Morgan Craft / 'Power of Won' Circle of Light Recordings 2016
These are exponential times, and all around us are the signs that point to a brand new world emerging. In seeking to understand our new environment, we will come upon intimations and facts that may chill us to the bone. We will recognize our complicity in all of the intricate weavings of this world and wonder how it came to be. Let us not lose faith. As the trumpets of technology blare ever louder, we are given the task of feeling the truth.
The blues legend speaks of Legba, the trickster of the crossroads, who uses his / her wile, and seductive ways, to fool the unwitting into signing on the dotted line and accepting the Devil’s bargain. The trickster lives on today, assuming any guise that might work in the art of subterfuge. Whether they be politicians, biologists, economists, physicists, computer engineers, or artists, the role of trickster persists. We must be ever vigilant and clear minded enough to recognize and refuse the quick and easy path. Money is not the end game. In the timeless battle of good and evil, only one thing, and one thing alone is of true value: the human soul.
And while the manifold benefits of this unfolding new age will certainly be undeniable, if we allow our technological innovations to overwhelm our humanity, we are lost. It is in our own long term best interest then to be critical, even aloof, during the transitional process, and refrain from any wholesale adoption without emotionally weighing the consequences. The efficacy of our globally connected new world, with the Internet of Things as the crowning achievement, relies on our acquiescence. The general shift to a society guided and shaped by a black box master algorithm is almost complete. But at what gain?
Exponential growth in technology, leading to the ultimate goal of Artificial General Intelligence, will instigate another evolutionary leap, but not in the way the technologists predict. We would do well to remember that the new, great, digital edifice is being constructed with a known flaw. One has to dig to find it, but it is there. The inherent incompleteness of mathematics as a field will always fall short of the innate infinity of mind. (Kurt Godel) That being the case, our natural, biological apparatus will be pushed by technology into revealing abilities once thought impossible.
To access more of our inner potential perhaps requires a catalyst, the likes of which we have never seen on earth before. Technology will force us to evolve. And we will evolve. ‘Whatsoever you pray for, believe that you have it, and it will be given to you’, points the way and is precise in its wording. And for those whose bias tilts them toward a scientific apprehension of the world, the fact of phenotypic plasticity should suffice for now.
In our modern era Music is particularly dangerous precisely because it seems like mere play. But the effects of Music on the psychology of the listener are merely the lowest hanging fruits to pluck from the tree. In addition, virtually all of the spiritual lineages that reach back to the ancients state that Music is capable of much more. Stories of ‘miracles’ abound like so much commonplace. Orpheus tamed wild beasts, moved rocks, and traveled to the underworld through music. Amphion built the walls of the city of Thebes through sound. There are secrets today that remain hidden from popular view for a reason. Greek mystical societies cloaked the true power and potential of Music in mathematical robes, knowing as they did the interminable labyrinth that equations engendered. The fundamental principle of the universe is vibration. Sound is the generator. Music is emotionalized sound.
These are exciting times.
2016 Circle of Light Recordings.
Morgan Craft has played with Vernon Reid, Marc Ribot, Christian Marclay, Daniel Carter, Nona Hendryx, Meshell Ndegeocello, Butch Morris, Talib Kweli, Burnt Sugar, Pete Cosey, Ikue Mori, Anton Fig, Beans, Muzz Skillings, Greg Osby, Johnny Kemp, Carl Hancock Rux.
After a 10 year period of intensive Tuscan forest recording sessions, he is currently based in Amsterdam.
