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A Night Of Dark Trees

by West Riding

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1.
Roses Under Cypresses 07:07
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2.
A Bridge, And Not An End 07:09
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3.
Farewell to Last Man 04:44
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about

“A Night of Dark Trees” is the second installment in a series of 3-song EP’s produced at what (for me) is a somewhat accelerated pace: the first installment, “Bring Me The Breath of the Universe,” was finalized in August 2022 and released in September 2022; this release “A Night of Dark Trees” was finalized a few months later in December 2022 and released January 2023.

This is also the first of my recent releases to stray from being informed by Zen koans and fundamental Buddhist themes: “A Night of Dark Trees” was instead influenced by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, specifically his seminal work “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.”
In this well-known book, Nietzsche’s protagonist Zarathustra proclaims the death of God and the pending arrival of the Overman, a being of superior intellect, wisdom and courage who would replace God, but would also replace “Last Man,” the lowest common denominators in humankind - selfishness, laziness, ignorance, indulgence, and a general preference for the path of least resistance.

One point that Nietzsche does not appear to deliberately make, but probably implied, is the possibility that “Overman” and “Last Man” and even God itself are merely different sides of the same being. The idea that, rather than existing on some evolutionary continuum from one “species” to the next - the God of Last Man and Last Man himself evolving into Overman in the absence of God - that all characteristics of God, Overman and Last Man are present, and have always been present, in every human that has ever or will ever exist.

And on this point, my personal take on Zarathustra represented here is my attempt to merge the doctrines of Nietzsche/Zarathustra with the doctrines of Zen Buddhism, trying to pick up where I think Nietzsche left off, if you will.
To be clear - it is well-known that Nietzsche was familiar with and had some fondness for the tenets of Buddhism. But he was also fiercely critical of certain elements of Buddhism, which is understandable considering he was viewing this foreign spiritual practice through the highly-biased and self-assured lens of an agnostic 19th-century German philosopher.

And so, the three musical pieces I’ve composed in this mindset focus on the parts of the hero’s journey where we can see the veil briefly pulled aside, where we can see in Zarathustra’s proselytizing a glint of irony, where we slowly realize the joke is on us, and we see the truth that the Overman, and God, and Last Man, are nothing more than us, right here, right now. We are at different times Last Man (the Relative, in Zen parlance) - when we surrender to the temptations of greed, anger, and ignorance…the Overman (the Absolute) - when we act unselfishly and courageously for the higher good of all beings and our planet…and God (the Transcendent) - when we simply exist as a natural extension of everything that is, and merge seamlessly with the Absolute.

credits

released January 6, 2023

composed/arranged, recorded and mixed by James M Gregg at Rioghal Studios
electronics by James M Gregg
mastered by CloudBounce
cover photo "The Forest for the Trees" by Jessica Beer (IG: @on_my_walks)

All proceeds from the sales of my albums are donated to worthy causes, for the benefit of all sentient beings.

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West Riding Portland, Oregon

West Riding (aka James M Gregg) produces ambient, neo-classical and cinematic music inspired by quiet mountains, intrepid journeys and Zen koans, as well as artists such as Olafur Arnalds, Phillip Glass, Max Richter, Arve Henriksen, Hans Zimmer, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Gustav Mahler and many more westriding.net ... more

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