from life to death and beyond
lessons from the underworld
Musicians, artists in general, often see the writing on the wall, and Australian drummer and composer Laurence Pike is a prime example. His latest album, The Undreamt-of Centre, is inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus, a collection that explores the duality of life and death through Orpheus' quest to save Eurydice. Rilke's verses celebrate the human experience, combining sensuality with spiritual transcendence. Interweaving the beauty of existence with nature, Rilke critiques unchecked technological progress and emphasizes our deep connection to the environment.
fOCUS Amazônia
Drought and fire
The impacts of September's drought, heat wave and wildfires are becoming increasingly evident across Brazil. Intense flames are destroying large swaths of the Amazon rainforest and vital areas of the Pantanal wetlands, both of which are critical for biodiversity. A huge plume of smoke has settled over the country, shrouding cities in a gray haze and forcing residents to contend with dangerous air quality.
The recent drought and smoke remind us of the catastrophic situation in 2023. But in reality, things are even worse now, says Manaus-based photographer Raphael Alves.
Seca e fogo
Sequía y fuego
Drought and fire
Photo credit © Raphael Alves
Australian multi-talent Laurence Pike marks the transition from life to death and beyond with a requiem
On The Undreamt-of Centre, his fourth solo album, Australian drummer, improviser, composer and producer Laurence Pike presents an innovative and contemporary interpretation of the time-honored Requiem Mass.
The idea to experiment with voices, to create a requiem with drums, electronics and choir, came to him years ago. The concept lingered in his mind until he decided to actually perform it.
Laurence Pike was drawn to the narrative structure of the requiem as it took shape over the centuries. The ritual connotations also played a role in his 2019 album Holy Spring. Pike wanted to adapt the traditional religious elements of the requiem and integrate contemporary language and sounds. In addition, a requiem offered the perfect opportunity to combine choral sounds with his electro-acoustic drum performances.
Things came to a head with the deteriorating health and eventual death of his father-in-law in July 2021. The long period of COVID's lockdown in Sydney also contributed. Laurence Pike experienced these months as a time when everything seemed to be falling apart; it was a quiet, long and somber period. He had, in his own words, "the feeling of witnessing the transition from life to death in slow motion.
In the liner notes to The Undreamt-of Centre on his Bandcamp website, he writes that humanity is not separate from nature, as is often claimed; we are part of it. The presence of his father-in-law, a farmer and builder with a love of nature, continued to be felt by Pike and his wife in the places he cherished in life. Whether near the ocean, in the bush, or among the native wildlife of the southern coast of New South Wales, his being seemed absorbed in nature itself. For Laurence Pike, this experience underscored "the eternal connection between our existence and the natural world, where past, present and future coexist."
The essence of this insight manifests itself on The Undreamt-of Centre through the sophisticated use of field recordings and the distinctive musical expression that Laurence Pike has developed in recent years. His unique style derives in part from techniques that expand and slow down the experience of time and space.
Sonnets to Orpheus
Although the narrative structure of The Undreamt-of Centre is based on a requiem with chorus, it is without the usual Latin texts. Laurence Pike was inspired by the poetry of the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), particularly his Sonnets to Orpheus, a cycle of 55 sonnets based on the classical Greek myth of Orpheus, the greatest poet and musician of his time.
In this cycle, Rilke explores the boundaries between life and death as the mythical singer attempts to save his beloved Eurydice. The work is an ode to the full human experience, embracing both the sensual and the transcendent.
The poet praises the earth and existence in all its facets. He develops a critical attitude toward the blind worship of technological progress, which he sees as a potential threat to our human environment. Rilke thus positions himself as an early pioneer of ecological awareness.
The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is the inspiration for this cycle. Their story is a tragic love story: shortly after their marriage, Eurydice dies of a snake bite. Orpheus, deeply saddened, descends into the underworld to bring her back. His moving music persuades Hades to release Eurydice on one condition: Orpheus must not look back until they have both reached the world above.
In the 1960s, the British pop group The Herd was inspired by the same story to write the song From The Underworld:
Out of the land of shadows and darkness
We were returning towards the morning light
Almost in reach of places I knew
Escaping the ghosts of yesterday
You were behind me following closely
“Don’t turn around” I heard you whisper in my ear
“If you should turn now, all that you won
Will vanish just like a passing dream”
But that is exactly what happens. Arriving at the exit, Orpheus looks back in despair as he no longer hears the footsteps of his beloved Eurydice. She is then pulled back into the underworld, into the waiting shadows, lost to him forever.
As Laurence Pike aptly puts it, "Suddenly there seemed to be a convergence of thought between this myth, with its reflections on mortality, acceptance, the human soul and our inability to control universal forces, my recent experiences, and the idea of a requiem - a musical ritual marking the transition from life to death and beyond."
The musician drew inspiration for his requiem from modern classical music, Japanese 'environmental ambient', 'fourth world' electronics, free jazz, and Estonian (!) choral traditions, with a major role for Tallinn-based composer Tõnu Kõrvits. The album was made in collaboration with the Vox Sydney Philharmonia Choir, conducted by Sam Lipman, a childhood friend of Pike's and also a composer. The recordings were made in a 19th century Gothic church.
"And all was still. Yet even in that hush a new beginning, hint, and change, was there"
The Undreamt-of Centre opens with an introductory chorus, Introit, that creates an ethereal, dreamlike atmosphere. This leads into gently pulsating rhythms that resonate like a heartbeat, evoking a sense of eternal life. Without hesitation, the descent follows immediately with Orpheus In The Underworld. The sounds grow darker as mysterious voices from the depths and caves seem to mourn the wandering man in the shadow realm. Then we arrive at Mountains Of The Heart, where it is time to read the first poem in the series. This is one of the few pieces that refers directly to the Orpheus mythology by mentioning his name in the second line, and it delves deeper into the theme:
I, 1 (Da stieg ein Baum. O reine Übersteigung!)
Da stieg ein Baum. O reine Übersteigung!
O Orpheus singt! O hoher Baum im Ohr!
Und alles schwieg. Doch selbst in der Verschweigung
ging neuer Anfang, Wink und Wandlung vor.
Tiere aus Stille drangen aus dem klaren
gelösten Wald von Lager und Genist;
und da ergab sich, daß sie nicht aus List
und nicht aus Angst in sich so leise waren,
sondern aus Hören. Brüllen, Schrei, Geröhr
schien klein in ihren Herzen. Und wo eben
kaum eine Hütte war, dies zu empfangen,
ein Unterschlupf aus dunkelstem Verlangen
mit einem Zugang, dessen Pfosten beben, –
da schufst du ihnen Tempel im Gehör.
A tree climbed there. O pure uprising!
O Orpheus sings! O towering tree of hearing!
And all was still. Yet even in that hush
a new beginning, hint, and change, was there.
Creatures of silence pressed from the bright
freed forest, out of lair and nest:
and they so yielded themselves, that not by a ruse,
and not out of fear, were they so quiet in themselves,
but simply through listening. Bellow, shriek, roar
seemed small in their hearts. And where there was
just barely a hut to receive it,
a refuge out of their darkest yearning,
with an entrance whose gatepost trembled –
there you crafted a temple for their hearing.*
Mountains of The Heart translates into furious drumming and frenetic screaming electronics, with the track ending with the sound of 'bells' ringing at a funeral. By contrast, Universal Forces is softer: "And all was still. Yet even in that hush a new beginning, hint, and change, was there."
The title track, The Undreamt-of Centre, followed by an instrumental portrait of Eurydice, recalls the wingspan of Rilke's Die Engel (The Angels):
Nur wenn sie ihre Flügel breiten,
sind sie die Wecker eines Winds:
als ginge Gott mit seinen weiten
Bildhauerhänden durch die Seiten
im dunklen Buch des Anbeginns.
Only when they spread their wings
are they wakers of a wind:
as if God with his broad sculptor-
hands leafed through the pages
in the dark book of the beginning.**
What remains is mourning for what is lost forever: Requiem Aeternam. The choir lifts the fallen one and carries him away, unendlich sanft in seinen Händen, as Rainer Maria Rilke describes in Herbst.
And then we are at the exit, at the point where the decision about life and death, about the future and everything we hold dear, is in our own hands. But the gloom that emanates from the closing track, The Aftermath, offers little hope.
Notes:
*Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright, all rights reserved. Published as part of the collection The Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, ISBN-10: 1512129461, May 2015
**Source: The Book of Images | Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Edward Snow, 1994
Laurence Pike - The Undreamt-Of Centre (explainer)
Now available: photobook ‘Riversick’ from photographer Raphael Alves
‘Riversick’ by Raphael Alves is a photographic essay that shows how people and nature share space in and around Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. Before that, it's a reverie on the relationship between author and place: it's about how the author relates to the different possible (and impossible) Manaus, not the one he inhabits, but the one that lives in him.
The title of the series is a play on words. The idea of homesickness, ‘homesick’, the seasickness caused by the sea, ‘seasick’, and ‘river’, due to the geographical location of Manaus, on the banks of two of the largest rivers in the world: Solimões and Negro.
Get yours through this link: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/MUQCHBE5P8ZRY
The photo book costs R$83 (83 Brazilian Real) and shipping is a flat rate of R$15. There is a surcharge of R$53 for shipping abroad. The books will be shipped in the second half of September.
