"I built myself a robin but it's red breast turned to rust..."
The present is fleeting. A split second it becomes the past and moments later the future becomes the present. No wonder it is so difficult to be present sometimes, in relationships, with artistic endeavors and with ourselves. "Laughing At the Past" from the artful musical project Visit, the moniker of singer songwriter, creative artist, musician and genre shifter Tyler Burba is a curious blast.
As press notes reveal, Tyler's first foray into music was singing at gospel competitions and performing on local Christian radio programs in the Pacific Northwest. His journey thus far includes teaching himself to play piano and guitar, writing / recording / performing as Tyler Burba in an array of genres including classical, jazz, blues, rock n roll, Latin, country, experimental/avant-garde and spoken word. Under the Visit moniker, "Laughing At the Past" is from his fourth Visit release, "Existential Hymns" that recently dropped in December of 2022 AND this prolific artist has a fifth album in the works with lyrics by Thomas Pynchon (WHAT?) and "with a focus on big band arrangements of lyrics from Gravity’s Rainbow in collaboration with author and producer Christian Hӓnggi."
That is a lot of impressive name dropping. Clearly, Tyler is present and fully aware that time is ticking away, that we will all be in the ground before we realize it and relishing in making the most of his time here on Earth. "Laughing at the Past" is interesting, intriguing, engaging for many reasons. Stylistically, it flows and blends genres like doo wop punk-esque indie rock, heartland rock and chamber pop (if not more). Tyler's vocal countenance is interesting as well, he is a bonafide crooner and his beautiful lilt feels like an amalgam of artists like Alex Zhang Hungtai (Dirty Beaches), Sinatra, Elton John, Josh Homme and Martin Fry. The song has a sense of bravado, a self assured twist of metaphor and a stone cold fully invested delivery. It feels serious but has a wry wink underneath it all, at least I think so. Tyler, I would guess is still religious but maybe his belief in God is sometimes in disarray, or maybe not.
Visit, singer songwriter, teacher, composer, multi-instrumentalist, existential songs, Tyler Burba, "Laughing At the Past", new album "Existential Hymns", work with Thomas Pynchon, collab with Christian Hӓnggi,
That is a lot of impressive name dropping. Clearly, Tyler is present and fully aware that time is ticking away, that we will all be in the ground before we realize it and relishing in making the most of his time here on Earth. "Laughing at the Past" is interesting, intriguing, engaging for many reasons. Stylistically, it flows and blends genres like doo wop punk-esque indie rock, heartland rock and chamber pop (if not more). Tyler's vocal countenance is interesting as well, he is a bonafide crooner and his beautiful lilt feels like an amalgam of artists like Alex Zhang Hungtai (Dirty Beaches), Sinatra, Elton John, Josh Homme and Martin Fry. The song has a sense of bravado, a self assured twist of metaphor and a stone cold fully invested delivery. It feels serious but has a wry wink underneath it all, at least I think so. Tyler, I would guess is still religious but maybe his belief in God is sometimes in disarray, or maybe not.
-Robb Donker Curtius
https://www.facebook.com/existentialhymns
https://twitter.com/existentialhymn
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5GejgBnLJcOSjQ1t6QIbAT
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFJ7BlLhcR8wn9phm29CTOg
https://www.instagram.com/tylerlburba/
Tyler Burba got his start in music by singing at gospel competitions and performing on local Christian radio programs in the Pacific Northwest. During these early years, he also taught himself how to play piano and guitar after becoming interested in rock n roll artists like Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan. He has since written, recorded, and performed in a number of genres, including; classical, jazz, blues, rock n roll, Latin, country, experimental/avant-garde and spoken word. With his solo project, Visit, he has released two albums of existential music, with a third on the way in 2022, and an album of songs with lyrics by Thomas Pynchon.
Growing up in Vancouver, Washington, Burba took an early interest in music and literature. He met the poet Allen Ginsberg at age fifteen who encouraged him to continue his study of poetry. Burba would later go to Naropa Institute (co-founded by Ginsberg) to study poetry and music, working closely with Beat poets Anne Waldman, Akilah Oliver, and Reed Bye on spoken word and music albums.. Being at Buddhist University, he began a life-long study of the Dharma and the practice of meditation, rooted in Tibetan Buddhism. Burba is currently a student of the Dzogchen tradition with additional training in the Shambhala lineage, focusing especially on sense perception as a vehicle for mindfulness and existential questions. He uses listening as a vehicle for greater awareness and grounding in the present and as a means towards ecstasy, pulling awareness out of the default mode toward a state of becoming.
Burba continued his studies at European Graduate School, where he is completing his doctoral work on visual ecstasy and synesthesia. He received a Master’s degree at EGS after completing a Master’s thesis on ecstatic listening which was later published by Atropos Press as “On Becoming Music: Between Boredom and Ecstasy” (with a piece by Peter Price). He received a second master’s degree in Ethnomusicology from Hunter College in 2018.
Since 2005, he has worked as a teacher for New York Public schools and has recently moved from teaching English to Music.
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.facebook.com/existentialhymns
https://twitter.com/existentialhymn
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5GejgBnLJcOSjQ1t6QIbAT
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFJ7BlLhcR8wn9phm29CTOg
https://www.instagram.com/tylerlburba/
Tyler Burba got his start in music by singing at gospel competitions and performing on local Christian radio programs in the Pacific Northwest. During these early years, he also taught himself how to play piano and guitar after becoming interested in rock n roll artists like Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan. He has since written, recorded, and performed in a number of genres, including; classical, jazz, blues, rock n roll, Latin, country, experimental/avant-garde and spoken word. With his solo project, Visit, he has released two albums of existential music, with a third on the way in 2022, and an album of songs with lyrics by Thomas Pynchon.
Growing up in Vancouver, Washington, Burba took an early interest in music and literature. He met the poet Allen Ginsberg at age fifteen who encouraged him to continue his study of poetry. Burba would later go to Naropa Institute (co-founded by Ginsberg) to study poetry and music, working closely with Beat poets Anne Waldman, Akilah Oliver, and Reed Bye on spoken word and music albums.. Being at Buddhist University, he began a life-long study of the Dharma and the practice of meditation, rooted in Tibetan Buddhism. Burba is currently a student of the Dzogchen tradition with additional training in the Shambhala lineage, focusing especially on sense perception as a vehicle for mindfulness and existential questions. He uses listening as a vehicle for greater awareness and grounding in the present and as a means towards ecstasy, pulling awareness out of the default mode toward a state of becoming.
Burba continued his studies at European Graduate School, where he is completing his doctoral work on visual ecstasy and synesthesia. He received a Master’s degree at EGS after completing a Master’s thesis on ecstatic listening which was later published by Atropos Press as “On Becoming Music: Between Boredom and Ecstasy” (with a piece by Peter Price). He received a second master’s degree in Ethnomusicology from Hunter College in 2018.
Since 2005, he has worked as a teacher for New York Public schools and has recently moved from teaching English to Music.
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