Sometimes a person is offered the opportunity to glimpse at a moment that is very personal to somebody else. Two examples of this: an artist’s workspace (be it a studio, bedroom, practice room, dungeon, balcony, garden, or through live performances) and a wedding. Disparate contexts, but both contain a similar sense of emotional place, serenity, and beauty. Though, one is a scene of limitless optimism, while the other is often plagued by intense turmoil and self-doubt.
The artistic process is nothing like a wedding. Being an artist is ugly and depressing, because for those most committed to their art, there is no worse critic than thyself. First and foremost, an artist is married to his or her opus (either a single piece that represents a lifelong artistic statement, or an entire oeuvre) before he or she is married to anybody else. Long after the bedroom lights go out, the subconscious light of creativity still glows and interferes with human contact. Other people won’t understand that it’s the type of love that’s almost inanimate because music cannot return any definitive feedback. Being a musician is like being married to someone who will never make up their mind and never actually talk. Ever. Thousands of wordless, lonely conversations. All the artist can do is continually perfect it, and eventually it will shine for them, and in turn reflect positively or negatively. Other people may love them for it, but their music will never love them.
In this except, from a live performance at a friend’s wedding, The OO-Ray merits the listener the very opportunity to experience two moments of incredible intimacy, using what appears to be looping piano and “shoegaze cello.” Like any good performance, there are conflicting emotions that overlap each other in a climactic and intense journey. The clean, almost cliché loveliness of the cello is turned forlorn and melancholy by the repetitive, looping nature of the performance, and the continuous layering of complicated emotional fragments on top only add to the overall beauty of the mix. The best music, in any genre, makes one feel very much, but not know immediately what it is they are feeling. The best music does not make you feel love, but makes you feel the artist’s love, and then allows you to interpret it.
• The OO-Ray: http://15people.net
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