Seeking off-planet experiences through the metaphysics of sound
As a self-proclaimed connoisseur of the metaphysical realms of sound and a semi-professional ponderer on the discursive musings of great Western philosophers, I’m finding myself increasingly ensconced in the swirling mists that bridge the gap between instrumental post-rock and Hegel's widely – and often wildly – interpreted concept of the Geist. It's an exploration akin to tying one's shoelaces while free-falling through the existential void of the all-too-modern abyss - a quite thrilling, if somewhat black-pilling, endeavour. But I'm nothing if unwilling to step away from my usual quasi-Nietzschean posturing. Thus, my latest foray into Hegelian dialectic may prove a fruitful excursion towards an edifying exploration of the metaphysically objectivist credo that is Absolute Idealism. Though, ultimately, we shall see.
The refreshing unconventionality and tumescent progressive elements of post-rock, with its sprawling sonic configurations and uncompromising waves of etheric textures, act as a conduit for this very musing of ineffability, rather like a nocturnally plagued Lutheran pondering the abstruse substrata to whose extent of faith only a devout theologian can be tested. Thus, drawing from such a rich lineage of sonic exploration, from the progressive rock virtuosity of the veritable old guard of King Crimson and Pink Floyd to the Krautrock provocateurs Can and pre-Eno Cluster, we see a profound influence on today’s experimental music scene. Recently, upon reacquainting myself with Explosions in the Sky’s fine-wine classic Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s harder-edged sonic landmark Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, I was struck by a realisation. Each pluck of the guitar string seems to resound deeply, extending its primordial resonance to the core, elemental qualia of the cosmos. This music seeks answers and, in the echo of its own vibration, simultaneously provides them.
Hegel’s profoundly systematic construction of the Geist, or the “Absolute Spirit” to rely on Anglo-Saxon terminology, proposes a similar quest but through the dialectical progression of man's perennial thought and history. Therefore, it aims to understand the Absolute thing-in-itself, which is to say, the ultimate conceivable reality of mankind’s existence in relation to its (ostensibly?) indefinable, ontic dimensions.
But, in setting aside a need for a rigorously empirical and purely abstract approach for this outing, we can certainly assume that where words often falter in their attempt to encapsulate the multidimensional entirety of spirit, reason, and consciousness, it is here where the sonic vagaries of transcendental post-rock steps in, guitar in hand, ready to bridge the gaping void with a fearless wielding of etheric distortion pedals and cosmic chord progressions, proving that sometimes, it takes but a few seamless power notes and a couple of well-chained Strymon circuits to be able to grasp the phenomenological significance of man’s entire past, present and future in relation to the now perpetually doom-scrolly and internet-sub-famous Hegelian Geist-consciousness. Though purely in artistic terms, of course.
In a universe where tweets can launch a thousand ships - or at least a car into space - the revitalised realm of the (unfortunately glibly named) post-rock and its newer wave of post-experimentalism commands its very own solar-powered spacecraft, traversing the cosmic seas with a gravity-defying resonance of ethereal decays and an indiscriminate clashing of bar chords. Hailing from the frostbitten yet musically fertile grounds of Ottawa, the sonic space cadets known as Kosmavermo have carved out a niche that doesn’t just flirt with the stratosphere of transcendental post-rock but vaults into realms which would leave even the most seasoned of theoretical physicists pensive over the (unanswerable?) cosmic weave. And we shall be witnesses.
Their latest major offering, "Spectral Fracking", isn’t merely an album; it's a metaphysical road-trip charting course to the outermost reaches of the apex of human consciousness, a kind of musical astral projection requiring no meditation, only an open ear and, as their Spotify bio pointedly suggests, an open voyage towards off-planet ventures steeped in an implied overture of optimal peak experience. Evidently, journalistic verbosity of superlatives notwithstanding.
In a guitar-laden yet subtly Krautrock-imbued philosophical quest – echoing the experimental panache of bands like Neu! and the cosmic narratives of Amon Düül II and perhaps tantamount only to Hegel’s process of dialectic, where thesis and antithesis intertwine into a trajectory of pure synthesis - Kosmavermo orchestrates a symphony of delay-driven soundscapes that demands the listener's surrender to a simulacrum of unrelenting fluidity and pure sonic will, each plucked note progressively (and metaphysically) more resonant than the last.
From the universe’s depths encapsulated in the album’s namesake "Spectral Fracking" to the playfully titled yet melodically commanding "Transcendental Pancake", the band not only interrogates the trajectory of the summit of the Absolute but deftly serves it up on a disc-shaped platter containing sonic sparklers and no less seasoned with interdimensional curiosity, resonating within oneself boundless ideational strokes of linguistic musings through the aid of my hissing speakers. Do forgive me.
By invoking the spirit of not only Hegel’s much-utilised dialectical synthesis but drawing from the deep well of classical Idealist thought - from Kant’s transcendental idealism, which posits the mind as shaping the structure of experience, to Schopenhauer's conception of music as the purest expression of the world’s essence – this Canadian quartet transmutes the distinctly post-postmodern 21st-century zeitgeist into auditory gold (it could also be said that Schopenhauer’s rigorously secularised conception of Idealist philosophy thus lends credence to this considerably more concrete perspective, due to his decisively more sober – not to mention vehemently anti-Hegelian - appreciation of the core atoms of musical melody).
Schopenhauer, though not quite unlike Hegel in this respect, posits music as a direct manifestation of the combined internal expression of power and suffering - the Will. For Schopenhauer, music forgoes the “mere representation” of experiential phenomena found in other Platonic art forms; instead, it embodies the inherent dynamics of life's fundamental desires and implacable strivings. This notion elegantly mirrors the traditional Idealist-school premise whereby the ideational, sensorial, and ‘immaterial’ patterning of music - the 'Will' as expressed in perfect harmonies and rhythms - is more phenomenologically real, more foundational than the fleeting physicality and perceived micro-atomic structure assigned to the materialist conception of sound.
Therefore, the ‘Geist’-like essence of transcendental post-rock and its equally esoteric sonic brethren, in this context - the spirit and intrinsic order of pure Kantian reason; the meta, that which comes from above and beyond man - is essentially the auditory reflection of this very metaphysically-objectivist notion of authentic and unmediated Being, weaving the ineffable decor of total human experience into a symphony that transcends our sensory, rationalistic limitations.
Throwing a Dutch spanner into the works of contemporary discourse, Bernardo Kastrup's Analytical Idealism posits that consciousness is the foundation of all existence, proposing a universe neither built nor designed but conceived by the mind. This vision resonates with the transcendental expressions of sound and music, which, through its lyrical absence and etheric soundscapes, forges an excursion into the depths of perceived inner consciousness, mirroring Kastrup’s universe in which every sonic and sensory vibration constitutes a thread in the mental fabric of reality.
In his seminal work, Why Materialism is Baloney, Kastrup strongly alludes that reality is fundamentally experiential, framed as a collaborative dynamic between mind and matter that underscores the intertwined nature of consciousness and the physical world. This epistemological standpoint echoes (at least aesthetically) the immersive compositions that define these characteristically transcendent aspects of sound and music, as previously articulated by your author’s perspective.
Exploring the journey from Hegel’s concept of the Absolute Spirit to Kastrup’s universal consciousness, we can see how diverse soundscapes, from ambient loops to ethereal rock, serve as aesthetic expressions of consciousness itself. These musical forms reflect Kastrup’s vision where reality, akin to the Absolute, is continuously shaped and perceived through the lens of consciousness.
Such musical forms transcend being mere backdrops to philosophical discourse, integrating deeply with it. They facilitate an experiential engagement with consciousness, which, according to Kastrup, underpins reality. Through this engagement, listeners can delve into how consciousness manifests in time and space, reflecting on Kastrup’s fundamental critique of the prevalent materialist paradigm, which is evidently deeply ingrained in natural science and analytic philosophy today. In aligning with Kastrup’s foundational ontology, much akin to the Schopenhauerian view, we understand music as a profound expression of consciousness. Thus, rather than a conduit for apprehending reality’s structures directly, music embodies our interaction with the mental universe, Kastrup postulates, highlighting the intricate relationship between sound and the exploration of higher consciousness.
Kastrup's Analytical Idealism emphasises the active role – the fully realised ‘I’ - of the observer in shaping reality, a concept mirrored in the participatory nature of the act of self-conscious, wilfully artful soundscaping, which compels listeners to become co-creators insofar as imbuing the music with personal meaning and subjective emotion. This engagement demonstrates how listening can, therefore, be a creative and fundamentally reality-shaping experience, converging the lines between the observer and the observed, between higher consciousness (the superior) and the lower, physical realm (anterior).
In synthesising Kastrup's insights with the spirit of transcendental post-rock and the like, a new framework emerges that views the metaphysics of sound as a pathway for exploring higher dimensions of existence, transforming the art of listening into an engagement with the fundamental nature of reality. Thus, by operating within Kastrup’s scientific and philosophical framework, it could be argued that through sound, we have the means of touching the fabric of the cosmos itself, engaging with its mental underpinnings directly, suggesting that the metaphysical component of music and melody offers a sonic exploration of this higher expression of consciousness, or Absolute Spirit, allowing us to contemplate the universe as an interconnected symphony of the mind.
This dialogue enriches our understanding of both ontological metaphysics and of music as an art form, opening new vistas where thought, reality, and sound phenomena converge into a unified experience of pure, a-priori Being, therefore providing us with a concrete meta-scientific framework with which to perceive the universe not just as observers but as integral components of its totality.
Building on the harmonious interplay between Kastrup's Weltanschauung and the ethereal landscapes of North American post-rock, we shall seamlessly drift back into the realm of Kosvavermo (“wormhole” in English translation). Here, the ensemble further delves into the auditory exploration of the totality of existence, aligning with Kastrup's post-Schopenhauerian vision. Tracks like "Azimuthering" and "Photonic Ferometrics" break the chains of the genre (for if everything is now hyphenated as ‘post’-X and ‘post’-Y, then we may assume that we’ve peaked as a creative society), evocative of a cosmic banquet whereof the menu is composed of vibrations pulsating with the universe's own innate rhythm.
These compositions are not merely wallpapers of sound but gateways to dimensions through which the nature of consciousness and human existence unfolds in a splendid complexity of almost divine synthesis. Moreover, it is in the introspective "Charming Reunions" that the band’s sonic-philosophical expedition finds its pinnacle. Here, amidst the hauntingly reverberative cadences, the final act stages a rendezvous with the listener's fleeting existence, a sense of Heidegger’s ontological framing of being towards death, if you will, and echoing the transient beauty which leaves indelible marks on our oh-so-mortal runtime.
It’s as if, through the medium of this alternative and largely understated genre, they hold up a mirror to the ethos of not only the Absolute Spirit but echo the sentiments of primal, life-affirming creation itself. Much cerebral posturing can indeed be parsed from the alpha waves of bleeding distortions painted with the stroke of a plectrum simultaneously leveraged by a couple of handsome reverb pedals, but one doesn't wish to labour the philo-sonic synthesis much farther.
Spectral Fracking, then, in its metacognitive departure from the conventions of standard radio-rock (did I inadvertently coin a hammy subgenre?), boldly traverses the conceptual dimensions of Absolute Transcendence (an advertent coin of phrase there) in the characteristic laissez-faire indifference we’ve come to cherish in the realm of the alternative avant-garde art scene; as it were, marking territories that would give even the most superficially inclined musical aesthetes room for reflectively meditative pause.
This splendid recording stands as Kosmavermo’s most accomplished musical foray to date, for it is, in utmost earnest, a sonic treatise promising not just raw and interdimensional, off-planet excursions to the ineffable realms of pure Being but a metacognitive awakening of a categorically indefinable sort, enticing those brave enough to question, seek, and perhaps - perhaps - inspire us to delve into the aggressively turgid and intractably dense constituents of the labyrinthine lexicology that is Georg Wilhelm Friedrich von Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit.
Well, alright, I don’t wish to get too carried away with that last line.
“It is necessary to come first to an understanding concerning knowledge, which is looked upon as the instrument by which to take possession of the Absolute, or as the means through which to get a sight of it.” – G.W.F. Hegel
Reference:Kastrup, B. (2014). Why Materialism is Baloney: How True Skeptics Know There Is No Death and Fathom Answers to Life, the Universe, and Everything. Iff Books.Follow Kosmavermo