“Anima Revisited ” out on ILK Records as of Nov. 26th, 2021
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Matt Choboter’s Hypnagogia
Hypnagogia is a new genre-defying project based in Copenhagen. Transitioning between wakefulness and dreaming, Hypnagogia traverses its subconscious, ripe with disorientation, ambiguity, fantasy-trance and illusion. The written music manifested itself as I grappled with subterranean dream imagery, hallucinations and liminal afternoon reveries, brought on by insomnia and sleep deprivation. It ponders the anima & animus – male and female archetypal images – found within us.
Francesco Bigoni (ITA)– clarinet, tenor saxophone Anders Banke (DK)– bass clarinet Matt Choboter (CAN)– prepared, detuned piano Luca Sguera (ITA)– midi patches, sound design Matias Seibæk (DK)– Balinese gongs, vibraphone, cymbals Jan Kadereit (DE)– extended drum kit, janghu
With compositions by Matt Choboter
A deeper look into the Hypnagogia story
The convergence, intertwining, combining and blurring of past experience with the seemingly infinite sequence of “nows”.
Residual streaks of fragmented experience, both subconscious and conscious, entertain the senses of what comes now.
Smells from every corner of my life of memories and lived experience shade, colour, illuminate and illustrate.
Imagined sounds can disorientate but also combine meaningfully with other sensing faculties. Perceived sounds combine with imagined sounds in beautiful ways.
To some degree, perceptual completion, takes on a role in defining “structures” of perception.
The cross-fertilization of “experienced reality” from past and present informs a looking into the future with new eyes, ears and senses, more generally. And, this serves as the bedrock for generating creative endeavours.
It requires some strength to overcome the stultifying effects of these symptoms. It requires acceptance of the dulling and rather slowness of language processing….at least these have been my experiences.
(Matt Choboter – may 2019)
Each track references a unique dream, recurring dream or an abstract idea, meditation or experience which persisted in my subconscious world. As we, the band, later explored and sonically fleshed-out these landscapes, the pieces took on, and continually take on a deeper and deeper collective subconscious experiences.
Here are some examples…
Collapsing cathedral – 2:08
A terrifying dreamscape which occurred some days following the Notre-Dame disaster on April 15th, 2019. I had been living in Paris at the time and the wounded collective unconscious experience left a deep impression on me. In the dream, the collapsing cathedral symbolized a multi-layered existential collapse. As if the forest, the larger ecosystem along with man-made technological advancements were tumbling down upon me and many others.
Floodwaters and Swimming Rats – 1:34
An invocation of the ubiquitous flood myths of the world and how they relate to my own flood experience while living in Chennai, South India in 2015. It was a particularly bad monsoon season and I awoke one morning to knee deep sewer water undulating gently throughout the house. For weeks the streets were flooded, leaving transportation of any kind a hazardous thought. The house was an island to itself…..
Postcards of Nostalgia – 10:48
A reference by Clayton Eshleman, to the great cave art of the Upper Paleolithic. The art representative as sometime more than just hunting magic, but something bridging the gap between being “animal” and becoming something we may call “human”.
Tarkovskian Portals – 4:51
A reflection on how Tarkovsky’s films have so deeply penetrated my subconscious, and thus dream content.
Death by Cut Tongue – 1:50
A slow agonizing death by cut tongue marked by postmodern indifference and lack of meaning. As I slowly bleed to death, my companions and bystanders meet me with lack of concern, emotion or any sort of empathy. This dream reeks of an all consuming post-modern meaninglessness as we seemingly drift further and further from spirituality, nature and meaning-making.
Northward on Caribou Highway – 5:57
Running from Cache Creek to Prince George this stretch of highway twists onwards and upwards up my home province of British Columbia, Canada. Having camped along its route the images and perceptions still persist me in the wakeful, liminal and dream landscapes.