For Vol. 05, prolific producer Telemachus has created an original soundtrack and EP for Neil Oliver’s 2020 book ‘Wisdom of the Ancients: Life Lessons from Our Distant Past’.
'One of those slightly obscure figures who has helped British music move along more than most people will probably ever know.'
The Guardian
‘I chose 'Wisdom of the Ancients' by Neil Oliver as it was such a soothing, moving and evocative read during this pandemic. I have increasingly been re-connecting with the natural world over the past decade and along with this book of lessons that we might take from our ancestors, I think I found the perfect balm to the 24 hour news cycles of death and disease. Neil Oliver is in fact a pretty divisive figure, particularly in his homeland of Scotland, and I am certain that we would not see eye to eye on many issues. However it is a testament to the success of this book that our seemingly conflicting political views do not seem to cause any friction at all and their significance just melts away when we are dealing with events that happened 10,000 years ago. It shows that there is often much common ground between humans who otherwise would hold opposing views and that finding the things that you can agree on is often of greater importance than those which you cant.
The book opens with this quote from American Socio-biologist Edward Wilson:
The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology.
Edward O. Wilson b.1929
This quote instantly spoke to me and I think that in its essence, describes the root causes of much of the malaise that we see today in western society. I therefore chose to base my musical compositions around this quote by splitting it into the three conflicting aspects and writing music that would accompany and evoke these concepts. As always with my work there is an element of surreal humour (see my illustration for the artwork) to go with the sociological ideas and hopefully this provides a listen which errs more on the pleasant side of thought provoking.’
TRACKLIST:
Paleolithic Emotions
Medieval Institutions
God-Like Technology