GRINGO! by Bradfield Dumpleton

GRINGO! Soundtrack To An Existential Mystery
A Life Composed & Performed by Bradfield Dumpleton

Gringo.....the Existential Cowboy, Outsider, Alien, the Asperger, trying to untangle the spaghetti of his Mind, the abandoned frontiers and Ghost Towns of his Psyche, to make sense of a world he knows doesn't want him, and with which he has no affinity.

They say the Heart is a lonely hunter, but the Mind is both hunter and hunted, it hunts Itself, relentless in its search for something essential, some kind of Meaning, even knowing there is none.

This is Gringo's private journey across the widescreen Cinemascope movie inside his head, the invisible hero's Quest through various archetypes of life on the Outer.

There are the Distractions, relationship, the Sirensong of the Other. Gringo, too trusting, lets down his guard, leaves his gunbelt hanging on a chair by the bed. Manipulated, betrayed, the necessary Wound....the first lesson learnt, fingers burnt, Gringo takes the scars and moves on.

There is no Community for Gringo, feels his Otherness as he walks the whispering streets, in the places regular acceptable folks congregate, and they feel it too, they don't want him round, he's Bad For Business.

When the Other fails to deliver, every Unwanted has to face the Void, and surrender to its depths. Gringo shares a round or three with the Void, sees the joke in its black Nothing, and learns he can laugh at anything.

Feeling footloose after his binge with the Void, Gringo leaves civilisation and heads for the empty desert, the Space, on an unnameable mission, the Mystery. But Life is drunk, the wheels fall off - when nothing can move, you must learn to wait....

Eventually Gringo reaches the canyons, the desert's edge. Circling overhead, hidden in the silent cliffs, the Watchers, the Critics, the voices of Doubt, jealous of his Otherness, who wait to feed. The glare of the Eye is blistering, Gringo must merge with the shadows, there is nothing to drink but dust, the vultures close in.

Rescued by an old Shaman, Gringo half-wakes in a cave, there is a thirst quenched, his mind rides a snakestream of intertwisted dreams, his body is in fragments and the Voice of the fever speaks, glimpses and flickers of future past.

The Shaman straps Gringo, slumped half-conscious, to his Spirit Horse, and whispers in the animal's ear. Only the Horse knows where to take Gringo, the Horse will deliver him from Death. This is the Hero's Return, but who will be waiting, who will notice?

Gringo finds succour at the Blue Bordello, to rest and come back to Earth. In the Bordello there is care, nurturance, the return to the Senses - food, wine, soft bed and restoration, time to gather energy for the next round.

The old Demons of Self ride into town, looking for a showdown, and Gringo is ready, hardened now and sharper. This is the demarcation of Territories, overcoming old Threats in the Mind. Gringo faces them all and takes them down.

What remains after the battle? Dust. Rust. Bones. Wind. No satisfaction in victory, just the Emptying, and the grim determination to just Persist.

In the vast empty desert of Self, beauty still blooms among the thorns, the sharp sweet Knowing that Life pushes through.

In the closing scene, Gringo finds his Release. Beyond all Desert, the Oasis, the bar that never closes, the Homecoming among fellow Aliens. This world? Another?

Final credits, Gringo dissolves into the horizon, forever a Work In Progress, no sequels, an unsolved mystery, floats out into the Big Et Cetera.........

A library of musical sketchbooks, mapping my various evolutions from 2005 to next week. Dedicated to exploring sound for its own sake. Many diverse delights here for the patient & attentive listener.

bradfielddumpleton.com
YouTube
SoundCloud