BSWC One-a-Day: Tim Doyle - Escape From Lhasa

An amazingly beautiful piece for a beautiful late spring evening.

This probably sets the record as the longest One-a-Day post yet, but it is well worth it. Incredible.

"'Escape from Lhasa' was plotted out very carefully in 80 segments of 48 seconds each with the parameters changed on the fly (which required 64 minutes of extreme alertness to execute!), and has five distinct levels in which the steps descend by powers of three, with each of the sixteen tracks changed separately within those levels in order to descend seamlessly from the mountain. It represents the sprituality of the mountaintop, a place beyond words, in which the earthiness of monastery life coexists with the experience of the Infinite... a place that is attacked and desecrated, and requires flight to a refuge through the harshness of the mountains to the safety of lower ground. There is terror, but there is also the great resolve with which the flight of the young Dalai Lama's entourage was carried out, and amid all of that, the sense of the Beyond and the joy which attended these monks even during the arduous trek to India and safety. The last section, after minute 64, represents a cooling-down period in which safety is reached and flight is over, and the adrenaline is allowed to settle, and, at the very end, there is a one-sound reminder that what follows the End is the Beginning again."

Thanks to Tim Doyle for putting this out there at archive.org. It was posted today.

Tim Doyle - Escape From Lhasa