Eternal Wondering of an Interactive Poll

Yes it totally adds to the experience.  Gorilla costumes always make a pop song more enjoyable.

Listening now. Thanks for the Bandcamp link. (I love Bandcamp!)

This is such a great album. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! 🤗👍🏻

One of my favourite albums from this year begins in “Benares”, and ends on “Nirvana Beach”.

From my review ( http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=72507 )

I wrote: Nirvana Beach is a beautiful come down, and then pick me up. It starts delicately, before rocking out with the freedom of thought that there is no need to "care anymore about time and space. It surely is the highest point one can reach, I'll be surfing here on Nirvana beach." The protagonist of the album, no longer torn between Shiva or Ishtar or any such identity that ultimately matters, has abandoned Samsara ? the eternal wandering of the homeless soul. This new found purpose - the Finding of the Other(s) - is echoed in the song, which is the most forceful and purposeful of any on the album. The band is no longer drifting aimlessly, where the river and waves take them, but making their own path - carving their own waves, surfing Nirvana Beach. It's a particularly potent closing number, and almost shocking the way it simply stops. I'm left wanting more, so if you'll excuse me, I'm not ready to abandon Samsara just yet. One more wander through the eternal circle of death and rebirth for me, thank you!

I had a feeling it was more the video than anything else that made you choose that particular song from that album. I would definitely recommend anyone who wasn’t such a fan of “Sat by a Tree” to give a listen to the other tracks mentioned. I wouldn’t go so far as to say “Sat by a Tree” is an anomaly on the album, but it is not exactly representative.

Not being a Christian, and not having ever been a Christian, I tend to ignore such things too. I’m fact, I’m sure I overlook a lot of references and allusions, simply because I’m not Christian so don’t recognise them for what they are. I think many more Christian artists tend to incorporate their faith in their lyrics than most people realise. It’s usually only particularly obvious when they start preaching, or are overtly a Christian Music artist or band. One of my absolute favourite albums in my late teens was Merge by For Love Not Lisa, and at the time it completely passed me by that they were a Christian band. I had been listening to the album for a couple of years before it occurred to me that they were singing Christian themes. I definitely have no problem, in general, with bands singing about this sort of thing, even if I’m not Christian myself. It’s when I feel like I’m being preached at, that I find it harder to listen to….

^   Nice piece of work, but it maybe lacks a bit of development...

My personal take on the music put up so far:

Logan: Alice Coltrane takes me indeed on a wandering trip in a dreamlike environment - very appeasing, with a nice underlying groove. I actually know Popol Vuh mainly through their film music, but never delved into their album work. Maybe here too, I would like to have a film with it, it's a bit too ambient to my tastes. Not unpleasant, but it makes me longing for a soaring electric guitar now...

jamesbaldwin: Interesting choice! I know only Donovan's 60s music, so discovering here his more recent work. I won't suddenly become a Donovan fan, but it is a good listen, all three of them. From the three, I probably prefer The Evernow.

Snicolette: Dhafer Youssef delivers an incredible duet between clarinet and voice, wonderful, as is the track as a whole, with the electric guitar intro and later the oud together with the clarinet. Beautiful. Tripping Over Gravitiy by Sam Philips has a nice dreamy quality and I like the sonic quality of it, but it doesn't really wake me up. Lavinia Meijer playing Philip Glass on harp. Don't worry Nickie, I can cope with it, but the harp as solo instrument still doesn't convince me. Neither does this work by Glass (I very much like minimalist music but somehow Glass' music hardly ever convinced me, I don't know why - unless he plays something by Reich...).

Cristi: Sea of Tranquility by Nigel Stanford is the kind of electronic music that somehow leaves me completely cold and somehow Occultation sounds a bit too forced with the obligatory tempo changes on Forever Hereafter. But they create an interesting atmosphere. Alternativ Quartet is much more to my liking: For me this piece has much more musicality than your other two suggestions and conveys some emotion. Without hesitation my preferred one of your suggestions.

Lewian: Ah, a welcome change in the samsara pace with the Godfathers. In a similar vein I was thinking of King Crimson's Eat, Sex, Sleep, Drink, Dream... Nice straight rock song! Talk Talk, yes, very known, but a good choice here. Especially After the Flood fits the theme very well here. Great music!

mathman: I remember Dan Deacon and liked some of his work you presented in a previous poll, but not all. This one is much more "poppier" in a way. It's OK, but I'm not as convinced as with some of his other work (and the video fits the theme maybe better than the music...).

TCat: M Ward gives us a very nice uplifting song. Very americana, folky with a country flavor. I like this. The lyrics are indeed wonderful and maybe more "samsara" than the music itself... Never heard of Tungevaag & Raaban before and I hadn't now: shameful pop (but well, that means that it must be "popular" - not with me; aren't you afraid being banned from PA because of this? )

Hiram: Wonderful, this bluesy contribution by Tuomari Nurmio. Maybe rather classic in a way, but I like it very much: a nice groove and good wandering atmosphere. With Vesa-Matti Loiri song I imagine myself wandering along the shore of one of those many Finnish lakes. I don't understand the lyrics, but he sure conveys something special. I really like both of your choices; maybe the latter has more singularity in it.

No, that was purely for enjoyment/discussion, I haven’t decided on my selections yet. I ought to get onto that. I’m still playing catch-up on life after my lost days post-covid jab.

Oh, ok, now I understand. I guess in my head I never considered that way of thinking - and now that you’ve pointed it out to me, metamorphosis IS close to the concept of metempsychosis (which is how samsara is normally “categorised”), for the exact reason you give.

Funnily enough, Sam Phillips could have sung about metamorphosis, as it can be a Christian concept, while metempsychosis is not. I’m not a Christian myself, so I could get this horribly wrong, but from what I understand letting God into your life is he beginning of your metamorphosis, as anyone who belongs to Christ becomes a new person. Or something along those lines.

I have no problem with understanding why you and Lewian made your suggestions for Sam Philips and Talk Talk, as the songs can definitely be understood to represent samsara - but I think it is certainly a case of Barthes’s “Death of the Author”, as I’m fairly sure this won’t have been the meaning intended by the composers, who were both Christian, and often used Christian imagery and allegory in their lyrics.

I have no problem with metamorphosis being used, either, so I apologise if I perhaps brushed off your third suggestion. It simply didn’t occur to me how similar the concepts of metamorphosis and metempsychosis are. I’d like to blame it on covid brain fog, but I think it’s just because I can be quite thick at times….. 🤪