which I've been thinking about for a couple of months but haven't got around to doing yet. Weird concepts, a bit similar to what Godspeed You Black Emperor! do, but I still haven't got them clear enough in my mind to proceed with anything yet.

Perhaps the cards will help... use the power of the cards, young Taras!...

Posted: 09-01-2003 21:28 Post subject:

i have/had a tendency to start these big ideas and work them up and then just not finish them. i'm centering myself more on lyrics and melody right now. i have a new mantra too: "the song shall dictate the music." the two new songs i've just completed are quite different: one is a racing, slashing cello-driving piece(i composed it all on keyboard and am *hoping* to find some people who play strings)...quite romantic and passionate, yet sad...i'm quite pleased with the lyrics, i also wanna add some synthesizer noises to it to contrast with the "prettiness" of it; the other piece is quite dissonant, a really disquieting nocturnally-muffled piano...the lyrics have to do with the evening...i think i may set the beat with a sampled "tick-tock" because the lyrics have to do with the sun setting at 5 and the night progressing to 12. the oblique strategies guided me to keep it very simple and concetrate on the feeling.

Posted: 10-01-2003 08:02 Post subject:

Posted: 11-01-2003 11:03 Post subject:

Posted: 11-01-2003 18:23 Post subject:

i like how even the messages can be abjective...you can do the total opposite of what's on the card even if it says "do nothing". i think he understands the point where musicians get so stuck, ideas get incestuous and everything sounds like crap that you need an abstract and cleansing jumpstart.

Posted: 14-01-2003 18:20 Post subject: ObStrat

I have them on my palm pilot - they come in useful in all sorts of thinking situations, just to kick the mind into new tracks, I find the I Ching is also extraordinarily good for that too (also on the pilot).

Posted: 14-01-2003 19:08 Post subject:

My musical creativity is pretty durn negligible these days, but I've been known to use the strategies for writing and thinking of things to write about. Can be useful, can be wholly inapplicable - impossible to tell in advance. The advice can jar your mind out of whichever rut it's in, but the problem's interpretation. I mean, just getting told to 'leave more gaps' or something could translate to so many different things. Certainly interesting, though. A bit like the I Ching - cryptic enough that you can usually think of an application, so perhaps a way of uncovering hidden creative impulses by projecting them onto some external oracle?

Posted: 14-01-2003 20:56 Post subject:

it's cryptic and vague enough so that it's easily accessible by your subconscious. ideas such as "Honor thy error as a hidden intention." explains just that. "just carry on" is also interesting; you're using the cards as a way to "switch gears" but it then presents you with the notion to not switch gears. that little suggestion makes you change gears. it might even tell you to look at something like a "rut" as just a launch pad for change. the ObStrats really changed the way i write; it's made me less forced and hurried. i keep my approach minimal and my ideas open and varied. before, i was pretty complex with my approach and my ideas were often narrowed by my obsession with perfection.

my favourite ObStrat "fortunes" are the one's that go against the deck's logic.

Posted: 14-01-2003 22:35 Post subject:

Thing is, I'd hate to surrender my music to an outside source Wink

I don't think i find the clock thing. Or I do, when writing music grouptastically in my band. But generally, even though i write songs, I start to record them and do them over until they are completely different and not how i wanted them to sound (but better)