Constrained Creativity

I've been working with synthesizers for 30 years and have now accumulated a vast range of equipment. Surprisingly, I do not feel more creative today than when I was a teenager and my resources were limited.

Although common wisdom suggests the opposite, limitations or constraints are essential to creativity. In my experience, when no limits are imposed you often head towards your first idea, often the most intuitive one, and if you are lazy (like me), the simplest too. This first idea, though it may be a good one, may not be the most interesting.

Constraints help you to surpass yourself. You may think they work against you, and they will at first, but then they force you to explore new paths and spend more time on the task in hand. They make you try harder.

As a limitation here, I decided to use a single instrument, and one difficult to tame: the Lyra-8. It's an analog instrument that hardly makes 'music', and challenges you to play in tune. When you fix one voice, the others drift away! At some point you have to give up and go where the instrument wants to take you. This is the charm and intrinsic characteristic of the Lyra-8.

Lyra is also the name of a constellation in the northern night sky. It thus makes sense for a piece like this to be listed in the dark space ambient music category. This generator sounds dark, but serene. You can see light shining through the obscurity. This soundscape also feels utterly mysterious. Is it a genesis that you are experiencing, or an ending? Or both? It is a sonic questioning about our existence. Don't be afraid of the darkness; embrace it.

This generator shines at low listening levels, and provides a nice backdrop to your meditation sessions.

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