Here on his Going In debut, “Four Pavilions,” William Selman illustrates his passage through the various mental terrains he encounters while in meditation. Across 42 minutes, undulant synth drones intermingle with field recordings and acoustic instrumentation to form an array of scenes, textures and feelings. At times unfolding like a beam of light through patchwork clouds, the music shifts continuously between fleeting moments of awe and anxiety, of curiosity and excitement, of immense stillness and relief.

Referring to these aural states as pavilions, Selman sought to depict his daily meditation practice and the various mental environments that evolve over time. In his mind, these spaces take on feelings and textures all their own. From the infinite ground of nothingness, they arise and they fall. As a listener, we’re asked not to conjure pavilions of our own, but to engage with Selman’s as he lays them out for us, to immerse ourselves completely. In this sense, it is not only easy but encouraged to lose oneself in the music. As in meditation, it is sensible to breathe your way through this piece. Ask yourself, who am I when the mind is at rest? Who am I without all the stories?

Based in Portland, Oregon, William Selman is a musician and multimedia artist. His work with sound combines analogue and digital synthesis techniques, live percussion and instrumentation, and his own rich field recordings to create compositions and sound art that explore themes such as place and non-places, embodiment, atmosphere, and the dialectic between the real and the artificial.