The soon-to-be-released recording ‘Future Travel’ (1981) is a still up-to-date pondering into the movement(s) of human culture and evolution of consciousness.

The recording includes 7 pieces, the titles of which bring us to an alternative world of cosmic fantasy – ‘Station Oaxaca,’ ‘Nazca Liftoff,’ ‘Corona Dance,’ ‘Time Arroyo,’ ‘Desert Night Touch Down,’ ‘Palazzo’ and ‘Nova Wind.’ In addition to Buchla Touché and violin, realization of compositional ideas relied on the use of the Buchla 300 Electronic Music System, piano, percussion, and electronically processed speech. The speech parts, included in several compositions, are of a particular intellectual delight. The texts represent a deep extra-temporal pondering, of an almost philosophical kind, into the nature of the cosmos and the evolution of complex forms comprising it: “Correlations over the axes of consciousness suggest that attractive forces are operative, and resonant processes are forming unity operators necessary for entities to be and evolve.” (Excerpt from the “Desert Night Touch Down”)

History

In 1981 New World Records released the ‘Future Travel’ – an iconic recording made almost entirely with Buchla Touche (1979), a digital-analog keyboard instrument co-developed by designer Don Buchla and experimental composer David Rosenboom. The unique sound of Touche makes a casual listener perceive compositions as if they were just recorded. This is one of the arguments for the relevance of the forthcoming re-release by Black Truffle Records. Another factor is the “legendary” character of the rare Buchla instrument. Other than being used for another recording by Rosenboom called the ‘Daytime Viewing’ (1983) and the recent release by Richard Smith a.k.a. Shasta Cults, (the current owner of Rosenboom’s Touche), the instrument barely may be heard on any other recording. Let’s scratch the surface and dive deeper into the conceptual and ideo-logical relevance of the re-release, more than 40 years after the original issue.

Rosenboom’s thinking over the subjects manifested in the release may be traced to the late 1960s. For many creatives of that time, the impulse to start thinking of human civilization on a planetary scale came from the publication of the NASA images of Earth in 1968. Then in July of 1969, during the New Sounds in Music concert series in Urbana-Champaign, Rosenboom performed in a “Moon Landing” concert – as the video of the US astronauts making first steps on the Moon’s surface was displayed on the screen. Soon after, a 22-year-old composer will get in touch with NASA to apply to become the first resident composer on the moon. (Rosenboom, 1970, p. 58) That daring thinking would be amended in the composer’s notebook– discovered as we were putting together his archive in the summer of 2022. In 1972 he left a series of notes – later used for the lyrics featured in the ‘Future Travel’:

“Lesson: Laughter keeps one from dying from an overdose of insights.”

“Materiality is a super consequence of organization.”

“The universe becomes conscious in the individual, (not the reverse).” (Rosenboom, 1972, p. 21)

Then, for several years, Rosenboom devoted his entire time to neuromusical explorations and teaching at York University in Toronto. In 1977, during his sabbatical, he had been staying in Berkley at Buchla’s house – composing and helping with designs for the 300 system. Back to the West Coast, the composer seemingly resumed thinking of celestial bodies, extraterrestrial life, and the future of humanity. During the same year, being invited by Richard Lowenberg (pioneer of biomusic), Rosenboom participated in the NASA-sponsored ‘Satellite Arts Project’ (series) led by Sherrie Rabinowitz and Kit Galloway. Sometime in 1978, Rosenboom started working on his big series called ‘In the Beginning’ (1978-1981) also released by New World Records. The series connects directly with the ‘Future Travel’ through the latest composed part of it called ‘The Story’ – commissioned by the Arch Ensemble.

Image of Buchla Touche from the Brochure of 1979. Buchla & Associates. From the Archive of David Rosenboom.

‘In the Beginning V:(The Story)’ is comprised of 6 movements. The first movement of the piece features the same motif as in the composition “Nova Wind” from the ‘Future Travel.’ The verbal part incorporated in ‘Station Oaxaca’ and ‘Desert Night Touch Down’ performed by Jacqueline Humbert was derived from the story written for the piece. To add another layer of еру context – the same story served as a scenario for the unreleased film of George Manupelli shot in 1980 at Point Reyes in the Bay Area. (The article about the film was published on the Ann Arbor Film Festival website.)

Though the former colleague of Rosenboom at Mills College, Chris Brown provided a detailed story of the circumstances of recording the ‘Future Travel’ for the 2007 re-release by NWR (liner notes), let me say a few more words about the production process before getting into the imagery and thought canvas introduced in the lyrics. The LP published by Detroit-based Street Records was recorded in a commercial studio used by F. F. Coppola – in Zoetrope, in San Francisco. Through Jose Cruz, owner of Street Records, in 1980 Rosenboom got the studios and recording engineer Kathy Morton at his disposal for an entire week. All audio tracks were recorded within this short period. Of course, the oeuvre of Coppola, and popularity of the cosmic age – noted in cartoons, fiction, fashion, and film (esp. Star Trek premiered in 1979) of that time – made the recording comply with the spirit of the time of its creation.

<a href="https://blacktruffle.bandcamp.com/album/future-travel">Future Travel by David Rosenboom</a>

Concept

Apart from the sonic qualities of the recording, (to be evaluated by listeners and music journalists), the recording offers a unique cosmological statement that, as I argue, makes the album relevant 40 years after its original release. In the dialogue used for the ‘Future Travel,’ Rosenboom presents his vision of human evolution – specifically, the development of consciousness towards the point of producing a high-level societal organization. ‘The Story’ unfolds a narrative about human beings striving to double themselves, particularly through religion and technology, and the process of emergence and evolution of global consciousness – awakening through continuous perceptual differentiation that becomes embodied in new concepts and beliefs. In a dialogue from ‘The Story,’ we have three main voices. These are: a “synthetic” voice of the Double, a two-spirit character, and voices of the two spirits, or expressions of the Double – described as “the spirit beings are space, itself, charged with the activity of thought.” (Rosenboom, 1982b, p. 3)

Ideas developed in ‘The Story’ were expanded in the ‘Future Travel.’ Conceived as an electronic orchestra world “built” with the Buchla Touche, the musical narrative created through tunes and chord changes embarks a listener on a sonic journey. In relation to ‘The Story,’ the series seven compositions starts at the point where the dialogue of the spirits of the Double ends. The opening motif of the ‘Future Travel’ brings back the optimism regarding the expansion of the global consciousness up to its spread and perpetuation on Earth.

Introducing the piece called ‘Station Oaxaca,’ Rosenboom refers to attempts to make sense of our place and existence in the universe from the perspective of the Mayan culture. Proceeding with the more compositionally complex ‘Time Arroyo,’ composer tries to model with sound the swirling flood of time – that carves space and leads to the emergence of new physical properties. The uplifting ‘Corona Dance,’ referring to the corona of the Sun, indicates some of the possible emerging physical properties, as observed by scientists and explained by cosmologists. The central composition called ‘Nazca Liftoff’ brings back the view of the world and cosmos developed by the Native American cultures; it refers to the mystic landscape patterns observed in some areas of the continent. For Rosenboom, this cultural phenomenon presents an attempt of human consciousness to interact with the global one – assuming the existence of the latter. For composer, these patterns are messages depicting the individual and communal identity of ancient people. These “pictures” also support Rosenboom’s proposition that stretching the eye, expanding perspective from micro- to macro- level and back, enables discovering a bigger picture of the universe.

The fifth composition ‘Desert Night Touch Down’ creates a view of the soft landing of consciousness on Earth, that precedes its expansion. The next composition ‘Palazzo’ serves as an interlude. It metaphorically brings us to a gathering place, the place of abundance – somewhat preparing a listener for the birth or generation of something. The series of compositions concludes with the ‘Nova Wind’ – summing up previously manifested cues and images. The word “Nova” refers to the birth of a Supernova, and the word “wind” to the wave of energy it produces. Serving as a source of new atoms, physical as well as chemical properties, as imagined by Rosenboom, nova wind replenishes the universe with resources giving an impulse for instantaneous generation processes.

The recording thus explores different ways of looking at the universe – a scientific (modern) viewpoint and a pre-scientific (ancient) one. Starting with the mythological concepts of Maya, Rosenboom develops them through the series shifts to the musically presented science-based cosmological hypotheses. Ultimately, through Eastern thought and Tibetian mysticism he connects the two seemingly opposite ontological viewpoints.

Shooting of In the Beginning Film, 1980. Photographer: A. Shreiber. From the Archive of David Rosenboom.

Final notes

Released by New World Records in 2007, and to be re-released by the Black Truffle in 2024 – ‘Future Travel’ speaks to the present as a secular cosmological statement addressing our role in the universe, as a species. Proposing to make a pause and reflect on the speed, direction, and purpose of our movement as a civilization – composer encourages us to be humble in the face of a vast universe. Yet, at the same time, he calls for awareness of the unrestrained capacity of a single individual to contribute to the evolution of human culture. Using sound as a medium for communicating his message, Rosenboom invites a listener to take a macro perspective and think of large developmental processes unfolding on our planet and beyond it. Thus, through art as an inspiring tool of symbolic representation, composer makes otherwise complex large-scale interstellar processes cognitively approachable to a general audience.

…landing on the spaceship Earth – are we ready for an informed movement to the future? Exposure to Rosenboon’s ‘Future Travel’ will provide a listener with some food for thought.

This article was written by Anastasia Chernysheva,
Ph.D. student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Headline photo: David Rosenboom performing with Touche for a M.U.S.I.C. Festival at the Broadway Theater in San Francisco, 1982. Photographer unknown. From the Archive of David Rosenboom.

References:

• Rosenboom, D. (1972) Notebook with compositional sketches, lyrics, and philosophical musings, 1965-72. Personal archive of David Rosenboom. Valencia, CA.
• Rosenboom, D. (1970) In support of a systems theoretical approach to art media. In: Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference of the American Society of University Composers, Inc., p. 56-68.
• Rosenboom, D. (1982a) Future Travel. Street Records, SRA–002, Birmingham, MI.
• Rosenboom, D. (1982b) In the Beginning V (The Story). Rampike, Vol. 2, Nos. 1 & 2, Toronto.