Why? That's always seems to be life's biggest question. Everyone always asks, "Why?" especially when it comes to art. I always hate answering that question when people ask because I would rather have the art answer it for me, but with this project there is a definitive answer to "Why?"

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In 2020, the world seemed to be constantly turned upside down. Severe storms, hurricanes, fires, and a pandemic (just to name a few) scattered the scary start of a new decade. Personally, I believe all that has happened is a wake-up call from Earth. It is a reminder of our true insignificance as merely inhabitants of this planet. It is a reminder that it is our responsibility to not create a devastating footprint on this planet. It is a reminder that this is our only planet. It is a reminder that WE ARE CAUSING THIS, and that it will not get better if we do not change the route we are (and have been) on. 

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Throughout the pandemic I heard the phrase, "I can't wait to go back to normal" repeated by the masses. That is EXACTLY how we should not think. This is EXACTLY what we shouldn't do. That is EXACTLY what Mother Nature is telling us not to do. Our "normal" was disrupted because if we continued down that path, we wouldn't have any paths left to take. Our "normal" was the exact opposite of that, within all facets of our lives. So, we now need to take a step back and examine our daily choices as members of society and criticize the choices of these monopoly companies (and the politicians in their pockets) that are harming the environment, and our future, for profit. We need to create a new normal, not go back to what used to be.

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So what does this have to do with an album?

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Obviously, as a musician, I believe that music has more inherent power in comparison to words. I believe that music has the ability to send a message in which people can internalize, consciously or subconsciously. Now, more than ever, we need to send indirect messages through art because no one knows what words to believe anymore. So, with this project I wanted to, for a lack of better terms, send out an S.O.S. 

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The "Portrait U.S.A." image was a huge endeavor, one that birthed the "eye in the sky," a new way to view America. Not just from the streets of our communities or the top floors of executive buildings in big cities, but collectively, non-biased, from space. It was no longer about believing what the news anchors were saying or what you saw in the paper. It was what the earth looked like: what it really looked like, and responding to it. I don't believe people saw this possibility when the image came out in 1976, because of that, I had to make the "Audio Portrait U.S.A."

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This album is my attempt to emphasize the true importance of listening to our land.

 

Within the image, the different colors represent different geographical forms and vegetation: green and dark green are vegetation. Rocks and soil appear as white, yellow, and brown. Towns, roads, and water appear as black. So with those 6 colors visually giving us our entire country, I wanted us to have a way to not only see it, but to hear it. Each track on the album is meant to create a soundscape in which encapsulates what the color itself encapsulates. So, you, the listener, can put on the track "Green" for example, and you will hear vegetation in the form of sound waves: you will experience an oasis for your ears, and for your mind, even if it is only temporary. The point (at least one of them) is that all these connections that are made in the consumption of this album elicit an awakening within the listener, realizing the dire situation we are in, ecologically.

 

Maybe this breeds some ethical dilemmas. Maybe this causes a surge of activism. Maybe this does nothing. I don't know. All I know is that it is one powerful thing to compose an ambient track that represents vegetation and think about the possibility of there being a time when there is none left.

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-Tyler Suarez

2020