Description
A celestial trip through inner and outer dark space, experimental soundscapes, ambient drones, ritual drum beats, and heavy synth waves. C.O.F. is a solo experimental music project of Lloyd Keane. Originally self-released in 2021 now reissued on Low Noise Productions.
Views from the Celestial Hermitage
This album was inspired by two separate, though parallel, factors. The first factor was a visualization or “subjective space” I often engage with. This subjective space is visualized of an asteroid hurtling though deepest space. I am the only being on this space-bound rock. It is silent and it is isolate. It is, to me, beautiful. While I am the only being on this sacred space, many things can, and do, appear and interact with me or pass by my asteroid. It’s like my very own Moonbase Alpha.
The second factor that inspired this album is my ongoing fascination with hermitages and monasteries. More specifically, the inspiration comes from my love/mostly hate relationship I have with the life and writings of Thomas Merton. I find Merton’s theological writings dull but his published diaries reveal someone who was driven to understand himself and his place in the Universe. He spent a good deal of time (and ink!) trying to find silence and solitude. He kept searching for more and more seclusion. He didn’t realize that silence, that sense of being, cannot be found in objective space. That silence is found within the Pscyhe. It is a subjective experience of one’s unique being. Merton’s Catholic worldview meant he could only place life’s ultimate meaning and value in the hands (and the handiwork) of God. That, to me, is unfortunate.
My Hermitage is located on an asteroid deep in the outer/inner space of my Psyche. The tracks of this album are vignettes that I have encountered along my journey. Each of us has our own hermitage of the Psyche. It’s just a matter of looking for it and, more importantly, listening for it. That beautiful hermitage of the Psyche will be something different for you. However, if it does end up being an asteroid whipping through space be sure to say hello on your way past me.
C.O.F. is a solo experimental music project of Lloyd Keane. These tracks are often inspired by, and created for, ritual and meditation.
