Composing Peace: A Conversation with Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on ‘Les Jardins Mystiques, Vol. 1’

Much attention – rightfully so – over the last several years has been paid to the Los Angeles improvisational music scene. Shapeshifting multi-instrumentalist Atwood-Ferguson has been at the core of those developments with contributions to over six hundred recordings, including many from his home city. He is even on two of this writer’s favorite releases to come out of the LA scene: Flying Lotus’ You’re Dead! (Warp, 2014) and Thundercat’s Drunk (Brainfeeder, 2017). Given Atwood-Ferguson’s significant recording history, it is surprising he has not previously released a solo leader album. His debut, Les Jardins Mystiques Vol. 1 (Brainfeeder, 2023), reflects his roots with its impressive list of native and adopted Los Angelino guest artists, including Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Jeff Parker, Josh Johnson, Carlos Niño, Austin Peralta, Bennie Maupin, and Jamael Dean. The album could have sold itself solely on featuring such a stacked lineup. But Atwood-Ferguson does not seem intent to rest on notoriety. He has a far more important musical message to plant in listeners’ minds.

Describing his music as “activism”, one may expect the first in Atwood-Ferguson’s Les Jardins Mystiques trilogy to express angst or fury about the world’s woes. Instead, one finds a bountiful crop of compositions – fifty-two tracks across three and a half hours – that aurally creates a verdant space for meditation; a bewildering corner where classical music, jazz, ambient music, and electronic music cross-pollinate to breathtaking new hybridized flowers. The pieces are frequently tranquil, even if often mysterious. The songs leave the implication that if one can find inner peace, they can spread it to others as well. If the music can open a rose’s outer petals, perhaps the entire flower will radiantly bloom. 

But musical serenity does not mean the tracks lack movement or all blur into an unidentifiable bed. Each piece has a separate musical identity, as if a different genus of flowers, each with its own unique characteristics. On “Persinette” with Burniss Travis II and Domi and JD Beck, soft shimmering strands blend into a heavy groove. “Dragons of Eden”, named after Carl Sagan’s work on the evolution of human intelligence finds a nine-member group with Ambrose Akinmusire and Marcus Gilmore setting a Morricone-like scene, capturing the complexities of human thought. “Ziggurat” features MIDI and synth to provide an 80s pop-influenced enigma. The duo with bassist Gabe Noel, “Let the Sunshine In”, is a lush orchestral outing, while “Daydream” often seems to reside somewhere between 70s CTI records and modern lo-fi. 

Overall, the first offering of Les Jardins Mystiques is a beautiful recording. With the care put into it, it’s clear why the album took fourteen years to become a reality. With all of the contemporary era’s chaos, turmoil, and toxicity, the potent tonic from the flowers in Atwood-Ferguson’s mystical garden may be precisely the antidote the world needs.

PostGenre: Given how many projects you have contributed to, it is surprising that Les Jardins Mystiques Vol. 1 is your debut as a leader.

Miguel Atwood-Ferguson: Yeah, I’ve been taking my time. It wasn’t trepidation or fear that kept me from releasing something earlier, just taking my time. I haven’t felt any rush. Music is completely magical to me, and I’ve told myself that I don’t need to be popular. I don’t need to win awards. I’m not trying to be anything other than my positive, authentic self. I’ll take as many day jobs as needed to support this music so that when it comes time to work on my music, it’s a pure and authentic thing. It’s been a beautiful ride. 

PG: For Les Jardins Mystiques, you fill multiple roles, including artist, producer, and financier. Why are you so passionate about this specific project? 

MAF: I think the main reason I’m alive is to compose and produce my original music.

That’s not to minimize the importance of working for other people. I greatly enjoy working for other people. It’s an honor to do so. I learned so much about myself, the human race, and life from those experiences working for others. It is also great fun to be called upon to enhance someone else’s vision. It’s really fun peering into their universe. These incredibly passionate people have done everything they can to try to synthesize their vision. To then be called upon to try to enhance it in some way is incredible, and I love it. I plan to work for other musicians for the rest of my life. But it has been a truly joyous thing to go my own way.

It is also the right time for me to do my own thing. I’m forty-three years old, and it’s time for me to continue to mature and to try to spread peace and love through my writing. Volume two of Les Jardins Mystiques is about sixty percent done, and hopefully, it will be out sometime in the next two years. 

PG: Do you feel volumes two and three will be similar to volume one?

MAF: They are going to be different. I’m not planning on many vocals on any of these three volumes, so they share that aspect. Even though it’s fair to say that Western European classical and jazz are my two favorite genres of music, I am expecting to have more beats in Volume Three because I greatly like pocket, as well. 

PG: Volume One excels in getting your compositional voice out; there are a few tracks you do not perform on at all, instead featuring other musicians performing solo, but they sound like they belong with the rest of the album. 

MAF: The main thing was that I composed everything. That was my concept. Others could apply my ideas better than I could. As an example, I have never played the piano in a way that would allow me to say something significant. So, for some of my solo piano compositions, I called upon Josh Nelson, who is a world-class pianist. 

PG: You feature many top-notch musicians on the first volume. For one, you have Bennie Maupin on bass clarinet on “Kiseki.” How did you get hooked up with him?

MAF: We practice the same [type of] Buddhism. I’ve been practicing for about twenty-four years and have seen him many times at our Buddhist Community Center. And he would see me carrying my viola around. He’s also close friends with my fianceè. So, we have the fiancè connection, the Buddhist connection, and the music connection. 

We’ve played together only a handful of times, but he’s been a ridiculously warm and supportive person. We have great fun when we play together. He’s also been pointing me to incredibly important books to use for practice like Yusef Lateef’s “Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns”. Also [Nicolas] Slonimsky’s “Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns”, which [John] Coltrane and McCoy Tyner used to practice. Those two books have been incredibly influential on me. 

I’ve had Bennie’s [phone] number for years, and when I was working on that piece, it finally felt like the right time to call him and see whether he was free and interested. Thankfully, he was. 

PG: Staying with Maupin, Coltrane, and Lateef, you are also somewhat connected to another legendary woodwind player, Pharaoh Sanders. You recently conducted the Los Angeles Studio Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl for Promises with Floating Points and, in for Pharaoh, Shabaka Hutchings. How did you get involved with that project?

MAF: The LA Phil[harmonic] suggested to Floating Points – Sam Shepherd – several amazing conductors. He considered each of them but decided to reach out to me instead. He later told me that he was mad at himself for not immediately thinking of me.

When I talked to Sam on the phone, he told me he wanted me to listen to the album [Promises (Luaka Bop, 2022)] to make sure I was the right person for the job. After some further listening, I told Sam that one of the highlights of the whole piece was in Movement Six, where there is a glorious string moment that reminded me of one of my biggest heroes, Alice Coltrane. Sam started shouting “That’s why you’re supposed to conduct it! The other conductors don’t even know who Alice Coltrane is!” The other conductors would have done a great job, I’m sure, but I think my knowledge of music by people like Alice Coltrane set me apart a little. 

PG: Of course, you have long pulled from other styles of music and have considered how to fit them into the orchestral setting. A great example would be “Suite for Ma Dukes”, which interpreted J Dilla’s music. Do you feel that orchestrating Dilla helped shape the conduction of Promises or your work on Les Jardins Mystiques?

MAF: Oh yeah. “Suite for Ma Dukes” put me on people’s radars. I think that’s why Floating Points was aware of me in the first place. But my approach to that tribute was largely influenced by Quincy Jones.

PG: You worked with Quincy, right?

MAF: Yes, but only once. I was simply playing in the viola section of an orchestra on a Henry Mancini tribute that he conducted. But Quincy has had a huge creative impact on my life. 

I started on the violin when I was four years old. I had a Western European classical upbringing, but didn’t want to stay only in that space. Most conductors, although amazing humans and skilled artisans, have this vibe that they’re the authority and you’re in the orchestra to please their vision. That is even understandable, to a degree.

But once you start incorporating other beautiful ideas from outside of that tradition, so many doors open for you. It was working with Quincy that gave me this big epiphany moment. Yes, I only did one or two songs with him, but his entire vibe was that we were all equals and all there to have a good time. And the music was at the highest level. The experience of working with him completely flipped the script for me. It taught me the type of feeling that I want to share with people on the concert stage. That experience with Quincy was one of the big influences that went into my Dilla tribute. 

PG: Was working with Quincy the first time you reached beyond classical music? You had started composing classical pieces when you were seven but at what point did you decide to go beyond solely classical music?

MAF: I worked with Quincy in 2002. Stevie Wonder was also part of that concert. I graduated college in 2003, and that was when I started fully transitioning into fields outside of “classical” music. It was Carlos Niño ‘s influence and instruction, starting in about 2005, that shepherded me into this non-classical world while not looking down upon classical music. Carlos introduced me to Madlib – Otis Jackson. Carlos may have also been the one to introduce me to Flying Lotus. Of course, I also wasn’t a stranger to jazz music. I started playing bass in high school and became a jazz fanatic back then. I feel like my interest in hip hop, jazz, Motown, rock, and world music was already percolating for a while before I met Carlos. But once I met him, all of those things came together for me. It is one thing to like listening to different kinds of music and another to meet people living in LA who are making music outside of the classical community. 

PG: So, as someone who borrows from many different kinds of music, what are your thoughts on genre as a general concept?

MAF: Well, the concept is changing from generation to generation. I think the first recording ever was made in the 1860s or 1870s [ed. Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville created a “phono-autograph” in 1860, which traced sound waves onto paper; Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1871]. Commercial recording came about thirty or forty years later. While I feel like the history of recorded music is not necessarily in its infancy, there are still so many moving bits and pieces.

I feel like authenticity wins. Fads can be fun, but they come and go. What lasts is music that comes from a place transcendent of fad or popularity. Though jazz might be my favorite kind of music, I don’t think I’m necessarily a great jazz artist. Even though I’m obsessed with Western European classical music. I’m not so good at that either. But what I think I am world-class at is finding an authentic way to incorporate and integrate these different styles, and that is what I have done. 

PG: Related to your statement that authenticity matters most, one interesting thing about  Les Jardins Mystiques Vol. 1 is that you purposely left some mistakes in the recording instead of trying to fix them during post-production. Do you generally find beauty in musical imperfection?

MAF: Yeah, I do. I also think that idea ties into how I try to use my music as activism. I think there are many different ways to address what we feel is healthy for society. Music is an important one of them for me.

I think a really beautiful vibration can be struck when people do their homework and consistently work to the best of their abilities to earnestly cultivate their skills and their authenticity. When musicians can do that, they put themselves in the best position possible to manifest what is in their hearts. If music comes across in a way that is too polished, it struggles to adequately portray human fragility. I think there’s beauty in being in touch with what’s our most resonant vision and then trying to figure out how to manifest this vision from our hearts. It is more beautiful to take a risk and go for something musically than to not. Sometimes, when you take a risk, you don’t make your mark. I think that’s OK. It’s more beautiful to attempt whatever is deepest in your heart than to perfect some vision. 

PG: So, is it easier to present this music live than in a recorded format? It would seem that an artist may be more ready to open their hearts to someone right in front of them than some nameless faceless listener. 

MAF: Yeah, that’s a good point. But I also think there’s a lot of beautiful experimentation that we can do in the studio. With this record, I’m cherry-picking from about five hundred hours of original recordings. Experimentation is a must for me, whether live or in the studio. But I may be more likely to experiment in the studio than in a live concert. The concern with performing live is whether your experiment may ruin the concert, so more likely to limit yourself to more calculated risks when performing live. I take more risks in the studio as it is a more open space to experiment. 

PG: Going back to the point you made a moment ago about music being your form of activism, one of the compositions on Les Jardins Mystiques Vol. 1, “Apotheosis” is dedicated to Igor Stravinsky. One of the most infamous stories about Stravinsky is the massive uproar caused by his first presentation of “Rite of Spring.” Your music on the album is generally very peaceful and tranquil. How much of using music for activism is tied to upsetting the existing status quo as Stravinsky did?

MAF: That’s a really interesting question because, on the one hand, I’m not trying to change anything. But, on the other hand, this music is my activism. I feel deeply connected to the world and humanity. I actually believe in world peace. I’m not ignorant of what is happening in the world, but I do hope for something better. In many ways, my view is similar to being a parent. As a parent, you are so invested in making things great for a brilliant young life. You are invested like never before. But, at the same time, you know that if you are overbearing or too controlling, it will just make everything worse. It’s that interesting feeling of being invested and present while also humbly aware of both what we cannot control and what we shouldn’t be able to completely control. 

Ultimately, with my music, I want to create a space where we can each sit with our own feelings. Once we do, maybe we can plot a functional way to manifest some long-lasting positive things in society. This music is pretty much my soundtrack for the idea that if we slow down and take time to very deeply self-reflect, we can not only find our superpowers but also plot a way to figure out how to functionally manifest some of them to build and change the fabric of society. 

PG: You use several languages for the titles of the compositions on the album. Was this aspect a continuation of your search for world peace?

MAF: Yes. I was lucky to be raised in a pretty diverse household. I’m thankful that my parents raised me with the mentality that everyone is equal and that every culture and tradition has something magical to offer to the conversation. That’s true across antiquity in terms of what it is to be human, how we can enjoy this life, how we can support one another, and how can we learn from one another.

My background itself is also very diverse. I’m essentially half Black, half white, although I look more white. Although I have a Hispanic first name, I’m not Hispanic at all. I have a half-brother who’s white named Joaquin and a younger sister named Francisca who is adopted, and she’s Black. I grew up in Topanga [, California] to parents who were not full-fledged hippies but open-minded. Growing up, they would play music from all around the world.

Once I left the nest and had the opportunity to develop and cultivate my own life and psyche away from my parents, it made a lot of sense to continue what they had done. Their seed of appreciation for diversity lies very deep in me. If we are going to create more peace in the world, we need to integrate wisdom from every culture. 

As far as song titles, I maintain a Word document with titles and concepts that I find intriguing and use those ideas – whether a person, place, or thing – to guide me in improving. I usually add song titles only after everything is written. 

PG: And as to your compositions more generally, what is your compositional process?

MAF: I usually wake up in the morning and go to the piano. I take out my phone and record voice memos of me playing on the piano. I then turn those recordings into fully fleshed-out compositions. That is my main way to compose. I have other methods as well, like writing while on an airplane. I like being that high up in the air with a different perspective. Or, other times, I like to take out the viola – which is my main instrument – and improvise on it. Then I will take the improvisations and turn them into compositions.

PG: One of the tracks, “Porpita” features many musicians’ parts in reverse. Did you compose “Porpita” as you normally would and then reverse it, or did you compose it with the idea that parts would be played backward fully in mind as you wrote?

MAF: “Porpita” is actually the reverse of a composition of mine called “World Peace Now.“, which is on the album by Carlos Niño’s Build an Ark,  Love Part 1  (Kindred Spirits, 2009). I reversed that piece and improvised on top of it. I did a lot of mixing, and there are a couple of songs on the album where I worked with things in reverse. In terms of producing, I find that I can’t have the peace in my heart and mind that I’m seeking unless I reverse everything that I’ve ever done and mess with the speeds. There is so much potential. You could essentially take one song and spend decades simply reversing it and messing with it. 

PG: To ask you about another track on the album, “Eudaimonia” is a duo with Austin Peralta, who passed away in 2012. He was only twenty-two years old when he died. Did you have any thoughts you wanted to share about working with him?

MAF: Well, someone like Austin comes around, at most, two or three times a century. He was beyond rare and an amazing person. He’s much more of a virtuoso than I am, but like me, he had a classical background, which was the initial layer of connectivity between us. It’s one thing to be a virtuoso, or to excel in music, or to excel on your instrument. But when you have a similar journey as far as being rooted in one genre and then expanding to others, that is a different level we shared. I think we had a very similar path.

We also talked a lot and were really good friends. He was – and still is – one of my closest friends. We even talked the night that he passed. He had called me up asking if my string quartet could open up for him for a residency he had coming up. We had done many concerts together before. And we worked closely together for Thundercat and Flying Lotus. Our bond was like being in the trenches together. We were brothers on a couple of different levels. 

PG: And you also share a more general connection from both being from Southern California.

MAF: Yeah. We even went to the same high school, though not at the same time since I am ten years older than him. And his mom now lives in Topanga, where I grew up. 

PG: Actually, you feature several Los Angeles-based musicians on Les Jardins Mystiques Vol. 1. The album seems to have a particularly special tie to the LA music scene.

MAF: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. I simultaneously acknowledge all the toxicity in LA while also being ferociously proud of the city despite the negativity that consistently comes out of LA. I mostly see LA as a very positive place, and I’m very proud of how beautiful it is. I think LA can go in a positive direction and is doing so. There are so many different facets to the identity of LA. I don’t think there’s necessarily one way to represent the city. But I do think I’m one of many representations of it. 

People often ask me what it is that sets the LA scene apart from those of other places. I think one thing is that LA is such a large place physically. The additional space seems to allow people to space out and go into their own caves for long periods of time and figure out what it is that resonates with them and makes them special as individuals. Then we all come together face to face at a club or concert venue. Everyone’s contributions to the whole are different but incredibly beautiful. 

‘Les Jardins Mystiques, Vol. 1’ will be released on Brainfeeder on November 10, 2023. It can be ordered on Bandcamp. More information on Atwood-Ferguson can be found on his website.

Photo credit: Hannah Arista