The Project Ascendancy

The CD Project enttitled Ascendancy was one of my first CD projects. I was new to using digital studios like Acid, Garage Band and of course Pro Tools. In my early beginnings I was looking for a lot of sounds and tried to infuse unique instruments to create an unusual sound. I think that music has gotten away from the regular structured style where there was the intro, the body and the bridge and finally the climax that faded out. Most of the songs in today although they still have the bridge or the vamp as many call it music has gone full circle back to where it was in the early days of my life.

I remember, as a child going to see the Columbus Symphony. The theme was, I believe, Peter and the Wolf. I remember this because each instrument was actually a character in the story that was portrayed by a specific sound. The instruments actually bought the characthers to life as well as their personalities. This was my intentions in a lote of my earlier musical projects. I sought to connect the listener to a theme that ran throughout the project. I used some of the same rifts with the sax and the bass lines because I was tell a continous story. The story was sometimes a memory of something that I had experienced or of a person and sometimes it conveyed the prevailing mood that was surfacing from my heart. Sometimes it just reflected what was going through my head.

In the project Ascendancy the repetitive use of specific instruments was my way of interweaving an orchestral style or classical rendition of an urban jazzical feel. The title of the project and the signature song was the central theme and many of the songs, if not all on the CD would reflect an idealic thought that connect them to the central theme. Just about every song had a deeper meaning and was one way for me to think over some complex theories or ideas that I was contemplating on for a book or just general research. I found myself thinking about my research and reflecting this research into my music. Whether this was intentionally done at a subconscious level I can't really say.

Ascendancy, as a project, represents a creative fusion of instruments, sounds, thoughts and theories concerning those metaphysical aspects of reality (after all I am a philosophy major). It was just the beginning as I was developing as a musician and writer. I think I have evolved into a hybrid, ecclectic artist now and where everything will go only God knows. I have a lot in my head and heart and It took every bit of 58 years for all of this stuff to get in there and I doubt if I can release everything I feel, hear and see in just 3 short years. Ascendancy represents a move towards some type of thematic structure to my projects and I am very happy with those times and experiences. They have brought me to where I am now. I have so much to be thankful for and this is whatAscendancy is all about moving into a place of elevation and a greatness.