On a starry night in the 17th century, mathsyatician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal is lying on his back in an open field. Surrounded by a forest, he stares into the darkness of the sky above him. There, Pascal sees a shadowy landscape floating above him, marked by a cluster of nebulous lights, blistering orbs, and shifting textures. Beyond the realm of the Earth’s atmosphere, the dance of the infinite cosmos greets him. Far from a source of affirmation, however, the experience of infinitude for Pascal instead inspires only cosmic terror. Alone, he makes a confession:
I see those frightful spaces of the universe which surround me, and I find myself tied to one corner of this vast expanse, without knowing why I am put in this place rather than in another, nor why the short time which is given me to live is assigned to me at this point rather than at another of the whole eternity which was before me or which shall come after me. I see nothing but infinites on all sides, which surround me as an atom and as a shadow which endures only for an instant and returns no more. All I know is that I must soon die, but what I know least is this very death which I cannot escape.
Pascal’s black invocation of cosmic indifference summons an anxiety that is both primordial and unavoidable. Aboard this floating mass of rock we term “Earth,” our homeworld is surrounded on all sides by an infinite extension of blackness, speckled here and there by the presence of planets and moons, all of which are apparently indifferent to what Carl Sagan memorably called, our “pale blue dot.” Did Pascal have a vision of himself floating on this pale dot in the midst of darkness during that lonely night in 17th century France? Without contact from another solar system, did the indifference of the universe create a cosmic agoraphobia, forcing him back to the enclosure of the Earth, before finally making him utter those immemorial words: “The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me”?
Pascal’s eternal silence has not been left behind in the 17th century. The recent passing of a giant asteroid a mere 201,700 miles from the surface of Earth is a gentle reminder that we do not need to leave our homeworld to venture into outer space: we are already in the void of cosmic space. And likewise, the void of cosmic space is in us, encroaching upon our everyday existence in every dimension. Ours is not a unique planet, and out there lurks volcanoes, ancient riverbeds, and the incipient evidence of extinct life hibernating in the ruins of outer space. Amongst the cultural products of this cosmic anxiety, recent films such as Another Earth (2011) and Lars von Trier’s Melancholia (2011) confront the possibility of rouge planets shadowing and mirroring the boundaries of Earth, thus reinforcing our radical contingency as cosmic entitles.1 In each case, the place of Earth is exposed in its vulnerability via a cosmic view of life, a view that reinforces the sense that human life is fundamentally lost in the silence of the cosmos.
The Darkness is different than the light. Here in the dark, call it the blackness, call it the darkness, the language has no term for it. The Darkness has a different texture, and this is so real, you can feel that you can almost touch it. The vacuum, of course its not a vacuum, it’s The Cosmos. It’s very energetic and has a lot of messages, things in it. It’s very rich, and in the sunlight, I have the sun like the sunlight coming from behind me, to light the darkness. There is nothing there, I guess there is nothing there for the eye to percieve, to have the light to come back but there must be something that is sending the light back in a way because, The Darkness is different in the daylight than at night time. I describe it as a water it’s infinitely flexable, it’s infinitely mobile, and it doesn’t resist in any way. Well it does a little. And it resists you enough to like be able to reach out and touch it. its like a weight of water, its like a very thin water. Except you don’t percieve it as a temperature and its not wet. That’s all. But it’s like, it’s like it has a meaning to it. It’s like if you were to move through it, it would be something. Be something with like hands, you could…
…Space is my calling, one component to that is, is wanting to have things happen which aren’t usual. Wanting to have perceptions of a different reality than you’re used too. Even wanting illusions to occur and thinking that they are fun. It’s wanting to have an experience. An experience of the real thing and an experience of the unreal things. And so you go into Space with a looseness. But it gets back too the idea if you want to understand Space, you have to give yourself over too it. If you resist becoming a space creature, its gonna hurt. I think one reason it goes easy for me is because I want things to happen. I want Space to effect me. I want it to move me. I want it to do things to me. I think it is compatable with my philosophy of there is only one thing constant in our universe, and that is change. And that is continue evolution in all the forms. Physical, spiritual, any way you want. Change is the only constant. I am the Cosmos, I am part of this process that I am doing. I’m part of it. I’m molecules. My molecules are those molecules. The stars that die, that’s me. It’s a real art how to draw yourself perfectly.
(...) Space and Music. Two of my greatest loves. Could there be a better connection? Rotating two incomprehensible force, being tightly entwined around each other. Constantly. Forever. And ever. Without beginning and without end (...)
I was walking a very long way of learning and experiencing many aspects of music. I wanted to find my own musical "I". Find myself. Get to know myself. Understand myself. Now when I know who I am, why, for what, and why here and not in the other place, I think that I certainly wouldn't get here without a big impact of the Music on my life. For all these years I was looking for the sounds that would be able to describe me, my whole measure, which doesn't require a specific language and forms, and which allows to express everything I can't express with paint on canvas, beautifully sounding words and perfectly outlined letters. Something which in itself is everything. So I discovered music. It is one that fastens everything together. Awesome, powerful and dangerous force ... There's only music. All around, outside of the clouds and the gravity of the planet there is music. Music of the Universe. This music has always existed and will always exist being created by the movements of the planets, gas explosions on the surface of the stars ... Music beautiful, mysterious and introducing the trance ecstasy, but also sinister, incomprehensible and disturbing. There is no other medium that could express and visualize or illustrate so many conflicting states of mind at the same time. People hear and can sense it everyone even though they are often unaware of this. Some, however, have in them the capacity to process music. Just as not every entity is able to understand the sounds coming from space, so not every person is able to understand a particular creator. Music had been created by some and adressed to another. That only those "some people" can be understood by those "others" and no one else. Each author can only be understood by the relevant "receiver". There is still so many opportunities to express yourself in so many ways and methods and everyone is different although still identical at the same time (...)
(...) everyone is looking for answers to the questions "Who am I? Where I come from? Where am I going?" and everyone has its own unique kind of searching for an answer, his own way. I also was looking for. I had fortunated enough to found the right answers. And after many years of observation I noticed that all of my questions and answers, all the desires and hidden emotions had been associated with the Cosmos (...)
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" - historic words uttered by Neil Armstrong July 20, 1969, during the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. This great man started a part which had changed everything, and for ever in the hearts and minds of those who remained on Earth, and were looking eagerly on live transmission inside their TVs - exploration of the human species in the area outside of established ambit by the gravity of their own planet and clouds obscure the view on the Unknown. So then, as now many can only dream of hanging in a vacuum and admiring the World ruled by laws outside the comprehension of the human mind, while they staring at the sky on a starless winter night or observing distant galaxies, stars and planets through a telescope, just like me. How amazing is Cosmos ... invoking so many emotions, so many feelings, provoking questions and forcing to look for answers. Dangerous questions and shocking answers. Questions, questions, questions ... Needing answers (...)
Just as 43 years ago, Neil Armstrong set foot on the other ground than the earth, so I also put the first small step. After many years I spent on communing with the beauty of The Music I had decided to pay homage to the artists who have contributed to achieving by me mental and spiritual maturity and which result is what I am now. This would not be possible without their support. So I founded this blog to return the favor with something more than just buying their albums. Music is not a prostitute, whose you pay for a shorter or a little longer moment of pleasure in her company. I know that the blog is not much, but it makes me even slightly to drown out the conscience, demanding a fair retribution for all the years that I spent in the surroundings of masterpieces that came from the hands and minds of people who understand me, and who very often even do not know me personally.
I am creating it so others also have the opportunity to experience the incredible art such as recordings posted here by me. I realize that in the current era where almost everything at breakneck speed is spreading on a massive scale throughout the world is available to everyone and free of charge through a clever invention called 'the torrent', but I also believe that those few who will go here , or even a small group of them think like me. That they are not worshipers of audio in mp3 and who can properly appreciate the artist, whose work or his they are supposedly have for the feelings and which triggers particular emotions in them which they so persistently searched in music. Those who believe that matters more than just a momentary fun with the stolen property in the form of truncated audio in mp3 format. Listen to music that they treat like a ritual celebrated in solitude. Something intimate ... Something more ... Sometimes just a little sacrifice to get out of reach as it seemed album. There is no substitute for listening to the first album.
I created this blog to give people the possibility of communing or at least aware of this incredibly powerful force that is elitist music subgenre dedicated to cosmos. In particular ambient and black metal, because I think that there is no better way to show the power of music swirling around the cosmos swirling around it as just by a process in which the ambient and black metal are spinning mutually around each others. So let me take you on a journey to a place that knows no time or place. Having no beginning and no end, but at the same time having one of its beginnings where everyone are afraid look at, and having an end of which no one wants to find. Perhaps you will find an answer that you are looking for years.
I don't have to continue writing. Proper person understand the rest of the people shall be responsible to their own conscience.
My own path began on 9 September 2009, when that day I got the shipment which had changed my life forever. It was late and rainy afternoon. I closed the door when the postman had went out. I looked at the object which he had brought for me. A small, square and flat shape wrapped in brown paper, covered with postage stamps indicating that the shipment came from Bern, Switzerland. And nothing more except my address. I opened the package and saw black CD cover with a beautifully stylized letters forming the logo Darkspace and beneath it a picture of four intertwined oval shapes and signature: Dark Space -I. I put the disc in the player and nothing had been like before. Nothing. And never (...)
