In Hindu philosophy, turiya (or chaturtha) is a state of pure consciousness. It is a fourth state of consciousness that underlies and transcends the three common states of consciousness: the state of waking consciousness (jagrata), the state of dreaming (svapna), and dreamless sleep (susupti).
The first two states are not true experiences of reality and truth because of their dualistic natures of subject and object, self and not-self, ego and non-ego. In the third state, dreamless sleep, one is not conscious of external or internal objects; however, that does not mean consciousness is not present there. It is like saying ‘I don’t see anything in darkness’. The recognition that I don’t see anything is what I ’see’. So also in dreamless sleep, one is not conscious of anything and the very fact that this statement is true proves the existence of consciousness during deep sleep.
In the waking consciousness there is a sense of ‘I’ (self identity) and awareness of thoughts. In the sleep/dream state there is no or little sense of ‘I’ but there are thoughts and awareness of thoughts. In the deep sleep state there is no awareness of thoughts or ‘I’. In Turiya there is awareness of the ‘I’ but there are no thoughts. This is what makes it unique from the other 3 states.
The Mandukya Upanishad defines turiya as:
“The fourth state is not that which is conscious of the subjective, nor that which is conscious of the objective, nor that which is conscious of both, nor that which is simple consciousness, nor that which is all-sentient mass, nor that which is all darkness. It is unseen, transcendent, the sole essence of the consciousness of self, the completion of the world.”
That is where the music of Turiya, hailing from mendocino county in northern california, comes in.
Music is the universal communication of the soul. Turiya’s music is a style that is meant to transcend what we identify as a “genre”. Sure, there are many other bands that attempt to blur the lines between styles, and many good ones, but the forethought in the minds of the artists in Turiya is to do things in a way that is understandable and pleasing to the untrained ear.
“the world itself influences me, as a writer” says songwriter/guitarit Ryan Montigny. “every sound I have heard from birth has influenced my writing in some way, but not consciously”.
“To speak simply, we play melodic metal, you’ve heard it all before, in some way or another. We make the attempt to bring it all together to give you the songs that you’ve wanted to hear for a long time, but just haven’t thought about yet.”
The biggest thing Turiya brings to the table in terms of what they do consist of 2 main elements. Energy, and melody. Twin guitar harmonies, angelic female vocals, and heavy bass/drum rhythms that bring the whole sound together, lush with plenty of soaring elements but yet still laced with targetted brutality at times. They pump plenty of atmosphere and power into thier first single “The Difference” that they’ve released on thier myspace and are currently at work on another track titled “Rising”.
“if you’re going to do something, especially musically, you might as well do it right. you have alot of people to reach, so you need to put it in a format that people can recognize”
Don’t expect all 4/4’s and verse/chorus/verse/chorus structures though. One has a feeling that Turiya is only getting started in crafting the songs that we’ve been waiting to hear for a very long time.
Check them out at http://www.turiya-official.com
