The Dark Philosophy of Cosmicism

 

Cosmicism:  the concept behind the Album

 

Fabrizio Brugnera’s “The Dark Philosophy of Cosmicism” is an Album that homages existentialism in its core meaning: a logical analysis of human existence in relation to whatever is external to man, whether society, culture, the world, faith, or God.

Behind “The Dark Philosophy of Cosmicism” stands a strong statement, explicited by Brugnera himself — the view of humanity’s path as pointless in a universe that simply does not care. Inspired by the cosmicism and horror of H.P. Lovecraft, in which humanity is depicted as something fundamentally subject to the vastness and emptiness of the cosmos, Brugnera’s music carries us down inside our minds, our fears, and what we don’t want to see. This is not music one would use to escape from our ordinary reality; it is instead music for confrontation. 

 

Music as an inner journey and an inner exploration of the self

 

The Album, consisting of 11 tracks, is all titled, structured, and harmonized in a way through which the author can tell us a story — the role of the artist is, in fact, being a channel. 

 

As in most of Brugnera’s works, we find an underlying meaning, a common thread that links all the Album tracks together: a critical, sometimes unnatural balance arising from the awareness of indifference and the acknowledgment of being the only ones in charge of our own care.

 

The opening track, “Introitus ad Nihilum” invites the listeners to the beginning of self-reflection. Starting as a gentle, solemn walk, we soon discover we are not moving horizontally, but we are rather ushered downward. As harmonies and arrangements develop in the track, so unfolds the sense of no certainty. Perhaps Brugnera’s “Introitus ad Nihilum” acts as the beginning of Dante’s Inferno. Above the gates of Hell, a warning, yet a call: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. As soon as we decide to enter, we find us face to face with the Void, in the following chapter: “Insignificant as the Void”. In this music, the artist twists the plot, pointing the light to ourselves: we are as insignificant as the void. It is no more a contemplation of the vast outside, but a reconnection with our nature, which is of intrinsic irrelevance in respect to everything else. “Insignificant as the Void” merges elements of dark ambient music with evocative, odd, liminal electronic spaces. It is the music of transition between what’s left behind and the big void we are deciding to enter with no possibility of escape.

Soon after, “The Mystical Ways of a Metaphysical Atheist” is encountered. We thoroughly enter a state of meditation, in which Brugnera guides us through critical spheres lying far below the day-to-day life. We question the roots of society, traditions, and religion. What is the difference between what we believe in, and why we believe in it? In this fragment of the path, music acts as a peripheral surrounding, leaving space for an architecture to build thoughts upon. “The Eternal in the Ephemeral”  (Parts 1 and 2) are possibly the most oximorical tracks in the whole Album. Deconstructing piece by piece the distinction between the timeless and the fleeting, and ultimately showing how one is nothing but the mirror of the other. Paired together, those two tracks whisper us how what we are walking in, is eternity, and what’s ahead is just a projection of it, a reflection of us. With “Philosophy of Cosmic Indifferentism” we ascend (descend) to another level below the ground.

The track is central in the Album and acts as a foundational blooming of all the other tracks — those before, and those after. A soundscape for the understanding of the meaning of the universe: there is no anticipation, no path, no privileged direction. No eyes staring at us, no hands softly touching and protecting us. The universe simply does not care.

“Unknowable Truths, Unbearable Lies” exposes the listeners to the cost of seeking truth. How much does it cost to understand, to grasp the meaning behind and beneath, to keep digging and diving — desperately, in search of an airstream which is too incorporeal to be captured. We don’t feel it in our hands, as we do with grass, or sand. And what we have to cope with, then, is what we reach. “Requiem for a Shattered Cosmos” approaches to an end of the story. We deeply feel and understand all the symbols that the universe gives us, with the dramatic appreciation of the fact that we will never be OK. It is not an usual sadness-filled or sorrow-oriented Requiem: with dignity we comprehend the limit of our role in the universe. With track 9, “Lacrimosa Noctis Aeternae”, Brugnera gifts an end to the Album, and with it, to the feelings that constantly permeate our souls. A slow-paced, harmonious, and almost sacred atmosphere pervades the listener in this dotted-line closure. As stated by the artist, this track accepts everything: the void, the loss, the awe. It leaves us not with closure, but with clarity.

 

Cyclicity versus linearity

 

Brugnera’s themes are made of layers, levels, fine-tuned mental infrastructures and architectures that build up, one upon the doubts of the previous, and those keep cumulating, until the tower is too tall. We may see a verticality in the meanings and the questions that the musician shakes in our minds. Yet, we have to acknowledge the magnificent presence of another element: cyclicity. The need for a moral closure of things. In which the end means the return to the beginning. This concept is exemplified in the Album itself, with the additional presence of two tracks, two Choral Versions (of “Introitus ad Nihilum” and “Lacrimosa Noctis Aeternae”). Brugnera finds a dialogue between what was and what will be, between our beliefs and our hopes, between our traces and our path forward. A thread that always calls back and calls forward, made of points of connection, silk links, weightless symbols. The choral versions of the two tracks are meant to sing back the Album’s concept. They do not answer the questions, they echo them.