RR Podcast E35 Free Content Matt Marble: The American Museum of Paramusicology

Matt Marble is an artist, author, audio producer and director of the American Museum of Paramusicology. Both creatively and through historical research, his work explores the inspired intersections of art and metaphysics and the intuitive disciplines they mutually employ. Matt is the author of Buddhist Bubblegum: Esotericism in the Creative Process of Arthur Russell, and the producer/host of Secret Sound, a podcast exploring the metaphysical biopics of American musicians, and The Hidden Present, an audio interview series exploring intuitive discipline and spiritual imagination. Additional works have been featured by the California Festival, Warp Records, and the Philosophical Research Society. His writing, research, media production, and personal archive constitute the American Museum of Paramusicology (AMP), through which he also publishes the monthly AMP Journal.

The term “paramusicology” was first coined in 1993 by author Melvyn Willin to address psychic and pagan histories of music. Musicology being the study of music, paramusicology is the study of paranormal music experience. Though the term has struggled to find solid footing, the paranormal generally refers us to that which is "beyond" or “outside” the normal—to experiences or phenomena which cannot be explained by scientific reasoning, objective perception, or causal agency. This points our awareness to what may be called the numinous* in human experience. Due to its abstract nature, to even convey the numinous requires active imagination and symbolic communication. The AMP explores how the numinous informs human listening. And it unpacks the esoteric philosophies and intuitive disciplines which facilitate and draw from our spiritual and auditory imagination.

In this discussion, Matt shares a bit about his background, as well as his inspiration for creating his platform. He talks about his visual art project known as Wondering Stars, a mixture of music and physical visual works, and how this came out of his dreamwork.

He also talks about his podcast, The Secret Sound, and his 7-part series called The Hidden Present, and we even go into a short discussion about musical modes (as used in Western music - (*thanks to my brother Dan for making that distinction) and their ‘moods’, as well as how these can be useful tools for creativity.

We then move to talk about the AMP Journal, and focus on Issue 16 from last August called “Spirit Invocations.” In this issues, Matt wrote about the film Longlegs and how sound (not ‘song’, as I misspoke in the introduction) is key to this film, including the role of folk music and rock and roll and the esoteric aspects of these, along with how Marc Bolan served as inspiration and perhaps as blueprint of sorts for the main character. He also discusses the concept of the Fohat ( taken from the Theosophical Society) and how this may have inspired the ideas behind the metal balls that Longlegs placed inside the doll heads in the film.

PROGRAM NOTES

https://www.mattmarble.net/matt-marble (all links at the top of the page)

https://www.mattmarble.net/buddhist-bubblegum

https://www.mattmarble.net/amp-longlegs

https://mattmarble.bandcamp.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@AmericanMuseumofParamusicology

https://www.instagram.com/americanmuseumofparamusicology/

Full episode can be found at https://www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion, or purchased for a one-time fee.


Music and Editing: Daniel P. Shea
End Production: Stephanie Shea