Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra; the second synthpop track in the Electra Suite.

The Dance of the Furies

The sixth and final movement of The Electra Suite; The Dance of the Furies.

The Journey

A new music video called The Journey.

Twisting With The Fates

This is the fifth synthpop track in The Electra Suite.

Electra Suite; Movement 4 /Music Video

The music video for the synthpop track; The Bright One (Electra Suite Movement 4)

Electra Suite; Movement 1

The first part of The Electra Suite.

It's So Fine

The full video version of 'It's So Fine.'

Electra

Upon getting it into my head to write a suite of music called ‘The Elektra Suite’ or ‘The Electra Suite,’ I decided to read up on Elektra so I could better organize the different movements of this suite. After all, rather than just write six movements, I thought it would be more interesting to kind of thematically link the movements by giving them specific titles and have each movement more or less match the mood of its title.

First, I discovered that there were three main Greek plays concerning this character. It was obviously one story but told in three slightly different ways.

Electra is the story of a woman who is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Agamemnon goes off to war and Clytemnestra kills him when he returns. Electra gets mad and kills Clytemnestra with help from her brother Orestes.

Simple right?

Oh no. Agamemnon had sacrificed Elektra’s other sister to have good sailing when he went off to war. Elektra is apparently not upset by this.

Electra spends time as a peasant and shacks up with a shepherd but never marries him. She marries one of her brother’s friends after they kill their mother and return to palace living.

Electra is driven nuts by the Furies for killing her mother.

This story really bothered me. This is a hard story for a contemporary western reader to get their mind around, since one is used to very clear-cut heroes (or heroines) who have very clear motives for taking revenge and things all work out for the better in the end.

Duh! Yeah, I know it’s a tragedy! But still!

Is it about establishing a rule that will improve things for the lower classes? No. Do Elektra and Orestes get to live happily ever after as rulers or even nobles? No.

What kept bothering me was that in the very early Greek Mythology the name Elektra means ‘The Bright One,’ yet in these stories she ends up in the Pleiades constellation but she can’t be seen because she is a dim star who married a mortal. Huh?

And then I thought, well wait, these ancient Greek plays are going to be slanted according to the propaganda the playwright was wishing to disseminate, just like modern works.

And, yes, there was a need for an apologetic ending, just like “A Clockwork Orange,’The Hunger Games’ and, yes, ‘Harry Potter.’ So, of course, Elektra had to be run down by the Furies in the end since, in that version, the playwright was grinding the axe for the ‘new Athenian trial by jury system’ and people needed to be able to feel guilty about what they had done. 

Now here’s where I’m at, personally on this story. Keep in mind that the royalty in ancient Greece (as well as many other places) were regarded as divinity.

So this story is about reclaiming one’s birthright as divine, which is everyone’s birthright as demonstrated in the story by Elektra becoming an ‘ordinary’ person and still being able to reclaim her birthright.

Granted, it’s not pretty but then neither is suppression.

Dramatic Interlude

New music video for the experimental electronic music track; 'Dramatic Interlude.'

La Dragon| Animated Version

The animated version of the 'La Dragon' music video.

The One I Love

New music video; 'The One I Love.'

Tulgey Woods/Full Version

This is the full length version of the progressive rock track 'Tulgey Woods,' by Dizzy O'Brian.

Hellfire; New Synthpop Music Video by Dizzy O'Brian

This is the new synthpop music video, 'Hellfire,' by Dizzy O'Brian.

Kosmic Rain

This is the music video for 'Kosmic Rain' an ambient music track from the album 'Tea With The Alien.'

The Dimensional Triptych

This new music video follows a professor and his assistant as they travel through different dimensions. The video features the art rock music track called 'The Dimensional Triptych.  

Artist Spotlight| Michael Moore

Michael Evan Moore is an artist born and raised in the Los Angeles Area. He has had an interest in music and film since his early childhood. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in music composition, he received further education from UCLA in Film Scoring. 

Having developed a strong familiarity with orchestration and audio engineering, he has composed professionally for directors and produced for other artists throughout his career. Some of his most notable orchestrations were recorded at renowned studios in Los Angeles such as East West and The Village.

His debut single, “The Unknown” released in 2018, captures the essence of life’s unknown nature, being unpredictable, and absolutely subject to change.

His most popular single, “Memories” released in 2021 is a journey through the past, present, and future. This song is dedicated to his late grandmother who left a lasting impact on his life and family. 

“Waves”, released in 2022, depicts the high and low tides of life. In this song, he weds the melody of the cello to the harmonic progression of the underlying piano. 

His newest single, “Snowfall” encapsulates bringing light and warmth to the dark world that we live in. Michael Evan Moore hopes to illustrate his life’s stories and also capture the stories of others through his music.

Michael Evan Moore - Snowfall

Preorder Snowfall

Preview on Apple Music

Distrokid

Link Tree

Rhapsody in Black

This is the new music video for 'Rhapsody in Black,' the jazz track from the album 'Charm City.' Rhapsody in Black is about the excitement of a big city at night where there are lots of jazz clubs, such as New York or Chicago.

My Experiences in the Beautiful and Mysterious Appalachians

Some of the best days of my life were spent hiking the Appalachian Trail with my good friend

Dave Hall.

Dave and I were roommates and friends at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore.

I had hiked a bit before but only day hikes, so I was intrigued when Dave, seemingly out of the blue, asked if I wanted to spend the week of our spring break hiking the Appalachian Trail.

I said alright, not really knowing what I was getting myself into. Dave had it all mapped out; the plan was to get a friend to drive us out to the trail-head in Maryland and then hitchhike back into Baltimore after a week of hiking.

We made our preparations, which were on the crude side and didn’t take into account any really rough weather, after all it was spring.

We arrived at the trail-head and started south. That first night, when it started getting cold, my morale dropped and I was wondering what the hell I was doing out there.

Dave started to gather up wood and enjoined me to do the same.

“Sure, gather up wood,” I thought, “a lot of good that will do!”

Dave made a fire with the wood we had gathered and immediately the scene was changed. Suddenly we were sitting by a warm fire, cooking our dinners and partying away. After about a day out, I experienced a relaxed state I had never before felt; no where you had to be, no phones to answer and nothing to do but enjoy the scenery.

The scenery was beautiful. We hiked for a week every spring break for the next three years and we had many adventures along the way.

One night we camped above the remains of Harper’s Ferry. We broke camp in the rain and made breakfast under a bridge. Then we stopped at a little store and the owner gave us some large plastic bags we used for parkas.

We met interesting people at the shelters; there were shelters with three walls, a roof and a place to cook and we always tried to make it to the shelters but, if not, we would just camp out wherever we were. 

We passed through a number of historical Civil War sites.

On our last hike, we went north into Pennsylvania and went straight into the remains of an ice storm. We stayed in an abandoned a-frame and were treated to unusual lights appearing from above us. 

We met many interesting people on our hitchhikes back into Baltimore, which were adventures in themselves.  

 

Unpopular Opinions; Communication Breakdown

 

If you’re having a communication breakdown, any opinion is unpopular, and we’ve been in a communication breakdown for a very long time.

What are some of the ways that one achieves a communication breakdown? Trust me, a communication breakdown is not something that occurs naturally; it is most definitely planned, worked on and achieved.

One way, of course, is to put communication on autopilot and substitute identifying gestures and appearance for actual communication.

Back in the day, it was a peace sign, a tie dyed shirt or a joint.

“Are you cool? Are you hip?” ‘Nuff said!

Given the correct outward trappings and social tricks, opinions and attitudes are assumed. One need not be burdened with the effort of actually communicating.

In more contemporary times an extremely complex handshake will serve to bypass any need to communicate.

And if you want to avoid any serious discussion about religion, just carry around a bible or wear a cross.

These are the things that identify. They establish if you are ‘of the body.’ If you are ‘of the body,’ we can assume what your opinions are at the get go. Saves us a lot of time.

Another communication breaker is good old Aristotelian Logic, which says that everything is black or white, good or bad. Once you’ve handled that complex equation, you can just dismiss a ton of seemingly contrary opinions.

But don’t kid yourself. This is no accident. Communication is a natural thing. One must work hard to achieve a communication breakdown, which is probably why art and music are the targets of suppressive forces (you know, Blue Meanies,) since art and music essentially are communication.

Communication began to be replaced by identification somewhere around the nineteen fifties with the ‘Beat Generation.’ There was said to be a ‘movement’ behind these things and I believe there was, but putting the emphasis on identification took the teeth out of whatever movement may have been going on.

Ms. Olydian

This is a brand new video for a newly remastered, re released surf rock music track called Ms.Olydian.

It's the story of a Greek goddess who comes to life and finds love with a simple woodcutter.