G. I. Gurdjieff- Harmonic Development

D

Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
This is one of the strangest, most haunting musical things I've come across in quite a while. Solo harmonium improvisations by spiritual weirdo Gurdjieff- all minor key, very mournful, very soulful laments. Gurdjieff wasn't particularly virtuosic on the instrument, he just played it very slow and meaningfully. This is music so lonely and powerful it sounds like it comes from outer space. Deep listening indeed.

Can't find many sound clips on line, but there's one half way down the page at this rather awful looking site.
 
P

PeteUM

It's all grist
Diggedy Derek said:
This is one of the strangest, most haunting musical things I've come across in quite a while. Solo harmonium improvisations by spiritual weirdo Gurdjieff- all minor key, very mournful, very soulful laments. Gurdjieff wasn't particularly virtuosic on the instrument, he just played it very slow and meaningfully. This is music so lonely and powerful it sounds like it comes from outer space. Deep listening indeed.

Can't find many sound clips on line, but there's one half way down the page at this rather awful looking site.
Click to expand...


I sampled that on my last CD, without wanting to sound like a cunt. Beautiful stuff, but then I love the harmonium...
 
P

PeteUM

It's all grist
Diggedy Derek said:
Oh wow, that's not cunty at all. Cool. Do you have samples of it online or whatnot?
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I'm afraid i don't have any samples of that particular tune, and I fear that it doesn't do me or Gurdjieff any favours either. It's like a Mr Scruff bassline, Gurdjieff, Skip James and me pissing about with a Boss PC-2 pedal, in a pretty straightforward dancey thing, which isn't what I normally do at all. You can find some vaguely representative Um stuff at:

www.strange-lights.co.uk
 
Grievous Angel

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
Gurdjieff did proto-acid house on a harmonium?

Fucking A!

One of my favourite put-on-artists / occult heroes.

Apparently when he met Crowley they merely "sniffed around each other like dogs" and didn't really engage at all.
 
H

henry s

Street Fighting Man
originally posted by 2stepfan
Apparently when he met Crowley they merely "sniffed around each other like dogs" and didn't really engage at all.
Click to expand...

pardon the digression, but I recall an interview with Patti Smith where she used the exact same phrase, describing her first meeting with Bob Dylan...
 
P

petergunn

plywood violin
2stepfan said:
Gurdjieff did proto-acid house on a harmonium?

Fucking A!

One of my favourite put-on-artists / occult heroes.

Apparently when he met Crowley they merely "sniffed around each other like dogs" and didn't really engage at all.
Click to expand...


anyone wanna give me a three sentence summary of Gurdieff's teachings/beliefs?
 
R

rob_giri

Well-known member
do it!


i discovered this Gurdjieff character a few months ago on a large net surf that began with the ancient Hittite underground cities in Turkey

'All and Everything' etc yeah? I seem to have the impression that his teachings were basically about ego-purging, then reintegrating mystical incite 'from scratch' in order to fashion a completely new condition/program etc etc...

...something like that..

haha
 
M

mms

sometimes
funny i was reading about this dude today in relation to an essay on chance and divination .
what are the chances of that eh? :)
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
petergunn said:
anyone wanna give me a three sentence summary of Gurdieff's teachings/beliefs?
Click to expand...

I started reading one of his books and took a break from it...

born in Georgia (former USSR), he left home at 12 or something and traveled Asia, Mid East, etc, in search of knowledge and enlightenment. at 35 he went to England and started a center for spiritual studies and later did the same in USA. from what little I understand his teachings are a combination of many different traditions, with focus on development of the individual's potentials.

I do plan on resuming that book at some point...
 
G

Gabba Flamenco Crossover

High Sierra Skullfuck
Hey I'm reading a colin wilson book at mo with lots about this guy in. Wierd.

He developed a mystical system based on heavenly bodies corresponding to levels of human consciousness - the sun being the highest I think, and the moon the lowest. He had a thing about moons stealing energy from humans (he believed earth has other moons we've forgotten about) - but there seems to be a division of opinion on whether he actually believed this, or whether it was meant to be figurative in some way.

He believed the body has different energy centres for different theatres of existence, and the path to enlightenment involved training these energy centres to function properly.

he also developed a meditational system based on training the mind to focus simultaniously on whatever activity your performing and on yourself as performer - dont really understand this to be honest.
 
T

tate

Brown Sugar
petergunn said:
anyone wanna give me a three sentence summary of Gurdieff's teachings/beliefs?
Click to expand...

Peter Brook's 1979 film "Meetings With Remarkable Men" portrays his life
 
X

xero

was minusone
isn't arthur brown a follower of gurdjieff? Someone told me there's a coterie of musicians who are followers of him but i don't know that much about it - One of klaus schulze's richard wahnfried LPs has Brown on it, spouting what sounds like gurdjieff-style mysticism
 
B

Buick6

too punk to drunk
Cyberpunk/goth horror writer John Shirley wrote a book on him. Shirley wrote lyrics for BOC as well as did some pretty good punk recordings in his own right.
 
O

Octopus?

Well-known member
minusone said:
isn't arthur brown a follower of gurdjieff? Someone told me there's a coterie of musicians who are followers of him but i don't know that much about it - One of klaus schulze's richard wahnfried LPs has Brown on it, spouting what sounds like gurdjieff-style mysticism
Click to expand...

Robert Fripp makes reference (via John G. Bennett) to Gurdjieff's teaching on the (much under-rated) "Exposure" album as well. He spent a year at Sherbourne House studying various belief systems inspired by Mr. G.
 
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