Justinian Intonations, by Philip Blackburn

Out Beyond

Justinian Intonations

by Philip Blackburn

supported by

	/

Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Four panel wallet with one CD

Includes unlimited streaming of Justinian Intonations via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 1 day

$15 USD or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Free pdf booklet included

Purchasable with gift card

$7 USD or more

1.	Out Beyond 05:10 video	lyrics	buy track
Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other” doesn’t make any sense.
2.	Justinian Intonations 50:16	info	buy track

about

Floating miasmic vapors. A chorus of mystery monks. Flights of Angels. Clouds and swirls of echoes. Weightless sounds that swirl and eddy and carry you downstream on your timeless journey to sleep, to death, to birth?

It started with a clap – actually three – recorded as acoustic test tones inside one of the many ancient cisterns beneath Istanbul (Constantinople back then). Philip Blackburn then analyzed and stretched the reverb of the space as it were by an electron microscope that revealed the resonant frequencies unique to that giant chamber (the idea was to play it back in the same space and see if it set up any unexpected standing waves). But he found that it did some magic even just with headphones. He mixed in the psalm-chanting voice of star vocalist Ryland Angel, and Justinian Intonations (2021) emerged from the damp gloom. It is a kind of mindful trip down Memory Lane to Unconscious Avenue, one that enlarges your head and plays with your thoughts – ever emerging and receding into the shadows – and perhaps holds similar healing properties as the pure water that formerly filled the space.

The Theodosius and Basilica cisterns from the 5th and 6th centuries are two enormous tanks made from marble and granite with giant columns supporting arched roofs. Built to filter and store water from nearby aqueducts, they even included subaquatic carvings and statues of Medusa arguably never meant for human eyes. Water, when you need it, is truly sacred. In fact, the Plague of Justinian (so named for the Emperor who caught it in 542 and recovered) that devastated much of Europe and the Middle East for two hundred years has contemporary relevance for us today.

Total immersion – wave after wave – may provide the spirit some refreshment, unmoored from the world above. This is underground music suitable for any float tank experience.

The album opens with Out Beyond: a Call for Non-Judgment (2017), for conch shell chorus and voice, on a text by Persian mystic, Rumi. The distant calls, chatter, breaths, and crunching footsteps in the snow are where the two worlds – outside and inside – touch. Let us go through the round and open door.

Grammy nominated vocalist, Ryland Angel’s voice has been heard in movies, opera houses, and major concert halls throughout the world. This is its first appearance in a cistern.

Environmental sound artist and composer Philip Blackburn was a choral scholar at Cambridge before embarking on a voyage of creative sonic discovery. His often hallucinatory works have been described as “ambient with heft” and “knocking reality sideways.”

Thanks to Serkan Ozkaya, Ryland Angel, and Alp Sen, master clapper

credits

released April 2, 2021

license

about

Philip Blackburn Saint Paul, Minnesota

Philip Blackburn was born in Cambridge, England, and studied music there and at the University of Iowa with Kenneth Gaburo. He is a public artist specializing in sound — a composer/environmental sound-artist. Blackburn’s works have been heard in ships’ harbors, state fairs, forests, and coming out of storm sewers, as well as in galleries, parking lots, and on concert stages.

philipblackburn.com ... more

contact / help

Contact Philip Blackburn

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Philip Blackburn, you may also like:

Occam XXV
by Éliane Radigue & Frédéric Blondy

supported by 4 fans who also own “Justinian Intonations”

Wauw … this is totally sonic drone heaven! Radigue hits me again! Beautifull latzijones
go to album
Aphasic Forest
by Lee Evans

Electronic music that defies description, the latest from Lee Evans is a complex web of sound that challenges the imagination. Bandcamp New & Notable May 2, 2020
go to album
Lee "Scratch" Perry's Guide to the Universe
by New Age Doom

Created in partnership with the Canadian noisemakers, the late legend's final collaborative LP enshrines his ability to lift joint ventures into otherworldly territory. Bandcamp Album of the Day Nov 8, 2021
go to album
Me and the Glassbirds
by Heejin Jang

The Doom Trip label never misses, and the latest LP from the genius Heejin Jang is a trip into thrilling industrial terror. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 30, 2023
go to album
Spektralkompass - Sterbendes Hertz
by Håkon Thelin

Composer and bass player Håkon Thelin aims to cut to the essence of the double bass by focusing on technique with these contemporary pieces. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 11, 2023
go to album
A Second Invitation To An Uninterrupted Katabatic Lens
by Decolonize Your Mind Society

This Hungarian psych-jazz collective works with tonality and tuning to challenge what we think of as catchy according to Western modes. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 7, 2023
go to album
Comradely Objects
by Horse Lords

The experimental Baltimore band's fifth album is an exuberant, complex sculpture of sound. Bandcamp Album of the Day Nov 4, 2022
go to album