I was at work when we heard the news on the radio and in the evening
we became confronted with the hard reality and the shocking but too surreal
images. Since then I've to admit that the rather bad taste and the unsettling
feeling never went away. Aside from the fact that action had to be taken, the
current situation remains scary and unpredictable. It's really sad to see
after centuries of atrocity, war and opposite evolution, people in general
remain as primitive as day one when earth was created...
- Vidna Obmana: ambient/electronic artist @ www.vidnaobmana.org
I'm tempted to say a lot, but I paused and thought better of it. I'm in a
somewhat reflective mood lately, and I have a lot of hard-to-express
feelings about all this ugliness.
- Robert Rich:Soundscape Productions / Amoeba Music
This is impossible to answer in only a few lines as it concerns a massive
information war and a vast tissue of lies. The shock of the endlessly looped news footage of the events of Sept 11th
seems to have pressed a stupid nationalistic button for many citizens of the
USA, to whom I'd like to say "get a grip" and try and understand that
building a human community is far more important than any nation state.
What happened in the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon was a lot of
innocent people got killed. Killing more innocent people won't make the sum
of suffering any less.
The idea of a " War Against Terrorism" is crazy, since terrorism is a tactic
of war.
From what I remember, the US state has a long and very bad history of
supporting terrorist campaigns in other parts of the world.
Bin Laden and the Taliban got to where they are today with the help of the
government of the USA (They were trained and funded to get the Russians out
of Afghanistan).
Now the US state is trying to extricate itself from the mess it has helped
create by supporting the -probably equally horrible - "Northern
Alliance" ---and may well create an even worse mess.
I pity the people of Afghanistan and what they are suffering.
Killing people is wrong.
I don't want to play.
- Nigel Ayers: of Nocturnal Emissions
The whole situation is heartbreaking. Writing about it, for me, feels like
cheapening it a bit. But I WILL write about what I've seen in the days
since.
I've seen the "America can do no wrong" and the "America can do no right"
crowds descend on this event as an attempt to put forward their own agenda.
You have citizens beating up other citizens because they wear turbans,
forgetting that it was not a RACE of people who did this. You ALSO have
citizens saying "our mean right-wing nation deserves this because of how
we've treated other countries!", forgetting that it was not a NATION who did
this terrible act.
It was a small group of people who did this.
What gives me hope is that when this tragedy happened, there were
IMMEDIATELY good and honorable people who "leapt into action"- policemen and
women, firemen and women, and average citizens. A number of them lost their
lives trying to help others, and a lot of them stayed through the rough
hours following the bombings, removing remnants of the world trade center,
one piece at a time. To me, that symbolism is more powerful than a waving
flag, and speaks louder than any pompous speil about how America "had this
coming".
- Jeff Pearce: ambient guitarist
I have to say that I'm a bit reluctant to speak about politics and
world events in a forum that's really directed towards music, it's
easy to sound like a PC poser, but this topic is inescapable. It's
fair to say that the events of 9/11/01 have left a lasting impression
on all of us. For me this last month has been a reminder to
appreciate what I have here and now, and to try to do the best that I
can in my little corner of the world, for my family and friends, as
my influence on world events seems nonexistent.
It's easy to criticize the way the US has handled its foreign policy,
and we've certainly done some things wrong or at least clumsily in
our dealings with other countries and cultures. I suppose we have
brought this crisis upon ourselves through a kind of nationalized and
willful ignorance of our role in global dynamics... but that doesn't
really suggest a specific course of action nor does it mitigate the
unsettling experiences and the personal losses of September 11th.
It's hard to know what to say... but to try to tie this back into
music (which is why we're here at AmbiEntrance, after all), I like to
think that art and the appreciation of art opens up people's power of
observation and may contribute to the growth of empathy in every
individual who participates... and I feel sure we need more empathy
and tolerance in the world!
- M. Bentley: eM of the foundry
This is what I've learned about loss:
Losing someone you love is like getting hit in the chest by a freight train.
Once you've felt that grief, irritations like rude drivers, moronic
co-workers, thoughtless friends or condescending sales people are just so
beside the point.
We can remember and honor those we've lost by being kinder, more patient,
more forgiving.
- Sara Ayers: ambient artist
I guess, at least, it will put to rest all the discussion about how our
generation has never had a real crisis or hardship by which to be
tested. Other than that, I don't have enough perspective on it yet to see
it as anything other than the most horrible and painful tragedy of my lifetime.
- M. Griffin: Hypnos Recordings
I'm not sure I can add a lot that hasn't already been said. Keep
believing in what is right and remember that you've got the backing of the
whole world in the struggle against terrorism.
- Nick Webb: Farfield
I wish I were able to offer light or hope or insight at this grim
moment, yet none of these seem at all within range - or desire - of
those actors now dragging their dismal props across the historical
stage. Perhaps only in the darkness of this wretched period can we
realize the need to provide our own light, and perhaps only in its
necrotized absence can we dare to recall what we once considered
fundamental. I want to hope, without ludicrous naivite, that we will
escape the lure of the tempting tinctures of ideology and rhetoric,
for a moment looking deeply into ourselves and out into the world,
yet to temper that optimism with realism I will hope less
panoramically that out of these ill times we may derive the sparks of
a new creativity - that the anger and frustration and sadness and
despair of this time find their way away from the fearful stupor of
violence and intolerance, toward passionate and constructive
expression in theory and practice and art. My greater wishes for our
world - for peace, for enlightenment, for history to move forward
rather than back into a newly retooled old rut, or even for
respectful and open-minded dialogue - have, sadly, no ground to
support them in the current climate.
- Joshua Maremont: (Thermal, Boxman Studies, The Archipelago)
Editors Note: I debated simply avoiding this off-topic and potentially-controversial subject, but decided, where else are you going to read the thoughts of our favorite artists? Thanks to all for contributing! DJO
| 
