The Art of Knowing (A.P.M. Journey)

No matter how much I had read about Gauguin and Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, seeing the painting in person only strengthened the feeling. What struck me most is that its philosophy does not reveal itself all at once. Everything depends on where you enter the painting. For me, the point of entry was the white bird and the motionless dark figure beside it. Looking from left to right, I found myself drawn not into a sequence of events, but into the paradoxes that quietly accompany life: movement and stillness, presence and absence, innocence and departure. Perhaps that is why the painting remains so compelling. It does not ask to be decoded. It asks to be entered. The rest unfolds differently for everyone.

https://youtu.be/ry79ale5zsI Roads simply let us go on, where presence lingers, even among things that appear absent.

Sometimes people are not looking for another person. They are looking for confirmation of the story they tell themselves about who they are. In such cases, any suitable character can be cast in the role. Muse, artist, savior, soulmate, destiny — these are often just details of the stage set.

There is no need to trade your creative authenticity for approval, when everyone sees only a reflection of themselves. The music I create has always been the kind of music I would listen to myself, not music designed for approval or conformity. I did not learn music. I learned to hear it.

A few years ago, I wrote a poem; then I heard a Chopin nocturne, so it was set to music. https://youtu.be/N0E9Zx3tEwA

Apparently YouTube doesn't notify you about official releases at all. I don’t know how many songs inspired by Chopin’s nocturnes will be released, so this is a new one. For me, these are not just songs with original lyrics and arrangement, but certain different states. https://youtu.be/sPXoPnaD8oI

In addition to frequencies, the ability to perceive matters. Now, on Bandcamp (new album): https://aleksandrpopovmikhaylov.bandcamp.com/album/arikoneatrim

There’s a comfort in not needing to prove your existence to a world that even rarely comprehends the depth of your silence. Souls aren’t easily expressed and understood in conversations… yet their inner arts, bared for all to see.

You can’t fake a frequency. “The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others…” (F. Dostoevsky).

In this world, you can only own your peace of mind really to remember who you are.

Music is like a Time Machine. The compositions on this album were created in different years and from specific internal states. And their order is also not random, as I aimed to convey a holistic journey. https://youtu.be/2DCHAEDQUtE

Continuing the theme of gardens in my compositions... Ripples, gusts, rays of change — effects of unconditionality. Elements, places, experiences — the ensemble of omnipresence. https://youtu.be/rgWhIlHCeb0

I come by to spend some time with this stunning tree every season. 💚 Although, distance is not that important.

https://youtu.be/_kGyrXQ0U9o “Love or war?”