Depth Charge

Does art always reflect the times? What influence does the moment have on what forms of art can be prominent or successful? Is the world more complex and difficult to understand now, and does that make the work of artists trying to connect with it more difficult? John Coltrane said, “Over all, I think the main thing a musician would like to do is give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things that he knows of and senses in the universe… That’s what I would like to do. I think that’s one of the greatest things you can do in life and we all try to do it in some way. The musician’s is through his music."

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Born out of frustration with how difficult it is make personal progress, and how difficult it seems to be for humanity to move towards the light. Why podcasts are a form of ideal human communication. Why one-on-one conversation is so important in diverse fields. Too much pressure to progress on multiple fronts with limited resources. The Stanford Good Samaritan experiment. And loads more meandering..

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Starting a band. Being in a band. What could go wrong?

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Can you find truth in music? Is music a language, the original language, or an expression of the perfect harmony of the whole universe, a harmony we can join? Is big data and computation any kind of basis for human understanding and communication? If not, then what? We answer all these and many other questions perfectly, no doubts remaining.

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Neither of us are known for being storytellers, but it's never too late to learn so we have a go at telling tales from our early years. What experiences formed the characters of little LJ and little Paul. Find out here.

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A couple of quotes from the masters to sum up what what we try to dig into:

“Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.” Charles Mingus

“..there's really only two kinds of music, there's music that expands consciousness and there's music that contracts it.” Sonny Rollins, via Steve Coleman.

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Francis Fukuyama wrote the End of History, Bain and Sugars talk the End of the Future. Does the future beyond covid still exist? What will musicians be doing if it does? Which colour pill is which? Do we become nihilists or idealists? Is capitalism to blame for everything? Paul calls LJ a Trotskyite.

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Paul & Bain follow inspiration from Jim Carrey on choosing a life based on doing what you love. We also get sidetracked into questions of education, wisdom, belief and faith. And Paul reads a poem by W.H. Auden.

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This week we talk about improvisation, in music and in life. We also dig a little bit into the neuroscience - what's going on in the brain when musicians improvise. Some of the questions that came up are: Is improvisation something you can learn? Do you need to overcome fear to be able to do it?Is it involved in ordinary speech? As a musician how do you practice improvisation? How do you approach it?

If you're interested in the brain science you can read more about it in the links:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200331130104.htm

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/this_is_your_brain_on_jazz_researchers_use_mri_to_study_spontaneity_creativity

http://www.openculture.com/2019/11/neuroscience-jazz-improvisation.html

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We talk about taking up a musical instrument. Is there a right instrument for you? What counts as an instrument? Does your personality have to fit, and the kind of music you like? How do you start learning, and keep learning? Find something to take up in isolation and maybe bring something beautiful out of isolation with you.

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