Futexture - Experiential Topography EP Review

David Krantz, a.k.a. Futexture, has taken the concept album to another level with his new EP Experiential Topography released today via Critical Beats for the Climate, Bluetech‘s non-profit charity driven label. With Critical Beats releases, 100% of profits go to The Rainforest Action Network, which helps protect some of the world’s most critical and biodiverse forest regions from deforestation and commercial development.

Each track on Experiential Topography has a unique dimension. Dave Tipper-esque sqelchiness, playful melodies, and jazzy drum programming keep your mind actively engaged in the music. Every song is accompanied by a custom piece of visual art, something more and more artists are beginning to do. However, the synchrony of the process used to create the music and art of Experiential Topography sets it apart from other concept releases. Accompanying the album is a set of intentional instructions, outlining the original process used to create the art and music of the EP. This allows anyone to experience the process that went into making the tracks or any artist to create “experiential remixes,” as David likes to call them. Futexture provides a ceremonial template to guide the artist along their creative path. The outcome will be entirely different each time, but the ceremonial intention and guides act as a golden thread that will hem the seams to each piece of art.

Moving towards an inclusive crowd-sourced model of art not limited to any particular medium of expression, the Experiential Topography EP is an exciting experiment in disintegrating the self-imposed boundaries of most electronic music releases. At its core, this EP is a invitation for you to participate, rather than passively consume. Isn’t it about time?

Excerpt from Futexture’s blog ExperientialTopography.com

Each of the four main tracks and its corresponding piece of visual art was created through a specific combination of ritualized meditative and physical experiences enacted daily during the creation process.

Each piece was created during a different phase of the moon during January 2013 at a specific time of day and aligned with a specific:

Cardinal direction
Herb
Crystal
Element
Animal Totem

“Writing these tracks was an exercise in connecting and aligning with organic archetypes rooted deeply in both our physical world and intuitive mythology. By consciously interacting with these specific patterns of resonance both as symbols and physical experiences constantly during the writing process, the music and art is now inherently inseparable from them.”

All music and art is shaped to an extent by the experience of the artist.

This is an experiment in:

Directly transmuting a defined set of experiences into art
Observing how a consistent set of experiences can shape individual pieces of art across multiple mediums and artists
Discovering if there is a consistent undercurrent, either aesthetic or emotive, that results when different artists draw from a controlled set of variables
Dissolving the gaps between process and result, artist and audience, and inspiration and creation.

You are also part of this experiment. Perhaps the biggest part.

I invite you to experience the Experiential Topography EP in the way it was crafted. I invite you to join me in an expressive synesthetic experiment.

Utilizing the experiential map as a guide you can:

Know exactly what the creative process was that produced the music and art on this EP
Re-experience the process as you experience the music and art
Understand the subtle link between process and result
Create new art using the same process

I invite you to use this experiential map as a guide to create your own piece of art or music.

Another entire album of music could be written using these experiences as a guide. Each piece of the puzzle is just as valid an expression of these experiences as any other and each piece that is added provides a greater frame of reference, a wider scope. This map can be used to create paintings, poetry, video, jewelry, dance, sculpture, ANYTHING you can think of. There are infinite possibilities of how these experiences can be interpreted and fractally re-contextualized into any creative medium.