m2theory

13

thenameofthisband

mossteinmeyer

Thirteen: a mathematical representation of the one and the three. The three in one. A trio of musicians playing free jazz. Free jazz is the concept of many as one. The musicians play together as individuals and as a group. On the highest level the individual and the group are entangled and the action of one is the action of all. The idea of the highest level is this concept of one for all and all for one. It is a very common idea and if you look for it you can see it everywhere: the herd, squadrons of birds in flight turning as one, the body in which all organs work as one, minds thinking as one, dancers dancing as one. Mathematically 13 is just as easy and just as hard as leading and following at the same time. 13 is the number of the trio, 14 the number of the quartet, 122 the number of the 22 piece Accidental Orchestra. The reason this concept of simultaneity is so hard to understand is because it represents dimensions that are not obvious to how we appear to live in the three-dimensional world. We feel alone but seek belonging. Belonging in the sense of 13, or 14, or 122 for example represents the number of dimensions. It is a religious concept of belonging in the spiritual sense to a force larger than oneself.

13 is the name of our trio. It means three in one. The three of us play as one and music is the result. When we do not play as one, when we are not practicing close listening, it is no longer music but noise. To reach the higher dimensionality of 13 the members of the trio have to lead and to follow, trusting that the others are leading and following at the same time.

Free jazz artistically and aesthetically means entanglement of individuality within a dimension that always exists in potentia yet must be attained. This is why it is hard to play freely. Free is not free unless the individuals play as a group–simultaneous and at the same time individual; individual and at the same time simultaneous. The quantum physics mathematical representation of entanglement in which the part and the whole are one thing in itself, Immanuel Kant’s philosophical concept of the ding an sich, on the level of particle physics is the simultaneous participation of entangled subatomic particles interacting at a speed which is faster than light. They are no longer time-like or space-like because the action of one entangled particle or of more than one entangled particles is also the instantaneous action of all the other entangled particles. The action of entanglement is FTL, super luminous, acausal. The action of musical entanglement is that of the one and the many all acting as one.

The reason free jazz is so hard to play, to listen to, or to understand is that the individual must lead and follow simultaneously. The ego and the lack of ego must simultaneously exist. There is a dissolution of ego into a larger ego and the music on this level moves and exists as one. Time becomes relativized. Time is not linear but non-linear–free jazz strives to inhabit this experience of non-linearity, where the past is present, the future is present, and notes do not just line up but open up into the higher dimensions. Higher in sense of not our familiar three plus one dimensions in which spacetime exists but higher because these three plus one dimensions of three dimensions plus the dimension of time are enfolded within a higher number. The accomplishment of improvisation in a group is to bring this mathematical dimensionality into our common world. Any performing group does this–orchestras, dance troupes, country music festivals, music festivals. Where you have individuals becoming entangled there is this mystical sense of belonging to a larger group.

This is what I mean when I name our trio 13. We are individuals acting as one on the higher dimensionality of the three in the one and are entangled. It is also what I have referred to as faster than thought. I cannot think fast enough to improvise and to make music. I cannot act alone. I have abandoned myself to this higher purpose. It is the army, the navy, the act of war. In the musical sense 13 is the act of peace, understanding, sensitivity to others, respecting others, living with others both as an individual and as a group. As with any mathematical concept of dimensions there is no moral sense and action as one can be as good or as evil as we want or wish it to be. We act consciously to make it so. If our intent is to take this mystical acting as one and to destroy we are Lucifer and His armies. If we are bringing life and spirit into the world we are God and His legions of angels. God in the mathematical sense is not moral. It is our humanity which makes God into an avenging God or a merciful God. It is up to us to act as one to be good or to be evil. The difficult part is acting both consciously to bring something good or evil into the world at the same time we act unconsciously as a group to do so.

Once we decide to go in a direction the forces act upon us and we are no longer in control. Which is why it is so hard to maintain the level of musicality on what we instantly recognize as being on the right level. Good music, what I call music, not sound or noise, brings together not only the musicians but all who participate in the listening to this music. We have mirror neurons in our brains to facilitate the coming together of individuals, which fire sympathetically in the presence of others and allow us to speak, to mimic, to feel the feelings of others, and to express our feelings so that others can feel how we feel. We are usually unconscious of the action of mirror neurons so to make them manifest in conscious ways takes an act of courage and sacrifice; courage to take that first step, sacrifice to abandon ourselves to forces that are normally unconscious and out of conscious control.

So it all comes down to mathematics as a foundation and humanity as a moral force, dance and music as manifestations of entanglement, and feeling good when we belong to something greater than ourselves.

13=1 + 3=4=1

13=mossteinmeyer