Nous is an experimental music project exploring ritual and spontaneity within music. Nous aims to build communal musical relationships that collectively work to find new ways of creating art. Each installment centers around a different focal concept, and the project features a fluctuating group of artists. As founder Christopher Bono explains, “Nous aspires to bypass the lower level thought patterns of the egotistical mind and encourages the connection of those involved to reach a higher level of consciousness, providing a creative space where intuitive, unexpected, and unexplained results can occur.”
The name Nous was chosen for its double meaning. Nous means “we” or “us” in French; however, within the philosophical tradition it is sometimes equated to intellect or intelligence, and is used to describe the faculty of the human mind which is described in classical philosophy as necessary for understanding what is true or real, similar to intuition. In the Eastern tradition, the sanskrit equivalent is Buddhi, which denotes an aspect of mind that is higher than the rational mind and that is attracted to Brahman (“Truth” or “Reality”).
The impulse for the Nous project came after composer Christopher Bono finished his full-length orchestral work Bardo. After spending two years working on the score and the studio recording of Bardo, Bono was driven to experience and investigate completely different approaches to musical creation.