Interview for Amplified, Mensa's Zine - July 2011.
EVER ORCHID: TRAVELER OF THE SOUL
On June 22. 2011, the ever so busy Ever Orchid granted me an interview. Born in Chile, she grew up in Brazil, and since then has lived short spells in Spain and Costa Rica, spending most of her last 10 years in London, while extensively traveling in North America, Europe, North Africa and Asia. She could be described as a spiritual musician/artist, but there isn't really any label that could fit her. The best is to let her speak…
QUESTION: Ever Orchid, who are you?
ANSWER: Who am I? In this current incarnation, I am 34 years old.
Q: 34 years old or 34 years odd?
A: Could be both! Female gender. And that's what I can categorize myself in this current incarnation, really, but if I think of who I am… I would say that I am a memory that's been wandering through the Universe, mostly in this solar system, on this planet, for millions of years, if you can count it in years. Because memory wise I don't think you can use that time-measure, because that time-measure is something quite recently made by men. So, who am I? If I have to go straight to the point, then I would have to say that I am a memory that has been present for a long time.
QUESTION: What do you do?
ANSWER: What do I do for a living, what do I do with my life, what do I do as a person, what do I do with my mind, what?
Q: Everything, everything you wanna talk about.
A: I'm gonna talk for a week! … (laughing) … I'm gonna talk about current projects. For a start, I do drawings. I have a BA in Fine Arts, which I finished with drawings on stones for my final work, my degree exhibition, and I developed a whole thesis, a study work. Stone drawings, the Akashic memories of the Earth. The Akashic record memories on the stones. Things expressed on drawings on the stone surfaces. So, that's one part of my work, which I'm still working with today.
I also have a MA in History of Art, which I wrote on sound art, and that stimulated a lot of my own sound art creation, and my own work as a musician. Apart from that, I just finished my fourth official album - my fourth collection of sound works. Plus a DVD, with 23 music videos. So I'm a draughtsman, I do drawings, I do music, sound works, and I do films, and I do stage performances. That's what I do.
QUESTION: Where does your music come from?
ANSWER: That's a very good question, because I'm not very clear about that myself. When I started doing sound work, I had this theory in my mind that my sound composition should be following the same creative process as my drawings. And in my rational mind, my drawing was connecting with an organic canvas, which was the stone, and interacting with that stone, with lines, with repetitions of lines. So in sound, I would construct the soundscapes as the organic 'canvas' and then I would connect all these sound patterns together with repetitions of lines of other instruments and my voice on top of that interacting with the organic canvas, the originally built soundscape. In my rational mind it's how I wanted my music to be created, and the way I believed it was going to be directed to. Now I've been doing music for five years officially, but while getting these collections of works together, on the second collection, something unexpected happened. My humming in singing became quite strong and it started to fill the structure of the sound work. The soundscape was still there, but it was not the structure of the sound work anymore. This process just kept increasing. Now, after finishing the fourth collection of works where this humming, -intuitive humming - is so strong that it has taken over as the main structure of the sound work. I believe this humming is an ancient memory. I believe that somehow I am still following the same process like in my drawings. It's connecting with the previous memory that was there before, with the sound, and that brings it back to the present. I think my music comes from an old and ancient memory.
QUESTION: What are your influences?
ANSWER: The sky, the landscape and nature would be my first influences. Also meditation and inner realms of the mind. Ancient history, ancient civilizations, symbols, prehistory, cave art. Everything that has a strong natural memory and that I can connect with.
QUESTION: Where does your music take you?
ANSWER: It certainly takes me to an awareness stage that I can connect with something that I do recognize as it was there before. I can connect with something that I believe is an old memory, that I have a vague remembering of. The memory wasn't there before, but once I actually recreate that sound again, I recognize the sound somehow, as it has been there for the whole time being.
QUESTION: What is music to you?
ANSWER: Music for me is sound in motion; it's a manipulation of sound. Some of the instrumental artists from mid 20th century would say that any sound can be classified as music, it depends how you listen to it. I can agree with part of that, I think it has to be an aesthetic experience for your ears. It is like: what is art? In my humble opinion it is when you have an aesthetic experience. It doesn't matter what it is, it doesn't matter if it is a common object, the most sophisticated sculpture ever built, or if it is something horrible or repugnant, or if it is something extremely beautiful. You're having an aesthetic experience with the outside of that particular piece. With that, in your vision, in your viewing, your smelling, your sense of taste, your sense of touching, any of your senses. Any reception sensor you might be using. So, I think music is when you're having an aesthetic experience with any sort of sound. I think a question that I would ask here is: what do I want to do with my music? Or what is my music's purpose?
QUESTION: So, what do you want to do with your music, and what is your music's purpose?
ANSWER: I think society and humanity - but in general normal society, as probably primitive tribes are still living more closely to their original state of existence that they are not so disconnected. I feel our society is very disconnected from the natural memory of the earth, or the natural purposes of existence that humanity has. As I try to connect with this memory and I try to bring back this ancient memory, I would like my music to… For when people listen to it, I would like people to reconnect to something that was originally from them, from their spiritual essence, but has been forgotten somehow. If they feel disconnected from that essential, spiritual origin that all of us have, due to all the social brainwashing they have to go through to fit into society somehow at some point in their lives. I hope that the music I produce will bring back the awareness state with that healthy, spiritual essence that people need to be in contact with. It doesn't matter how corrupted society is, it doesn't matter how society can make you disconnected from your original being, you have to always be reminded of what your original spirit is, from existences ago. If the sounds you hear through these songs works in helping you connect with that, and hopefully you keep it in the future as a reminder that you have that connection, for every time you need, because it is part of you-, Then I feel that I've done my purpose.
QUESTION: The voice, what is it for you?
ANSWER: The voice for me is a natural instrument, a natural instrument to the human body. There are many natural instruments. You can start hitting a piece of wood and it is a natural instrument obviously, but the voice is a natural instrument that comes from inside the human body, and I can be a bit daring here and mention the possible idea that each person's voice will resonate with their internal essence inside or with some part of their spirit. Each person has a different voice and their voice is going to resonate as the internal being that they have. In theosophical books, the origin of the word 'person' is explained. The words 'per' and 'sona' are from ancient Greek. 'Per' is 'that through which', and 'sona' is 'the sound comes'. So, 'person' means 'that through which the sound comes'.
QUESTION: Which was the title of your first album?
ANSWER: Yes. When I read that, that really struck my mind, because it's like each human being is a vessel for sounds, a transmitter of sounds. The voice is the most straightforward vehicle for that. That's what I want to explore for my PhD. In the 5th century, the Roman philosopher Boethius classified music in three types: human music, music of the spheres and instrumental music. Instrumental music as we know it has been widely discussed, studied, researched and published. Music of the spheres is not as popular, but a few books have been written about it, along with some research. But nothing has been written on human music. It's been 1,500 years since this term appeared in music writing and this terminology of the three types of music has been heavily influenced by western music theory, but no one researched the term 'human music'. Boethius classified these types of music 1,500 years ago, but I think it was due to the singing at the time and the things he observed at the time, the voice just as an instrument. He explained human music as something that connects with the spirit, that connects with the soul. You have the harmony inside the human body and you express it, somehow it comes outside of the body. So, if I were to describe contemporary music, I would say that with today's knowledge, there might be a lot of examples of human music in singing. I think that after the one and a half millennia that has past since this term came out for the first time, music has changed a lot and a lot of different types of music have appeared. It could be said that the voice as a natural instrument from the human body can connect with those human aspects of the soul, the human aspects of the mind and the psyche of those ancient memories that the collective consciousness has been holding for a long time, since the humanity started walking on the earth. Through singing you can connect with those human aspects and express them, and that's how I see voice - as the main human body's natural musical instrument.
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