Category: Ambient Music

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How Have We Come to This?

This is a rhetorical question but also the title of a just-completed piece of music that will be part of a future album release, outlet to be determined. I hope to have enough pieces for an album release in 2026. Stay tuned….

As to the rhetorical question “How Have We Come to This?”, it is something I’m saying to myself more and more as I watch what I’ll call the myths of a stable society teetering and collapsing. I see the nightmare in Gaza playing out in what is by any definition a genocide and people being verbally eviscerated for being critical of the inhumanity on display. I see the predictable dichotomies and binary arguments that are always used to defend atrocity and historical injustices. I see power being exerted beyond what had long thought to have been “normal”, revealing the fragility of agreements that structure society. I see what I had hoped to have been archaic modes of thinking towards race and identify remerge, angrier and uglier than ever. I see all this and ask, “How Have We Come to This?”.

But surprisingly, I also have hope. It is not a flowery or sentimental hope. It is a hope based on something I really can’t properly describe as it is rooted as spiritually experiential. It is a hope born of prayer and meditation and not one that is unshakable. To be clear, I have great moments of fear and anger. I can experience despair with the best of them. But when I am deliberate in my prayer practice, I find hope that no matter how bad things get in the world (and I expect things to get much worse before they get better), there is still goodness. There is still kindness. There is still compassion. There is still love. That sounds flowery and perhaps it is. But I do believe that love prevails always. And I take solace in words of people I admire throughout history, like this guy….

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Update and Thoughts on Recent Music Listening

Hello:

I’m taking a brief break from tweaking a work-in-progress piece to let you know that….I’m working on a WIP piece and compiling music. Nothing firm but I’m thinking the next batch will be a Spotify/Pandora/Apple release in addition to Bandcamp. More to come…

Regarding some of the music I’ve been listening to, it’s been a combination of pleasant new (for me) discoveries mixed with nostalgic “rabbit holes”.

1st, the nostalgia. Two weeks ago, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath bid farewell to performance with an amazing celebration in their hometown of Birmingham, England. It was an all-star affair which was fantastic, but the emotional weight was, of course, seeing Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward take the stage one final time (and I do believe this is their farewell, especially Ozzy who is in failing health). I was reminded of all the great Sabbath and Ozzy albums that were so integral to my youth. I’ve been dialing up “Diary of a Madman”, “Bark at the Moon”, Volume 4, and other great albums that cause memories and emotions to rush into my mind. I’m grateful to have been of the generation to have experienced such greatness both live and recorded. God bless the Fathers of Heavy Metal.

As for the more recent discoveries:

JakoJako – Tết 41: A brilliant collection of music by a Berlin-based modular synthesist that I’ve really come to admire. She brings an emotional element to electronic music which is not common.

Caterina Barbieri – Patterns of Consciousness: An Italian electronic musician who also adds emotional elements to electronic music. There are some rhythmic elements to her music that don’t feel mechanically perfect or quantized to the nano-second, which I love.

In any case, thank you for your interest and check back for more updates. I wish you peace and every good.

Alan

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Behind the Titles of “I Wasn’t Ready”

As with all my music, titles are a little tricky in that I’m an instrumentalist. Without lyrics, there isn’t a point of reference for a title to come from. And unlike some instrumentalists that I admire, I don’t come up with a title before the composition. Quite the opposite actually. I will start a recording file by giving it a time stamp name (e.g. 240512). On occasion, a piece will lend itself to a name while I’m working on it but, more often, the title will come to me when the piece is near completion. It is almost always informed by an emotion or memory that was prevalent at the time of the piece’s creation.

The pieces that comprise the album “I Wasn’t Ready” were assembled over years. Some were recordings I left undone due to another idea taking precedence or I got stuck.

With all that said, here’s a brief explanation of the titles:

  • “I Wasn’t Ready” – This piece, upon completion, reminded me of the memory of both my late father and my late sister, both of whom died within 18 months of each other. While it’s been a few years now since their passing, there is still (and will always be) grief. I shall always miss them, but it dawned on me that I was not prepared for the pain of their absence and that struck me as odd, in a way. The one thing we all have in common is death. We will all die. We will all lose loved ones. And yet we are so woefully prepared.
  • “It Ends and Begins” – This is one of those pieces that sat for a while. I started it in 2021, put it down, and didn’t get back to it until 2024. When I did return to it, I felt like a different world. A reminder that things are not static.
  • “Melancholic” – This piece came together quickly and was reflective of the melancholic mood I was in at the time.
  • “A Budding” – Another piece that sat for a while. I was not in the best of moods when I started it. I was angry, sad, disgusted. But, having put it down for a while and coming back to it with clean ears and emotions, I saw the initial period as being a period of new beginning born out of a very unpleasant moment.
  • “Grace Amongst the Haze” – When this piece was done, it conjured up a memory of Northern California and the beauty that came with the summer fog.
  • “Where the Waters Meet” – This was inspired by a return trip to my Northern California home region in 2023 and, specifically, Jenner where the Russian River flows into the Pacific Ocean. I was there with my wife, daughters, grandson, and was reminded of the time, in 1988, when I was walking at the same spot with my father.
  • “An Ugly Truth Revealed” – This was recorded at the end of 2024 very quickly. I had just come back from overseas and it felt like the country I had hoped we would be was an overly optimistic illusion and some unpleasant truths were confirmed for all to see.

As always, I thank you for your support. Cheers.

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New Album is Out!

I’m most grateful to announce my latest batch of music, “I Wasn’t Ready” is now available via the link below. It is available for “Name Your Prices”, meaning if you want to download for free, have at it. If you want to pay $1000, have at it (though I question your sanity but appreciate the generosity). I just ask that you leave an e-mail address so I can thank you and update you on future releases.

I will be sharing some background behind the music, such as the meaning of the titles, some techy stuff, and other thoughts.

The cover art as seen below is by Ana Babil. Please visit Shutterbox and search her name.

As always, I’m most grateful for the privilege of having my music heard and appreciated. I thank you for the support. I wish you peace and blessings. Cheers.

https://alanimberg.bandcamp.com/album/i-wasnt-ready

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Upcoming Release Update – “I Wasn’t Ready”

I’m grateful to announce the release date of my latest collection of music, titled “I Wasn’t Ready”, is January 6th, 2025. It will be released on Bandcamp.com. For the 1st 60 days of release, it will be available for “Name Your Price” (i.e. free if you want…or as much as you feel so inclined).

The track list is as follows:

The album cover art is by Ana Babil.

More updates to come, including an explanation of the titles.

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…and more travel

I’ve just returned from a two week stint in Australia that was preceded by another trip to Green Bay….and I’m about to head to Algeria. Music is productive though and piling up. More to come…

Alan

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Upcoming Activities

Hello All:

Been traveling for the past month and attending to family matters. I will update via a blog post later. Some new music will be available via Bandcamp by end of July as I clean out the queue of work that has been awaiting release. I’m either going to release all I have in the queue or archive it for later as some of it doesn’t feel up to par. I’m working on a more ethereal direction that I hope will feel like a break from my previous output….we’ll see.

In any case, I thank you for your support and interest in my music. May you be blessed with every good.

Cheers,

Alan