SILENCE AND THE UNWINKING MINDS “Ephemeral” (Do You Dream of Noise?)



New Zealander Derek Pearson suggests unflinching focus with his project Silence and the Unwinking Minds, a solo endeavor even though it sounds like a band name, one of those “Paul Revere and the Raiders” type dealies. In pure silence the mind centers itself, “unwinking,” solely attentive to the object or task on which it’s directed its concentration. Derek Pearson in the same way hones in on a distinctive mood with Ephemeral, arching his eyebrow and staring into the heart of the void in order to pierce the darkness within.

 

But of course, as it usually does in these kinds of circumstances, the void stares back, and Derek Pearson is forced to forge an uneasy truce with all that internal unknown and proceed as best he can. He proceeds well, as Ephemeral pieces together a collection of low-key instrumental meditations, all falling easily within the post-rock/electronic/ambient hybrid idiom and taking cues from modern classical. Basically, you could easily find Ephemeral nestled in the Erased Tapes catalog, or, uh, the Do You Dream of Noise? catalog, into which it actually nestles. So, really, it’s exactly where it belongs.

 

Ephemeral suggests the fleeting nature of everything and packages that disillusion and impermanence into bite-sized nuggets of emotional engagement, forcing a reckoning between oneself and the motions of existence. Sit up, stand back, take notice! What elements of life are relegated to the edges or corners that should be foregrounded instead? Silence and the Unwinking Minds suggests that the path forward is hidden within the subtleties, but in plain sight – just pay attention, that’s all. It’s easy to pay attention to Ephemeral, and equally easy allow that focus to burn right down to the center of what matters.

 

https://silenceandtheunwinkingminds.bandcamp.com/

 

https://www.facebook.com/doyoudreamofnoise/

 

--Ryan