While doing my dissertation I came across the term intersectionality which definition is described as the study of intersections between different disenfranchised groups or groups of minorities.
This term captured the process of my project as I was exploring an unidentified metaphysical moment in a mainly physical driven world. The first output from exploring project 5am was creating a series of sound pieces, which were based on the feeling that I had during in time, which resulted in releasing a net label album, which I name Quixote’s Of Moons Fight The Windmills Of Brixton.
The title was a play on a phrase the poet John Cleveland wrote in 1644, in his book The character of a London diurnall:
“The Quixote’s of this Age fight with the Wind-mills of their owned Heads”
By including the moon where imagery and ideas are formed via dreams and the day to day working life to which was captured by the then newly found surreal knowledge that Brixton had a windmill, captured my challenges in combining the physical and the metaphysical. Another factor was my previous music pieces before project 5am came under the name of Quixotic. This name was inspired by the notion of Don Quito idealistic ambitions, which is captured in the song “the impossible dream”. The tracks were instrumental ethereal mood pieces clashed against hard synths bass lines with no song structures such a verse or choruses which felt like an imaginary headphone flight or walk.
In one of the reviews of the album it was mentioned that Project 5am is best taken with a clear mind and a pair of headphones. His latest album, Quixotes of Moons fights the Windmills of Brixton, is a beautiful and moving piece of work. This is music for audio spacemen.
The two reason for making this project was to find out what was this moment and if anyone else had shared this experience. The closest thing that I have found that captures what I’m exploring has come in the term Afrofuturism.
Afrofuturism is cultural aesthetic that intersects between black history, myths and future technological ideas and theories via creative acts.
“Language play and humour is part of the Afrofuturism tool kit, but if you step back, the darkness and despair is unbearable. The Afrofuturist escape to the future, whether folkloric, artistic or mythic, should tell us something. As strange as it may seem, a malady can be discovered through and even defined by its antidote.”
Afrofuturism Arrives — With Sun Ra! January 7, 2014 by John Perreault
While the term “Afrofuturism” originated with cultural critic Mark Dery in 1993, the idea behind it has existed for far longer, and the genre has expanded into all mediums as both an aesthetic and an expression of critical race theory. Afrofuturism is a way to project blackness into the future—not merely as existing, but as a critical and significant part of it.- Alley Pezanoski
Afrofuturism artist have included
Wangechi Mutu (artist)
Jean Michel Basquiat (artist)
Ellen Gallagher (artist)
Octavia E. Butler (writer)
Outkasts (musicians)
Erykah Badu (musician)
George Clinton (musician)
The artist who has been the embodiment of what Afrofuturism represents has been the musician Sun Ra.
“Even before his alleged trip to Saturn and subsequent name change, Sun Ra was an outsider among his fellow humans. By taking on an alien identity, he was able to cut ties (even if only theatrically) with his “humanity,” a brotherhood of man that hardly looks appealing marred by a history of slavery, oppression and war.”
Why have so many black musicians been obsessed with outer space? By Jonah Weiner
Afrofuturism seems to be a term more used in the afro American culture than the Black British culture which I feel is more because of the country’s direct link to slavery. In Mark Dery 1993 article, which was the first piece to define the term “Afrofuturism” compared science fiction narratives to slavery in the way of being alienated in a different culture.
I can see how technology has been a way of capturing the essence of black thought.
In the 70s and 80s, hip hop evolved from people who didn’t have access to musical instruments and used equipment like record players and vinyl to explore new techniques in sound.
In the documentary The Last Angel of History it mention how 18th century slaves like Phillis Wheatley wrote poetry to prove that they were human and not just a piece of furniture.
Over 100 years on just like Wheatley, making an album like Quixotes of Moons fights the Windmills of Brixton was a point for me to show that I was a human and not a tool just for work.
The Last Angel of History
