The Art of the 5 L blog has got a "voice" now...

Today looks like a beautiful day. The sun shines, the breeze returned to animate the trees and the grass, and the birds seems full of energy, busy in their tasks and singing as they do it.

Here we are also busy to implement a new music player ( just like your iPod) with many things to listen. No pop songs, or commercial stuff, since the point is not fashion and entertainment, but learning the Art of Listening. Listening to sounds, often unfamiliar, where surprise, discovery, curiosity are present. We are at the doorstep of the unknown, we will avoid repetitions, because life, even if it has apparently its own cycles, nevertheless doesn't repeat exactly itself. If our mind can perceive every moment as new, fresh, unique, life then, is an endless flow, very creative, very inspiring.

Listening is something extraordinary. Really! Let see why.

We all started to listen, in the womb of our mother, much before we could open our eyes and have our first glimpse of the world, around us.
Sounds, through the wall of flesh, started to awake us very early. The resonance of our mother's voice was very closely part of our first listening. Other sounds were more vague, far away, merged together. But the FLOW of the sounds was already impressing our little brain and being. Moments of silence, moments of activity, loud, soft, tense and peaceful.
The melody of a singing voice must have been a delight!

Before the iPods, the mp3 players, the radio, the TV and the invention of the loudspeaker, the soundscape panorama was quite different from what we are used nowadays. The big sounds were like the thunder, imitated by men, with their shouting voice, their big drums and their cannons. Men found very early that by making very loud noise, he could impress and stress so much his fellows, and therefore control them, but realized apparently only recently that all would suffer from lots of disorders in their life, with tinnitus becoming our closest companion.
Before, long ago, the ancients listened to the sounds of nature, they would pay attention to what Nature was telling night and day. They could learn a lot from that. Today in the cities, in the big metropolis, noise is everywhere, constant and loud. The loudspeaker is king and telling us how to live.

At that point, isn't it interesting to notice that man invented a way to amplify the sounds and noise, but not to make noisy environment more quiet? Unless you build a sound proof studio with thick walls and absorbing materials, how can you protect your ears from the blaring loudspeakers and the car engines? What about the earplugs, one could suggest? Well, try it, and you will see, if the feeling is the same that a quiet atmosphere, when everything stands still, and your listening is fully awaken, sharp to the most subtle sound. There is a tremendous difference when the mind is fully awaken, listening, and when it is closing its doors to the world to find a bit of rest.

How to use the virtual iPod? (by the way, like it?)
Well, very easy, if you are already familiar with the real one. If not, just clicking on the menu or the little arrows should help you find out. To start, click on the bottom arrow.

In the playlist, you will find some quite unfamiliar tracks. Don't resist, don't try to judge if you can, just listen with an open mind and a welcoming heart. There is nothing to hurt, nothing to violate your own space.

Here, all the musical compositions are produced by L'homme d'Art, except of course the birds singing.

That would be really beyond our capacity to create such a wonderful sound, you probably guess why.

They are the true masters.