The inspiration for deep listening flows from above, from within, deep down and brings images, ideas, intuitions, but mostly is heard, directly perceived in its waves, rivulets, streams, cascades… and is expressed in sound, shaped into words, structured into music. Seers, often even blind, are also and possibly foremost deep listeners.

What is then the equivalent of a visionary – if the influx comes through the auditory channel? Isn’t this the base for a composer, musician who tries to express it through a more or less good translation into his chosen media of a notation or directly on a given instrument? But what do I do when the innerly heard is just so far off from any conventional or known way of expression, when the instruments are not yet there which could convey the perceived?

A visiting bell-maker and -master from Russia told me about a deep and transforming sound experience he had in his youth – and that it took him more than 30 years of explorations with bell-casting, forging, tempering to be able to find a kind of outer equivalent of what he had heard, felt, perceived, experienced.

There is this ancient Chinese myth, having rung in my ears for years: a legendary Stone Player will appear when humanity is in danger of shutting up in a material and ego driven cocoon and isolation; he descends from subtler realms to make stones, dense matter, sing, the hearts swing, heralding a new era of harmony… this legend had been a personal quest, in fact has initiated our work with lithophones, has brought the phenomenon of our Singing Stones (in collaboration with Prof. Fessmann and the ‘Klangsteine’). With it came the sense and confirmation that we are only at a beginning of ‘something else’, a new wave of unprecedented acoustic, sensory, synaesthetic, synergistic phenomena of sound through new instruments, new tunings, timbres, resonances.

And possibly all of this not only can happen in the solitary cell of the inventor, artisan and specialist, but wants to come into our awareness as a growing community of listeners, following that calling and auditory perceptions of a wonderful next step in our evolution.

MUSICOPHIL

It doesn’t take much to befriend music, traveling across the sheer infinite ocean of sound. Even if stages of this journey had to be mastered through reading charted mappings in university institutes and libraries laying out the theoretical routes, the real adventure lies in the moving, out in the field, deep in the listening.

Understanding has not really been my forte, rather the swimming, dancing, whirling, the diving in and out strong surges of deep experiences, trying to catch a ride on the thin board of lucid clarity in-midst the surf of powerful waves… Contemplative practices and inner and outer guidance to find proper orientation while crossing the sea of Nada/Sound have safely stirred the boat, equipped with a minimum of rational paraphernalia, necessary instrumentations for the explorer.

Teachings of diverse wisdom traditions and ‘spiritual sciences’, of Anthropology, Astronomy and Astrology explaining the workings of creation and its cycles and rhythms on the macro scale; Psychology and Integral Yoga exposing the dynamics of inner alchemies; various approaches of Music Practice and -Art having enhanced and stimulated the constant, focused discovery process over more than 3 decades.

The challenge to translate the inner experience into the direct work with matter, the focus on evoking the sound out of natural materials, the learning about their density, consistency, texture, limitations and capacity of resonance stimulates the ever undulating process of revelation and manifestation, to expose, bring forward the inherent vibratory energy state of matter.

Musical instruments are approached through phenomenological studies not only of their material, form, shape, symbolism, function, role and impact but foremost as an extension of the human instrumentation of sensory and motoric capacity and creativity and as tools for a higher perception and expression of our true nature. They are age-old and ever new companions, friends, teachers, guides, rare and precious instruments for the immanent task of the human being, our growth towards perfection or transcendence of the species.

GLOBAL CITIZEN

We all are, as I have been, born out of the fluidity of our intrauterine transition in a specific place, environment, geographical location, nation – and yes, all together on this rather wonderful blue planet, floating with its own giant mass of water in the familiar solar circumference of this immense cosmic ocean of seemingly infinite space…

As each plant grows according to the conditions of its immediate surroundings, so also have we emerged from the roots of the soil and culture of our home-grounds and -lands. While the growing urban- and globalization of our contemporary civilization almost dissolves the uniqueness of a
given place and nation, we all have to admit that the nursery times and rhymes of the early years still form not only our language but also our attitudes and outlooks on life. Having been born in a border region between the then so called ‘free’ West and the iron-curtained East there had always been the interest about the other side, the need to understand the different, the urge to cross over, dissolve the boundaries, to follow the call of adventure and freedom!

Auroville with its attempt of a creative and peaceful integration of our human family is a small representation and expression of the emerging need of a more global oriented civilization. To live here brings the personal background – that which sounds through our mask of conditionings – in the wider context of the evolutionary journey of our humanity. Imagine that after long visits and activities abroad you come ‘home’ into a community constituted by people of more than 40 different nationalities, of very diverse backgrounds and cultures! The definition and parameters of identity shift and I feel home in the diversity and richness of not only an international community but am part of a human family, belonging to this colorful clan of settlers from another sphere. And more and more of these youthful ‘sound-pilgrims’ are visiting, passing through, staying to assist, following a quest for a new vibration, an unknown sound, a new music.

Of course, through the progressive onward path of this our species and its organization, while sharing the precious goods of our origin we still have to cross borders, carry passports and go through tight security checks – alone the realms of creative thinking and compassionate feeling are free, the spheres of deeper and higher listening still spreading their wings, sending signals from new horizons, offering promises of a wholesome, harmonious and sound life!

VITA

Aurelio, the creative director of SVARAM, is a musician, educator, ethno-musicologist, researcher, sound designer and sound healer. Through his extensive travels and studies all around the world, Aurelio has become a noted pioneer in the development and manufacture of innovative musical instruments, whether it be simple inviting ones for beginners, or instruments specially designed for use in sound healing.

1960, Aurelio was born in Austria, close to Vienna. He began his musical studies in 1975 with classical guitar, completing his baccalaureate in 1979. Aurelio made his first far-flung journey by traveling overland to Pakistan.
In the following year he attended the University of Vienna, studying Latin, linguistics and ethno-musicology, but by ’81 he had embarked on a journey that would end up lasting five years: taking him through California, where he studied Shamanism and Tai Chi, to the South Pacific islands of Marquesas, Tahiti and Fiji, where he immersed himself in the local traditions of music. By ’83, he was staying in Maori and Aboriginal communities in New Zealand and Australia, building his first musical instruments; 1984 found him in Papua New Guinea, and ’85 in China, studying the role of music in traditional Chinese society.

In the years that followed (1986-90), Aurelio enjoyed living in the pristine nature of the Austrian Alps, continuing his studies from within. When he was not gardening, he collaborated with various experts to deepen his understanding of acoustics, different musical and other traditions, such as Pythagorean Teachings, Buddhist meditation practice, Indian classical and Gregorian modal chant; he also continued to build instruments, and became involved in community music by organizing education groups in music, movement, and theatre, as well as heritage markets and festivals. Soon, Aurelio was getting involved into bigger projects: workshops, seminars, performances and conferences, in Europe as well as India. During this time he developed his conception of sound therapy,
“A Sound Approach to Life”, which would later inspire SVARAMs new instruments and lately ‘New Waves’, created a series of specially tuned instruments of his own invention.

In 1991, Aurelio moved to South India to join the Utopian township of Auroville, where he became intensely involved in a wide range of cultural and healing activities. He co-created Vérité Integral Learning Center for Health, Healing and Sustainability, collaborated on a number of performing arts productions on both a community and national level, and engaged in serious study of the Indian scriptures on music, medicine, and performing arts.

Among the more notable projects Aurelio was involved in are his frequent collaborations with “Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Arts Research”, and the awarded children’s film “Yatra”. He also helped to establish “Mohanam Cultural Center”, an initiative to reconnect the Tamil youth living around Auroville to their cultural roots.

Aurelio’s biggest undertaking so far was launched in 2003: SVARAM Musical Instruments, Vocational Training and Research Station. Conceived initially as a way to realize Aurelio’s experiments with new instruments and tunings, SVARAM has evolved into an Auroville commercial unit which sells a wide range of easy-to-play instruments from various cultures. SVARAM has enabled Aurelio to collaborate with notable researchers and musicians: the prototypes of Klaus Fessmann’ s singing stones, for instance, were developed at SVARAM using locally sourced granite, and Alexander Zhigarev’ s expertise with brass bells has led to the creation of SVARAMs tuned plate-bells.

Meanwhile, Aurelio has continued to travel around the world, giving workshops and lectures but also, of course, absorbing local musical traditions, for example in Korea, Japan, and Borneo. He has joined the World Federation of Music Therapy and publishes articles in newspapers and research magazines.

For the future, Aurelio conceptualized SVARAM Center for the Craft, Art and Science of Sound which is now well under way.