music and vision

[JoeVice]

has anyone here ever heard of sasha? he's a solo electronic composer...fucking amazing!!!! check out airdrawndagger...for me, its very visually stimulating.

 

[Manbient]

aye, of Sasha & Digweed fame. I do like his/their stuff, but i tend to prefer something like Shpongle, or something very ambient like Robert Rich when it comes to electronic music.

 

[JoeVice]

i'll check 'em out.

 

[Julian Zembrowski]

I do get visual response from music like Opeth. Especially the first few times I listened to the older albums. I think it extends beyond visualization of images though, it's more a feeling, something real nearly.

 

[nazgulofmordor]

I always love to revel in imagery produced by music. It would also be due to the fact that I am an avid fan of J.R.R. Tolkein - fantasy worlds. With Opeth, I drift away into places of gloom. Check out the thread I created a few days ago - 'Under the Weeping Moon'.

 

[vampyrouss]

I watched that horrible Immortal Video and while listening to Orchid, I tried to immagine Opeth running around like that.

You have ruined the album for me. But I was thinking of taking that video and putting it to "Yakety Sax"

I'm usually thinking about other things when listening to the music, but sometimes get visions of what it would have been like seeing the musician recording what I am hearing, especially for instrumental bits. Its different when you listen alone. If I am listening to music with people I watch their reactions to the music and stuff like that.

 

[Sadpoet]

sweet...a lot of times, i see the sound itself....especially when i get completely lost in a song...its really weird. today, i saw the sound of a palm-muted guitar (distorted-the nice & chewy still life). i didn't see a hand strumming a guitar...i just saw the crunch sound. it wasn't anything that i can even describe now, (although i can picture it)...

!!!!!

I heard from the Discovery Channel or something that very few people have a rare ability/condition/disorder in which they are able to SEE sound waves and/or music notes. I think they said Bach or Mozart or someone had this condition and often described his music notes as colors. They said it was a sixth sense that only a few people possess. Strange. Anyone know anything about this???

 

[Julian Zembrowski]

Yes it was Mozart.
I have it as well with concentration. It's not too rare, it's more of a practice.

 

[JoeVice]

it isn't something that is just there for me...i have to actively think about it...but it is surely there.

i know that a lot of people with perfect pitch can identify musical notes without a reference note. they describe this ability as "recognizing a pitch as a specific color"....much like we see green as green, and red as red...someone with with perfect pitch can see a C# as a C#. so, in that sense, color is figurative.

i don't have perfect pitch...so i am not seeing the tones for what they are...i guess i am seeing the musical language...i am seeing the emotions that it makes me feel.

those two "visions" are completely different things. i suppose there are people who see something like these simultaneously...

 

[Kenneth R.]

I "see" memories of when I first heard the song, or heard the song in a most emotionally strong moment. Now when I listen to these songs, those memories are nearly inseperable from the audio. For example, when I hear Drapery Falls, I imagine getting my stuff together to go to College, since that what I was doing when I first heard it. When I listen to Shakra - Moving Force or Ark - Burn The Sun, I imagine snowboarding, since those albums I almost always played on the trip to the mountain to get pumped up. When I listen to Third Eye Blind, I remember a very special girl who I shared some good and bad times with, and the lyrics and atmosphere reflected it so well, in addition to the fact that she also listened to them, so that is what I imagine when listening to them. When I listen to Dan Swanö, mostly winter forests come to mind, since I was always in the mood for his music when in such places.

 

[Julian Zembrowski]

Ah yes JoeVice, the perfect pitch thing is kinda different, that's some musical program to make transcribing easier. Remembering musical notes is easy if you apply it to something completely different (in their case colours).

 

[JoeVice]

Ah yes JoeVice, the perfect pitch thing is kinda different, that's some musical program to make transcribing easier. Remembering musical notes is easy if you apply it to something completely different (in their case colours).

do you have perfect pitch? i've always wanted to talk to someone who has it, and ask some questions.

 

[Braighs]

I have relative pitch. But I don't "see" intervals. I would describe it as "feeling". Like the fifth vibrates 3 times for every time the root vibrates twice. But I don't think about it like that. It comes natural.

 

[orain_on_bopeth]

Braighs you asked a little earlier if you could relate opeth to a food what would it be? im thinking either acacodo or ice cream. anyways i sometimes visualise a cold, hard, pale marble when listening to them. anyways i think listening to opeth on shrooms is an awsome idea that might make me "see sounds" i wonder what that would be like? im sure its something that cant realy be described with words but ill experiance soon enough

 

[Man In Black]

I see colors in my head.
Not for everything, but for a good number of things.
Just a quick example:
The intro to Close To The Edge by Yes strikes me as being very orange.
Blackwater Park (song) is purple
Advent is green
The Leper Affinity is red
The Drapery Falls is orange
Harvest is gold
Bleak is yellow
Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd is kind of blue
Like I said, I don't see it for all songs. I don't know exactly why they are the colors they are, it's just what pops into my head when I listen to them.