Phillip Treloar - Jewel’s Rainbow Light

MNM038

Jewel’s Rainbow Light
Dedicated with Heart-filled Love to the memory of my sister
Lynette Ruth Treloar
November 3, 1944 ~ May 9, 2020
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As with Thought’s Eternal Peace – the first of this two-disc series – the music herein is dedicated to my sister, Lynette. She was a truly beautiful person, and in the depths of my heart, she remains. Even though our lives ran very different courses, we shared many similar things, a committed interest in Buddhism being one and music being another. She travelled widely and had an innate compassion for all forms of planetary life. For admirable humanitarian reasons, Nette was very much loved by a wide range of people and her passing was, and is, deeply felt. Her guide in Buddhism was the late Ayya Khema.

Writing these liner-notes gives me the opportunity to talk a little about the background and path travelled to the music encoded as Jewel’s Rainbow Light. Our world is a shared space, both physically and psychologically. None of us hold a superior position other than by the sham of force. And force comes in myriad guises, many of which we are not even aware of though some, nonetheless, are profoundly positive. True beauty, as I regard it, is that which is given, not extracted. Love can only be given, as can its reception. These, I believe, are unconditional. I think we are clear about this in early childhood and, depending upon the vicissitudes of life’s unfolding, we manage to retain at least a glimmer of the inestimable beauty of given love. Perhaps I, as with my sister, have been fortunate in this regard. We have our parents to thank.

Throughout my life and for whatever the reason, I have been attracted to angularity. This might be expressed otherwise as, say, the unexpected or indeterminate. I could say I find it exciting but, basically, I find it intriguing and stimulating. This attraction became fairly obvious when I was young. I quite liked some pop music but loved jazz. It was Miles Davis and John Coltrane who clearly focused my attention this way, in 1961. I was fourteen and chance had extended her beneficence.

By the time I was twenty-six I couldn’t get enough of Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler and Sun Ra. Sunny Murray and Andrew Cyrille were, to me, the grooviest drummers on the planet and that trio, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Barry Altschul tweaked an angle I hadn’t envisaged. Then Anthony Braxton hit my ears. And it was also around this time, the early 1970s, that my sonic sensibilities were catapulted way out into left field by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Anton Webern, Morton Feldman, and Iannis Xenakis. John Cage, too, figured on no-less-a road. On one shoulder of the road there were those wonder-filled improvising musicians and on the other, those innovative composers. If you know the music of these people, then you’ll be beginning to get my drift.

Angularity grabbed my ears, my heart, and my life. But, in all of this, the most significant was the experience in Sydney of hands-on, real-time, zealously exploratory music-making with Roger Frampton, Jack Thorncraft and Peter Evans. Being out in left field not only felt great, it gave rise to feelings, thoughts, ideas, dreams, aspirations and crucially, creative direction. Before I turned thirty, I was pondering the possibilities of both sides of that road coming together, sharing a direction that had become the creative highway of my dreams. Instinctively, I knew it would be a life-long journey.

While this two-disc series, recorded in 2019, is certainly indicative of a way station en route, it’s not a culmination, or even a point of arrival. It’s a document, a frozen moment which clearly indicates the sort of angularity I was attracted to when young and set out to discover. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say I was hell-bent on its discovery and I wanted to find my own way. All of the music alluded to above had drawn out my awareness regarding the vast potential embraced by angular expression. But at the same time, I recognized its innate integrity; an integrity which made obvious the fact that emulation was not going to get me where I envisaged going. More to the point, emulation, either stylistic or genre oriented, would only serve to separate me from my aspirations.

The reason for this can be simply expressed. It was the creative component I felt in that music that was its power, and it was this that attracted me. Each was angular in its own characteristic way because it was the creative expression of each person, their journey of discovery. To acknowledge and respect their inspiration was to set out on my own journey and discover angles for myself. I wanted to find an ocean of angularity I could spend the rest of my life navigating. Becoming a cartographer seemed like a necessary step in the navigating process. I imagined a mapping process that, while delineating relational zones, navigational direction would retain, or even expand, spontaneity. Sorting all this out took a while. Years in fact. And the process couldn’t be pushed but rather, worked at in a way that acknowledged each step as it showed itself; a way whereby the panorama is in clear view while the detail is the focus, and vice versa.

Eventually, and driven by inspiration, I studied music composition as an undergraduate guided by Graham Hair at the Conservatorium in Sydney. By this path I was introduced to the sort of cartographic processes necessary to fathom the oceanic depths some will perceive in this solo marimba music. Bringing together elements from across the wide field of consciousness, I realized, would open up my aural vision in a way that would enable me to hear, feel, imagine, sketch, predetermine, improvise spontaneously, or put otherwise, plumb the depths of consciousness for whatever showed itself to be there as relevant. That is to say, being open to the vastness of psychological causes and conditions that, at any time, gravitate towards each other because they have found a moment of clarity – they see each other. I simply participate in the event their vision illuminates.
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© Phil TRELOAR 2024 

credits

released February 13, 2025

CREDITS AND THANK YOUS
I see little point in publishing this offering without being committed to the belief that you, the recipient, is being embraced in some way by the feelings and thoughts encoded within. But it is you who determines the nature of reception and in whatever way you do, I extend to you my gratitude for doing so.
Extensive notes of appreciation could be written for each person who has contributed their musical and technical expertise, time and generosity of spirit to the making of this offering. I trust that each person mentioned below will accept my sincere gratitude with the assurance that the extensive notes are in my heart.
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Recording: Dan Shapland and Matt Newsome
Mastering: Andrew Garton
Design: Brodie McAllister
Production & Publishing: Made Now Music (Brodie McAllister)
Instrument – Korogi five-octave marimba: Just Percussion (Tom O’Kelly)
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Expressing Thanks to: The legion of musicians with whom, over many years, I’ve shared creative space; Billy Hart, a consummate musician who unerringly marked the turning point; Madhup Maudgalaya, who pointed the way to harmonic infinity; Dr Graham Hair, who provided the light to recontextualize my vision; Simone de Haan, whose insight was catalytic; Brodie McAllister, for his untiring support and contribution to creative music as a player, producer, and organizer, and his and Cat McAllister’s cherished friendship; Tom and Alison O’Kelly, for their heart-filled kindness, boundless generosity and loving friendship; My sons, Teo and Wynton and Zali, my granddaughter, who are always there; My late sister, Lynette, with whom I shared a deep spiritual relationship and Michèle, her partner; Our parents who taught us the irreplaceable value of truth; And the person I share life with on a daily basis, my wife, Miki KIDO. Not only is Miki-chan an outstanding musician but a person whose integrity and humanity has inspired me for more than thirty years and whose innate ability to balance the scales when all the weight seems to be on one side is nothing less than miraculous