John Grzinich

Awaken the Night

Being present, sensing the feeling of being outdoors in the deep stillness of a quiet night presents one with the vast immortality of a shadow world. Usually found in the period after midnight until the early twilight before the sunrise, the shadow world communicates it’s sacredness through experiencing stillness between isolated yet distinct sounds. This is especially so where I live in rural Estonia. Here, deep in the night, it is often possible to approach the near absence of human induced noise amidst the scattered forests and rural farm settlements. While humans and many other creatures are in their slumber induced dreams, the earth sounds very much awake, even more so than in the warm face of the sun. As a vibrant living state, earthly stillness resonates as an even-ing force between the density of human impositions often layered onto ‘daily life’ and the inescapable need for rest. This composition is comprised of recordings from the shadow world mixed with late night sessions of meditative synthesis, as sounds that come about in a time of sacred terrestrial reflection. While engaging with the often diffuse and challenging topics that lie beyond life, composing becomes a mindful act of offering attention to the daily cycles of earthly shadow and light. This much I can say for my humble understanding of the passages from life into death (and back into life), as a journey not so much departing from or returning to planetary life, but as shifting phases between wholly earthly becoming and living as an individuated consciousness.

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