CORTEX

CORTEX (2020/06/23): https://album.link/qgmmcpxxgdhsr

According to the Latin etymology, the term cortex refers to the envelope, the bark. By analogy with the plant (the bark of the tree), the outer layer of the brain is thus called the cerebral cortex. 🧠

By naming this mini-album "CORTEX", the invitation is somehow extended to those who are interested to reflect for a brief moment on the meaning and interest of artistic and musical projects as well as on the meaning and interest of words and metaphors. For, by "scratching under the bark" in an attempt to uncover the raw material, perhaps you will reach what was not directly accessible to you? Perhaps you will also see the link between living beings and the fundamental place that plants occupy at the sources of our common biotope? Perhaps this will awaken your "ecological fibre"? Perhaps you will think instead of the importance of wood as a material and of its outer layer that envelops it in a protective mantle against the outside world... (A tissue membrane contributing to its integrity, like a skin thickened by accumulation over the course of a lifetime, the characteristic bark of a tree often makes it possible to recognize its essence among its fellow creatures...)

🧠 In neuroscience, the cerebral cortex is, by comparison, the peripheral gray matter of the cerebral hemispheres in animals that possess it! Composed of segmented layers, the organization of the cortex is structured by circuits and intertwined connections within an organ (the brain) for which science and medicine, although they have since largely caught up, took some time before suspecting and meticulously studying its importance, particularly in terms of complex cognitive functions, especially in mammals.

Classified among mammals and belonging to a "singular" species of primates, human beings are like the individual twigs of the branches of a form of evolutionary tree that has been in progress for millions of years (creationists do not mind). The symbol is strong, "the tree from which we are supposed to have descended" is an inescapable part of our history, a key factor in our expansion and one of the living organisms on Earth that our species has probably never persecuted so much!

The tree is still one of our symbols of life, however, and the idea that by "scraping" under the bark you can detect its raw material is appealing in more ways than one. Also, at the dawn of a twenty-first century that sweeps away everything in its path, the mix of genres, metaphors, analogies and symbols makes it possible, very modestly, to raise here side discussions on themes that are crucial for our common future: symbiotic organisms, members of the same "family", that of the Living!

So, after you have soaked up the atmosphere by discovering a fragment of my sound affinities, perhaps you will wonder about the interest of all this? (LOL) Without claiming to revolutionize the world and mentalities, I would nevertheless like to imagine that the approach evokes, at least for a moment, the conceptual parallels between the role of the environment and its preservation, and the development of faculties, especially "cerebral" faculties, the reflection on the meaning of artistic and musical expression as well as the role and scope of the "cultural" approach..." A strange primate in more than one way, notably through his exacerbated narcissism, the supposedly "modern" Man (self-proclaimed as a fully-fledged Earthling...) is at the same time a faithful witness to his past which, like the earth's crust, is covered by layers of history (not always the most glorious...) which has shaped him according to evolution, his environment, events and hazards to which he has had to adapt with the means at his disposal.

The "electronic" scene, a reflection of a society in full mutation, raises as many questions as various questions to which I have no pretension to bring even the slightest fragmentary elements of an answer! Nevertheless, asking the right questions would already be a major step forward on the eve of a reshaping of socio-cultural practices imposed by the post-pandemic world order. Moreover, perhaps you share this feeling, or perhaps you are already thinking about how to reinvent yourself, your work, your life, your leisure, your fun? Therefore, if exchanging with respect and kindness your feelings and ideas can contribute to give individually more meaning and have a positive impact on others, I invite you to share both the music of this EP and the humble "artistic" concept of a project whose only intention is to federate instead of dividing!

4 tracks:

1. The first title of this "nano-album concept" refers to the strangeness of our species, generating de facto many complex questions...

2. The second is a scathing nod to the (all too often) proud (even arrogant) "claims" made by the motley members of the human "community" who is equally so (for better or worse).

3. The third alludes to the blindness (legendary and in fact) of a primate whose sense of vision is nevertheless one of the major characteristics and one of the essential components of his sensitive and motor faculties, functions that are fundamental to the evolution of his nervous and behavioural apparatus...

4. The fourth takes up the image, or at least the idea, that at the sound of an alarm sounding, one must remain all the more vigilant because one wishes to preserve oneself from danger and stay alive. For although many of us live (too) "comfortably", the world and the events unfolding in it are there to remind us of the priority emergencies of our time, of the context, of the social and economic situation, of the planet and of individuals. Indeed, despite repeated warnings, we are extraordinarily "deaf" in the face of dangers and their warnings. In short! If that’s enough for you and that you are satisfied with my musical delirium, perfect.

However, if you are inclined to reflect, think, dissert, converse, exchange in order to advance mentalities, go on the social networks. But there is no question of polemicizing or sterilizing the debates around the ambient "psychorigidities"... Only the "benevolent humanists" are welcome!

nms303