I and Thou

Ich und Du, usually translated as I and Thou, is a book by Martin Buber, published in 1923, and first translated from German to English in 1937.

Premise

Buber's main proposition is that we may address existence in two ways:

One of the major themes of the book is that human life finds its meaningfulness in relationships. In Buber's view, all of our relationships bring us ultimately into relationship with God, who is the Eternal Thou.

Buber explains that humans are defined by two word pairs: I-It and I-Thou.

The "It" of I-It refers to the world of experience and sensation. I-It describes entities as discrete objects drawn from a defined set (e.g., he, she or any other objective entity defined by what makes it measurably different from other entities). It can be said that "I" have as many distinct and different relationships with each "It" as there are "It"s in one's life. Fundamentally, "It" refers to the world as we experience it.

I and Thou (band)

I and Thou is a progressive rock group that is primarily a solo effort from Jason Hart (keyboardist for Renaissance, and Camel) with supporting musicians John Galgano (bassist for IZZ), Matt Johnson (drummer for Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright), and Jack Petruzzelli (guitarist for Patti Smith and The Fab Faux). Hart stated in an interview that the name was chosen to pay homage to the Martin Buber book I and Thou.

Discography

As of June 2014, I and Thou have released one album, and they are currently working on a follow-up recording.

Speak

I and Thou's first album Speak was released in 2012 and features a cover image by Renaissance lead vocalist Annie Haslam. Hart has stated that he began developing material for the album in 2005, and recording began in 2009. Rob Hughes writing for PROG magazine observed

The album has received generally positive reviews, receiving a 4/5 rating from Henri Strik at Background Magazine, 9/10 from Brian Watson at Dutch Progressive Rock Page, 12/15 from Jochen König at Musikreview.de, and 9/10 from Grande Rock.