The Function Aesthetic; Volume 1 (2012)

by Onyx Ashanti

supported by

Jason Sigal creator of the Beatjazz controller, Onyx Ashanti is a human cyborg!

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.

This is a collection based on two improvised "thoughts" of approximately 15 minutes each, expressed in two single, seperate performances . there are only sound elements, ideas and my beatjazz exo-voice to create the music. nothing prerecorded, not even drum samples...everything is synthesis and performance. The gaps in audio are places where i had to either breath or, in one case, laugh. These are completely unedited to get a feel for how each section of the thought, transforms into the next and the sounds being altered to "say" the new statement.

Also included in the full donwnload is a PDF collection of notes that were taken during the developement of the system thus far and, i feel, adds a dimension to the Function Aesthetic where you can see how function is turned into expression. I hope you dig it. ... more

Purchasable with gift card

name your price
Full Digital Discography

9

releases

Get all 9 Onyx Ashanti releases available on Bandcamp.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Node:0-:initialization suite:(2013-2023), Opacity (1998), The Function Aesthetic; Volume 1 (2012), exploration (2011), Recursive Artifact II:Nomadic Summer 2010 edition (2010), Onyx Ashanti Live From Bauchhund Gallerie (Official Bootleg) (2010), The Nomadic Diary of Onyx Ashanti: Recursive Artifacts vol. 1 (2009), BERLIN: The Sonic Diary of Onyx Ashanti (2008), and 1 more. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

$7 USD or more

1.	Hi! 02:17		buy track
2.	Thought 1-Transform 1 02:59		buy track
3.	Thought 1- Transform 2 03:12		buy track
4.	Thought 1- Transform 3 02:06		buy track
5.	Thought 1- Transform 4 04:25		buy track
6.	Thought 1- Transform 5 02:00		buy track
7.	Thought 2- Transform 1 08:30		buy track
8.	Thought 2- Transform 2 04:01		buy track
9.	Thought 2- Transform 3 02:06		buy track
10.	Thought 2- Transform 4 01:42		buy track
11.	Pulled and Twisted 06:37		buy track
12.	Solo Transform.1-feb2013 01:08		buy track
13.	Dual mode chordal experiment-1 01:43	info	buy track

about

From the 2011 beatjazz system crowdfunding campaign:

"The EP for my last campaign was based on aspects that were sonicically distinctive with that controller. this EP will be the same. it will exemplify sonic characteristics that are special about this system at this stage."

I have seen a truth.  I knew this truth already but i had not given it a name.  it was an invisible guiding principle that slowly revealed itself as the unseen force that governed progress.  Function.  Function, or rather focusing the attention in this project, to function over any aesthetic consideration.  the logic; imagining something has a finite range, but by parameteririzing what you think you want, it builds a bridge to what you really want, but didnt know how to put into form, mentally.  to build a construct around the idea so it can express itself.

Function itself is an aesthetic.  the idea of making a design that is perfect for the task at hand.  so by creating a system of pure function, all possible states are within a graspable range of expression vectors.  and when the idea of function becomes a guiding principle for not just the hardware design, but the software, the musical concept and the movements, an aesthetic creates itself from those variables.  this function aesthetic is now fully an all encompassing goal.

if all of the sounds become functions-meaning that an "element" can cover all utterances of the common phenomena (like a hit or a scrape or air turbulence like a horn ), then the way they are assembled becomes more varied, giving voice to the mind that does not speak with words. function wires the ideas directly into your nervous system, especially considering the use of sensors.  what it is becoming has outstripped my ability to guide it by imagining future sonic outcomes.  I cant imagine what i am playing TODAY. 3 months from now may as well be 1000 years.  so by becoming a sort of "function engineer", i can work to create the best iteration of a function and learn to operate that function over time, then repeat.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been creating music from a more function-focused perspective of investigating some new capability like the timestretching and pitchshifting, in a methodical way, in performance and i have found that once the mind knows where things are, it can consturct its own statements without having to try too much.  so by focusing on things like, timestretching and pitchshifting in a controllable manner, repositioning the accelrometers just a few degrees for a more natural hand position, and even adding a small robot made of servos i had lying around, and using it as a parameter feedback system, i enhance the function, even if i dont understand how this enhancement will manifest itself.  the results have yielded a few recordings that i consider to be the new me based on these criteria.  my sound wont be able to go back from this place.  the "function aesthetic" is Beatjazz v3.0(beta).

And, it is the EP that i can finally send to all of the contributors of my now year old crowdfunding campaign.  I just couldnt do it unless it was representative of something different than the last one.  The sound is very different to anything i've done before, in really interesting ways.  for instance, now, nothing is a mistake because i can "transform" it into something else, endlessly.  and the current sounds work well together.  they are mostly gesturally active, with 2 or 3 fully gesturally programmable.  so the "thoughts" end up in some strange places but can be resolved easily at any time, in multiple ways.

the album is three parts; the introduction and 2 "thoughts" which can be thought of a complete musical expression vector.  not quite a song or a mix or a track or agroove.  a bit of all that, but something else. I split them at the point in the "transform" where the idea had shifted from one to the next, definitively.  so there is a lot of interesting stuff at the end of the tracks as they transition from one to the next.

the first "thought" is free to download for everyone, but the album is $5 because that was the contribution amount that contributors gave for this album.

credits

released November 19, 2012

Onyx Ashanti-interpretation of information into expression
Information source-Internet

license

some rights reserved

about

Onyx Ashanti Detroit, Michigan

This is an archive of sonomorphic notes spanning the last 22 years. they chronical the journey through the many fields of electronic music mutation happening around us all. i find it most interesting to go chronologically to hears the various idea trajectories and their life arcs and transformation into offspring idea trajectories. the end of Node:0 begins a digest for further idea propagation. ... more

contact / help

Contact Onyx Ashanti

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Onyx Ashanti, you may also like:

hybtwibt?
by Space Afrika

supported by 15 fans who also own “The Function Aesthetic; Volume 1 (2012)”

i haven't been through what you've been through, but i want to understand everett
go to album
Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry
by Speaker Music

supported by 11 fans who also own “The Function Aesthetic; Volume 1 (2012)”

Intricate, dark and potent. Lord Dubious
go to album
Sahel Sounds Label Sampler
by Various Artists

supported by 7 fans who also own “The Function Aesthetic; Volume 1 (2012)”

Some of the finest sounds from the desert. Grab this collection while you cam !...........ss/tm/am editions vaché
go to album
Hotel Nota
by Roméo Poirier

featured on Bandcamp Radio Apr 9, 2024
go to album
Parallax
by Ahnnu

featured on Bandcamp Radio Apr 9, 2024
go to album
Demos PT. 1 AUG-SEPT. 2023 - Sometimes They Can't Stay (ideas you love)
by (Liv).e

featured on Bandcamp Radio Mar 26, 2024
go to album
Sahel Sounds Label Sampler 2
by Various Artists

supported by 7 fans who also own “The Function Aesthetic; Volume 1 (2012)”

Whew. Just unreal music from the desert......so much raw talent, spirit, soul....................ss/tm editions vaché
go to album