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poligraf (87)

The Music Of Poligraf : The Winged Life

Posted by Christopher Stewart on August 8, 2009 at 2:17am


("The Winged Man" by Odilon Redon)

"The Winged Life" takes its name from the following verse by William Blake :

He who binds himself to a joy
Does the winged life destroy
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise

This piece is a singularity as far as the poligrafic repertoire is concerned. I didn't aim for innovation or cleverness as I usually do because I felt that the best way to let the message through was to keep the music simple. Thus the song is about 4 minutes long and

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The Music Of Poligraf : The Dam part 2

Posted by Christopher Stewart on August 6, 2009 at 10:48pm

Clocking in at 22 minutes “The Dam” is my longest composition thus far. The piece uses the metaphor of water flowing from source to ocean to illustrate this mysterious process that we usually refer to as life. It comprises eight distinct movements, identified as follows :

  • 1. Source
  • 2. River
  • 3. Rapids
  • 4. Dam
  • 5. Immersion
  • 6. Surface
  • 7. Flow
  • 8. Ocean

As the title suggest, the focus is directed on one major obstacle/life-changing experience, symbolized by a dam on the river, which the protagonist/narrator ha

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The Music Of Poligraf : The Chrome Lake part 7

Posted by Christopher Stewart on August 5, 2009 at 1:00am


(Globe of Integration by Eugen Hofbauer, Herbert Kalleitner, and Susi Müller. Photo by Manfred Kielnhofer)

“The Chrome Lake” is the core middle part of “Entering The Stream,” the trilogy which begins with "Into The Ashram" and is completed by "Leaving The Ashram."

Lasting a little over 12 minutes, the suite comprises seven sections identified as follows :

  • 1. Introversion
  • 2. Intervention
  • 3. Introspection I
  • 4. Introspectrumental I
  • 5. Introspection II
  • 6. Introspectrumental II
  • 7. Integration

“Integration” sta

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Music and Spiritual Practice - An Overview of Poligraf (part 4)

Posted by Christopher Stewart on May 22, 2009 at 9:01pm

(The Wheel of Becoming - Symbolic Representation of Saṃsāra in Tibetan Buddhism)

Poligraf's first album is entitled "Samsara." Traditionally, the term refers to the Buddhist concept of the cycle of birth and death in which all beings in the universe take part and which can be escaped only through enlightenment. Personally, I agree with the view that it is rather that very same process of enlightenment, in which ups and downs are in fact the appearance of constant motion towards spiritual growth.
I
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Music and Spiritual Practice - An Overview of Poligraf (part 1)

Posted by Christopher Stewart on May 17, 2009 at 7:29pm

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Music has been an essential part of my life since the end of the 80s.
The adventure began during the second of my four years of studying electrical engineering at Université Laval in Québec City. Through various friends and contacts I reconnected with progressive rock, a form of music to which I had already been exposed to in my youth thanks to my older brothers and sisters. Hearing the music of bands such as Yes, Rush, Genesis, and King Crimson felt like meeting old friends, and quickly I knew I
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Music and Spiritual Practice - An Overview of Poligraf (part 3)

Posted by Christopher Stewart on May 21, 2009 at 12:00am

Poligraf has been an essential part of my life since its inception at the beginning of February 1998.
The adventure began after the collapse of a band that probably never really existed as it only had a handful of rehearsals, but for which I had already written a lot of material. Left alone at the helm, I connected with a group of experienced musicians via a co-worker friend and after agreeing on a general aim and formula, we raised sail and headed to the terra incognita of progressive rock.
Over
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Music and Spiritual Practice - An Overview of Poligraf (part 2)

Posted by Christopher Stewart on May 20, 2009 at 1:51am


(Buddha the Conqueror by Nicholas Roerich)

Buddhism has been an essential part of my life since the mid-90s.
The adventure began when I stumbled upon a feature in an encyclopedic dictionary that highlighted the Four Noble Truths. That finding immediately sparked my curiosity and a few days later I was buying a copy of The Dhammapada at a local bookstore. While slowly digesting the aphorisms in the weeks that followed, I found that its teachings were in continuity with a process of introspection
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