Feeling to Thought - the label
Recently Simon Barker very kindly offered, through KIMNARA, to help with the distribution of music available on the label, Feeling to Thought. If only on a personal level, his generosity is greatly appreciated. But beyond this, and more significantly I feel, the motivation behind this generosity is emblematic of Simon's selfless attitude towards music-making at its highest possible level of performance and creative intent, and his commitment to see this music generate an ever-increasing circle of people who are interested, and who wish to engage.
People need access to creative endeavor in order that they are in a position to decide for themselves, how they feel and think about creative pursuit and its manifestation in the public domain. From almost the beginning of recording technology, those interested in creative sound-making have, for the most part, had exposure determined for them. Furthermore, people involved in the hands-on pursuit of creative sound-making have, to a large extent, been at the beck and call of entrepreneurs, A & R people, and those more concerned with industrial economics than with creative integrity. Digital technology and the internet are making possible positive changes to this state of affairs. The scales do need to balance. Without, creative music-making will deteriorate. This need, no doubt, lay at the heart of creative individules like Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Milford Graves & Don pullen, Charles Tolliver & Stanley Cowell, Max Roach & Charles Mingus, Alan Silva et al & COTW Productions, Horst Liepolt's 44 label, Serge Ermoll's Free Kata label, Rashied Ali's Survival Records, LeRoi Jones' Jihad label, JCOA Records, and collectives like AACM, Keys Music Association, Jazz Composers Guild, Collective Black Artists, just to name a few, when, during the 1950s ~ '70s, these various attempts were made expressly to establish artist-controled documentation and publishing. Administration, and distribution in particular, proved a stumbling block. For those who are interested and have a wish to engage, musicians and listeners alike can now share a space for creative exchange that isn't mediated through, and motivated by, other-than creative intent. The weft of the net, while in its expanding of the marketplace, has concurrently, perhaps ironically, furnished a place for independent creative people; a place where relatively unmediated communication can be sought and woven in accord with individual predilections. Although the World Wide Web is loaded with manipulative information, a direct relationship between those holding the sound-making instruments and the ears/hearts & minds of those who wish to listen - making for a particular kind of dialogue not possible otherwise - is accessible for those who wish to search. Crucial in this fairly complex equation is the passage of time between the event-as-recorded and its availability as document. In an ideal world creative acts are ongoing. Arguably they are anyway. But while two months or a year might be considered reasonably current and therefore bearing potential, through dialogue, for ongoing development, twenty years renders the event a historical discussion. In this case the listener has no choice but be an interested on-looker rather than a potential participant in the shaping of creative ethos.
Although, to be sure, recorded documentation of spontaneously created music transforms the original event, this transformation is not necessarily negative, though granted, it does make for a different experience to that as found at first-hand. The advantage, or better, one of the advantages gained from the event-as-document is its transformation to document-as-reference. Especially in cases of interwoven complex structures, of emotional depth with intellectual rigor - this being particularly enigmatic in the field of creative improvisation - document-as-reference opens the door onto dialogue aimed at deeper understanding; not only for the listener qua listener but significantly, for the performer qua listener/interlocutor. This makes for real-time engagement between these parties rather than relegation to a historical on-looking, though I hasten to add here, historical on-looking does bear positive potential. But alas, this is another discussion.
The label, Feeling to Thought, has been established for the express purpose of documentation and this, for reasons as outlined above. As with KIMNARA, Feeling to Thought seeks a field of exchange where questions pertaining to creative endeavor might be broached. Through ongoing dialogue enabled by this more direct mode of contact - 'artist'--recipient - terms that apply to both sides of this equation become shared and of equal value to eachother, embracing a proactive view of creative ethos applicable in the here-and-now.
Feeling to Thought - the label, text COPYRIGHT © Phil Treloar, February, 2009