Active/"authentic" listening

[Keretja]

I was wondering whether there's a better way of listening to experimental music, in particular, noise. I usually listen to music on computer, when writing or reading things on the web but most usually I find myself too isolated or distracted from the music, or not as much engrossed in it as I would like to be. (Or vice versa, not being fully engrossed or not concentrated on neither what I'm reading/doing nor what I'm listening to.) And when I directly try to listen to the music I usually don't find it as engaging as I normally do, the normal being here listening to music whilst doing something.

Obviously there's a "sweet spot": when one's engaged in the music without realizing it, although by the nature of this sort of "authentic listening", it's a mode of listening that one can not voluntarily get into. It usually happens when I listen to music when traveling (in a car or public transportation, looking at the horizon thoughtfully).

I don't know if such "authentic listening" is approachable only tangentially (that is, only indirectly) for other people as well. How do you listen to music or achieve that sort of "authentic listening" where you don't realize you're fully engrossed in it, where you, to put it a bit dramatically, "lose yourself"?

On a side note I find music to be the form of art with which it is the hardest to achieve this level of engagement; it is very easy to lose the distance in movies, probably because it's visual. The same even applies to more static forms of art, like painting or even sculpture.

[impulse manslaughter]

I used to spend hours in front of my stereo just listening to the music.. now i'm often behind my laptop or doing other things while the music is in the background. Mostly because of lack of time. Still, almost everyday i spin a few 7"s and they get my full attention. Also, when i'm in my car there's time to really listen to music.

[Zeno Marx]

http://www.richersounds.com/images/tips/speakerSetup.gif

When in cars, I listen to news radio.  I don't own a portable device.  I've never enjoyed listening to music outside the home.  I've tried many times, but I don't care for it.

[eyestrain]

Currently on the train and was utterly engrossed in hours of music - as stated above - just watching the horizon. That sort of disattached movement, with a steady stream of visuals, achieves what I think you're saying static art can do. In the car, unless I'm stoned, which I'm finally wise enough to not do, I'm never really "in" the music, just entertained by it.

At home, sitting in front of that standard speaking arrangement, allowing a few minutes to digest the insert(s) and cover and then just watching the trees in the yard or closing my eyes or looking at the split between wall paint and ceiling paint, I typically "lose it". Focus, on nothing mostly hehe, is number one for me.

As regards focus, I'm an avid cook (once professionally, and very much so at home), and there have definitely been many moments on the range where the music is perfectly aligned with my intensity of process. This is maybe similar to how lifters feel with listening the Staind and Pantera, hah, so maybe I'm not approaching the right thing.

[tinnitustimulus]

I'm usually on my bed laying down, but I have definitely done chores around the house to pain jerk and anenzephalia etc. I also rather listen to my ipod on a train or bus than deal whatever is around me, and the rest are about the same, though I doubt I could really enjoy something like zoviet france or Homotopy to Marie during that.

Somehow I understand whitehouse lyrics better when I'm driving to it, not something I understand completely, but I think I get different details when I'm driving.  Laying down I get textures and subtle facets, when I do something I think I understand the overall structure, and when I am driving, I am thinking in spatial and verbal terms primarily before anything else.

Back to Homotopy to Marie, once when I was record shopping for a friend at RRRecords and bought him a cassette version of NWW release, an album I used to play when I was completely alone and in complete darkness. He insisted I play this at in front 5 other people, which I insisted was probably a bad idea, but he did it anyway. Nobody could talk during the entire playing of it, it was very intense experience and I think part of it was that they couldn't tell what was the Homotopy and what was outside sounds, what was real. I don't think I had that intensity listening to it alone.

[Bleak Existence]

I used to spend hours in front of my stereo just listening to the music too now i mostly listen to it on my laptop or in my car otherwise it straight in my synth amp loud !

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I think conditions are up to record. Some records can still penetrate your consciousness even when played on "background". Some records need full attention to work at all. It also depends on what sort of activity it is.

As these days I spend most of my time sitting in store, I have installed pair of speakers and all necessary playback devices (tape, turntable, cd) in perfect spot. So basically standing or sitting on perfect "triangle" compared to speakers. So, question remains to me, if I do some "shitwork" a'la doing package of records, or labeling prices, what is the active? I don't think putting couple CD's in envelope is very challenging brainwork, so I rather conclude that listening music is the active part and some minor activity on side is the "background happening".

Sound and music tends to be part of life since I was kid. It wasn't moment when life just stops and some isolated chamber with armchair & hifi system appears. Of course I do listen music like that as well, but don't think most stuff requires one to approach it like classical music gig.

All what noise requires in my case, is that there shouldn't be distraction of all sorts of sounds that comes from other things than stereos. People talking. TV on. Heavy traffic sound from open windows. All that. No. I can do things, while listening, but I don't want much things to happen near by.

[MT]

Most deepest listening that I do is when I am outside walking, cycling or doing stuff at home with earphones on. Long train travels are the best to sink into new albums. For some reason sometimes I find it very difficult to focus at home. But once I go outside, or travelling, I can dive into the music and can be consumed by it.

[P-K]

on the couch (or better : a huge relaxation pillow) reading book or checking sleeve/artwork. headphones or loud system...i get distracted very easily; i can't actively listen and do paperwork (online taxes, email from work etc) at the same time....but i don't seem to have that problem with a good book, ...anything computer-related is doomed to make my mind wander off i think.

Listening on pc : only online samples to swiftly 'check' something

ipod : just light muzak when on my way to somewhere, nothing heavy/demanding and certainly no first spins.

[Steve]

I have a room that is dedicated to music, I prefer to listen alone and I do not like listening to music on the computer. I am usually reading whilst listening to music, I often just sit in an upright chair and listen whilst looking at the sleeve, read sleeve notes or whatever but I like to let the mind wander and visualise. Sometimes I do household chores to the noisier sounds, I find it helps ...

[bitewerksMTB]

I often put on a record then leave the house or I just stare at the grooves & imagine how I think it should sound.

[Cementimental]

I often listen to noise or music somehow in various different situations without feeling the need to rationalise it or justify it to other noise record nerds on the internet.

[eyestrain]

Sometimes I do household chores to the noisier sounds, I find it helps ...

[Bloated Slutbag]

Obviously there's a "sweet spot": when one's engaged in the music without realizing it, although by the nature of this sort of "authentic listening", it's a mode of listening that one can not voluntarily get into.

Interesting take.

It would seem that any state of drifting... in and out... of consciousness... would assist the potential for, um, sweet spottedness... losing my train of thought here, but-

Recently, for me, the most reliable approach may transpire late at night, necessarily very low volume and - unless the recording itself is rather "quiet" - usually on headphones. Such disturbances are well-served by amorphous sound fields with a long (and/or repeatable) playing time. Always interesting what I perceive (or fail to perceive) under these conditions. Also interesting what seems to jar; or to startle into wakefulness - often things that would barely register in the daytime. (Recent memorable example the otherwise relatively tame "torture" scene from Jean-Claude Eloy's Yo-In, appearing almost 2 hours into a rather sedate series of pastoral drift.) Another interesting outcome is the new lease afforded certain species of harsh noise. All noise – indeed all sound – could be said to, er, sound good at high volume, but when (the possibly hallucinated) intensities come come through at very low volumes the recording is automatically afforded an elevated status – and not infrequently, to the chagrin of my more wakeful or (self-)conscious perceptions/tastes.

That said, if I've said anything- plenty of my wakeful listening transpires while otherwise engaged. This is less than ideal, but I take what I can get. Driving, on the train, doing housework, under the influence. But- all of these are to be regarded as degraded listening experiences. So in the car, for instance, recordings with a recognizable beat – which I can barely stand when engaged in a "serious" listening session – will often come into play. (It was interesting reading Scat-O-Logy commenting on the recent Swans album, how it sounds so... audiophilic... on the hi-fi. Though I am a huge Swans fan, a lifer you could say, I don't think I've ever afforded a single minute of a "serious listening" session to that kind of music. At least... not consciously...)

[l.b.]

I often put on a record then leave the house

i do this too...never met anyone else! it's nice to come home to an empty apartment with music blaring already