Dr. Gizmo’s Book Review: The Soul of Sound by Lynn Olson

Dr. Gizmo’s Book Review: The Soul of Sound by Lynn Olson
Harvey Rosenberg

Major Lynn Olson flying over Phnom Penh was pointing his "Thunderbird" towards home base, when out of the sun he was jumped by four MIG- 21’s, which with crackling 20mm, canons engaged him in mortal combat. The Major, called "The Right Stuff Olson" by the squadron, belly-rolled, jerked left, locked in his air to air missiles, and vaporized two Commie bastard war-pig MIGs instantly, and then proceeded into a Pas a Deux with death, dancing through the skies while his 20 millimeter cannons sang the black song of oblivion, making minced meat of another Hell-bound Commie vulture. One more to go, and then the skies over Vietnam would once again be safe for freedom-loving people all over the world — but then here was a THUD from his engine, and almost instantly smoke was billowing in Major Olson’s cabin. He knew he was hit, but with perfect timing he ejected. As he was being catapulted through the air, he grabbed hold of the last MIG’s wing, climbed toward the cockpit, pried it open with his John Rambo knife, and with a karate chop ejected the Commie rat bastard pilot, taking his seat, and safely landing the mid-air hijacked MIG-21.

This episode in Lynn’s life is really três ordinaire , ho hum, matter-of-fact, like "Honey, I’ll take out the garbage" kind of stuff compared to the heart pounding adventure you will encounter in THE SOUL OF SOUND. This graceful book would more aptly be entitled THE SOUL OF LYNN OLSON IN SEARCH OF HIS HARMONIC. And while this book is a compilation of stimulating articles previously published in Positive Feedback, in its book form the impact of these articles is something very different. In this book, Lynn creates for the reader a metacontext that brings a much more profound meaning to his writing.

As I have said so many times before . . .the Righteous Dude, the Pilgrim wandering on the path of ecstasy, needs a metacontext — or he will get lost.

Before I go any further, let me define the audience for this book so that you don’t waste your hard earned beans. This is definitely not a book for those who want advice on "What To Buy Next," because this is a book about the process of self-discovery through art . . .in this case, the audio arts. I was so stimulated by Lynn’s book that I wrote a letter to all of the presidents of all of the great universities and art schools of the whole world, and demanded that their art programs be expanded to include the most vibrant and dynamic art form of the twentieth century . . .the audio arts, the aural arts, the art of creating electromechanical devices that, by producing profound musical metaphors, induce very deep states of musical ecstasy. Isn’t it about time the audio arts were taken seriously? Lynn would become Professor Emeritus of the Audio Arts at one of these high place of learning. This is a book about process, the process of audio artification. So if your two-dimensional adolescent soul is in need of dogma you are better off reading Ayn Rand.

BEING THE ENIGMA

Lynn is a revolutionists in the spirit of George Washington, Napoleon, Elvis Presley, and Nobu Shishido . . .these are the men whose job it is to shake up the orthodoxy. And Lynn’s writing is witness to the fact that we are in the middle of a revolution in the audio industry, and, like all revolutions, the vision of the future does not come from the keepers of the stale, moldy broo-ha-ha. The shifting volcanoes of the audio industry don’t reveal their smoke in the AES journals, but rather billow underground in the thousands of living rooms in America, where individual crazed audiomaniacs, like you and I and Lynn, are changing our minds about what is beautiful. Now, it is a rare male occurrence that Harry will call up his friend Joe and announce, " Well Joe, on my way home from the hardware store where I bought a new mulcher, I was speculating on the dialectics implicit within the aesthetics of the ineffable and changed my mind about musical beauty".

Never happen. We guys come from Mars, and as good Martians, we never talk directly about our most profound emotions . . .we prefer to use totems to speak for us. Which is why Lynn is inviting us into his living room to share with us his glorious struggle to create his Sistine Chapel. Dudes, Lynn is Olde Audio Pilgrim, and has taken a long road well traveled that starts with being a designer of a state of the art solid state amps, then morphs to a deep commitment to micro-powered directly-heated triodes. Lynn has followed his heart, and it has led him in a strange and wonderful direction. The canvas upon which Lynn’s art is explored, of course, is Lynn’s Aerial loudspeaker, for which there is complete construction details.

If I were an audio shrink I would recommend reading this book rather than a book like, say, Gestalt Therapy Verbatim by Fritz Perls, because Lynn’s book will bring more comfort to those who are experiencing the anxiety of a crumbling American audio orthodoxy.

Why does a man struggle with lumber, computers, capacitors, soldering irons and then spend thousands of hours tweaking? Is it worth it? This question is the foundation of the revolution I Just mentioned. Lynn, like his Japanese brothers, knows that there is an unbreakable bond between the experience of beauty and being directly involved in the process of creating that beauty. Mainstream American audio journalism hates this idea, because it is an attack on the economic engine that runs on high octane consumerism: More Pleasure = More Buying.

Did I mention that Lynn spent many years living in Japan and rightfully so absorbed much of the Japanese sense of art?

HOW YOU KNOW THE RIGHTEOUS ONES?

If you ever go to a Harley-Davidson rally you can immediately detect who is at the top of the hierarchy of coolosity. Just look at what bikes the crowds are gathered around . . .the custom-made ones, the expressive works of individual biker art . . .the great works of the master biker artists. The novices saunter into a Harley-Davidson showroom, write out a check for $25K, drive out, and look like Mrs. Harley-Davidson dressed them and sent them off to their first day of biker school . . .all shiny and new. Sooner or later the novices discover who The Righteous Ones are. They have created their own unique Hawgs, because nothing — and I mean nothing — you can buy off the shelf will ever express the true art that is you. With experience, with the wisdom that comes from years on the road, and with proper guidance, soon the novice gains the skill and knowledge he needs; he becomes ready to build his own totem.

Lynn is one of those Righteous Ones, and as a wise teacher and guide he is inviting us to get into a deeper, more profound relationship with our audio process. The audio adolescent will be threatened by this book, while the artistically mature will read it many times over, in the same way you read your Dylan Thomas and T. S. Elliot. The Soul of Sound is a bold, bright light in an often dim-witted industry.