Tag: New Age

A Fine Morning Meditation, A Good Run, Then the Fall….

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And I Don’t Mean the Season…..

Morning Meditation Music

Yesterday morning I started my day with a 30-minute meditation. The soundtrack for the meditation was Weightless (Ambient Transmissions Vol 2) from the Ambient New Age band Marconi Union. According to their website Marconi Union….

…… were asked to write a piece of relaxing music in consultation with Lyz Cooper, the UK’s leading sound therapist and founder of the British Academy of Sound Therapy. During the process of recording the track, a number of musical ideas captured their imagination. Unable to explore them all in a one piece but keen to work further on them, it soon became apparent that this was turning into an album-length work. Feeling like this was a natural follow-up to Beautifully Falling Apart (Ambient Transmissions Vol.1), it was decided that this album should become part of their Ambient Transmissions series.

Weightless (Ambient Transmissions Vol.2) comprises of six tracks, simply entitled Part 1 to Part 6. The tracks are minimal, combining warm drones and drifting sounds with occasional sparse rhythms.

About Weightless Part 1

Part 1 is the original commissioned track which has been hailed as ‘the world’s most relaxing song’. Created instinctively and intuitively by Marconi Union it has been claimed by others to have therapeutic properties in the way the track almost appears to have a heartbeat running through it which slows down very gently throughout the piece, encouraging a deep sense of relaxation in the body. Its use of specific rhythms, deep bass tones, frequencies and intervals induce an almost trance like state in the listener. It has already attracted over 12 million worldwide views on YouTube and over 4 million followers on Soundcloud.

Basically, the reason that I used the album was because of the highlighted statement…..how can you NOT meditate to the world’s most relaxing song!! Anyway the meditation was relaxing and after a short yoga routine with lots of stretching of my legs I was ready for my run.

The Run’s Soundtrack – Spotify Cardio Playlist

When I thought about the soundtrack for the run, I decided to do something different. I decided to use a playlist instead of a full album. So I went to Spotify and downloaded the Cardio playlist. Now there’s no question that the music contained in this playlist is not the music that is typically in my music rotation! The reason that I went with the playlist was that I knew it would contain music with a strong driving beat that would keep me moving!!

The Run

So I was off on a four-mile run. I chose one of my newer courses. (Click here to see route) The course is fairly flat and has a good amount of shade. And while it was a fairly cool morning the sun was bright and that usually causes may sweat glands to start working!

My pace was under 10:30, 1027 to be exact. and while I slowed down a little over the third mile, I still crossed the 5K mark at 32:55 which was not bad. After that I was hot and tired and I still had almost a mile to go. Since I had modified the run from the original course I have aid out for that course I needed to just add a few turns to make up the necessary distance.

Then it happened I was probably less than a quarter-mile from finishing, when I tripped on the sidewalk and went down! Luckily, I only received scrapes on my hand, elbow and knee. And the Speck case on my iPhone 7S+ did its job and kept my phone screen in tact!! So I got up and completed the run very slowly and today I feel fine!! Anyway, here are the results.

The Results

Total Distance miles 4.0   Total Time: 43:20  Average Pace: 10:49 (m/m)

Mile Splits Mile 1: 10:23 m/m Mile 2 – 10:30 m/m   Mile 3 10:52 m/m Mile 4  11:31 m/m

Average Heart Rate ; 151 bpm Max Heart Rate 170 bpm

Calories Burned: 593 cals

Note that last mile! I’m just glad that I got up and could finish the run!! In closing I will say that the FALL wiped out any memories that I had about the soundtrack! I didn’t hate the music and at different times in the run I was able ti get my stride in rhythm with the music!! So maybe I’ll try other pop music soundtracks!! Or maybe an electronica or dance playlist!! Any suggestions????

Here’s is “Weightless Part 1” Is it the Most Relaxing Song ever? Check it Out!

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A Slightly Different Morning Workout…..

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….With Some Great Music from Terra Guitarra and Joseph L. Young

The Morning Workout

So every non-Target working I try to do a workout that includes a tuning in warm up (Long Ek Ong Kar) followed by a 7:30 minute Kundalini and regular exercise set that includes

Lower spine flex
twists
side bends
shoulder shrugs
head rolls
alternating knee to chest
alternating leg raises
double leg lifts with a 5 lb exercise ball
arm lifts – on back legs at 90 to floor and extend up arms with the 5 lb ball (lifting head also)
bicycle
pick me up (butt raises)
expand and contract legs with legs on 45 degree angle

Each exercise is done to a recitation of the Mool Mantra (about 25 seconds)

That is followed by 7 minutes of light weights – a series of exercise with  2 – 15 lb weights, 2 5 lb weights and a 20 lb Kettle bell. The last 6 minute exercise set uses a resistance band, followed by a slightly aerobic set using a boxing type band and then another x-type resistance ban. The set ends with a 15 minute meditation. Total time is 40 or so minutes.So I typically have been starting my Fitbit tracker at the start of the routine and turn it off at the end. I end up with about 12 minutes of productive exercise and the rest well like resting (i.e the warm-up and the meditation.

This morning I started my routine with some rhythmic movement to get me moving and followed it with my regular routine. I stopped the Fitbit before the meditation. So I ended up with a 26 minute workout with 18 productive minutes. 17 minutes in the fat burn zone and 1 in the cardio zone. It was a good workout! I still did my 15-minute meditation but I just didn’t track it as exercise!

The Soundtracks: Terra Guitarra and Joseph L. Young

There was another twist to my exercise this morning. Typically, I use one album as the soundtrack for the entire workout. However, this morning I used two albums. Of Sea & Stars from Terra Guitarra was the album for the exercise portion of the routine, The soundtrack for my meditation was Etherium from flutist Joseph L Young. Both did their job splendidly! Of Sea & Stars kept my pace up during the exercising. While Etherium  relaxed me during my meditation!

While I have listened to both of these albums several times, I think I need to explore more about both the players and the albums a little more before I write about them.

Terra Guitarra is an acoustic guitar duo composed of lead guitarist and composer Bruce Heckel and Julie Patchouli. Patchouli plays mainly rhythm guitar as a foundational base to Heckel’s blazing solo’s. On Of Sea& Stars she also plays drums and bass. Ok so  have listened to this album several times and have heard their music previously. However, I have never seen then perform live or on YouTube The following video is the first time I have seen them and my first reaction to seeing Heckel’s playing was Wow!! I have another favorite!!!

So check them out! I on the other hand are going to go exploring and listening to find out more about this fantastic duo!! I’ll let you know what I find out!!

If you’d care to Explore you can start at here at Terra Guitarra’s website!

 

 

Kori Linae Carothers’ Music and a four mile run ….

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….Perfect Together

The Morning Run……

So if there ever was a morning that had a good excuse for not running, today was it! We babysat Oliver last night and didn’t get home until 1:30 this morning!! While I knew it would be hard to get up at 7 to run this morning, I thought well maybe 7:30 would work. When the alarm went off this morning I thought “Do I really want to do this?” The answer was less than a resounding yes!  But at least it was a yes! The more  I thought about it I thought well I will be running tomorrow – that will be ok!  No – I said today was to be your long day – it doesn’t matter how fast you go, you just have to make it happen – so just do it!! My pre-run routine was the same as Friday, except for the head smack because today was not a Kundalini/Weights day, so doing the Meditation Preparation Routine was fine!!

Next came the music, I decided that a nice slow album would be great for the run. I had briefly listened Fire in the Rainstorm from Kori Linae Carothers a New Age album that is number 2 on the latest (July 2015) Music Zone Reporter’s Top 100 Radio Play Chart. The album is solo piano and I thought that was perfect for a lazy Sunday run!!

My goal was to just run comfortably and if that was at 11:20 or 11:30’/ mile pace that was ok. The goal was to run for distance, i.e. the four planned miles, and not for time.  One of the tricks that I use to keep my pace an easy one is to make sure that I could talk to someone who was running with me. As a result, I sometimes talk out loud on my runs just to make sure I’m slowing down a little! It also keeps people away from the crazy man!! Anyway I made the four miles and the total time was 44:25 at an average pace of 11:03/mile. Over the first mile the pace was 10:59, mile 2 was 10:45 /mile, mile 3 10:59 and mile four 11:25! Over the first three miles my pace was under 11 minutes per mile which was faster than I figured and the good thing was that I wasn’t really pushing it!!

Kori Linae Carothers

The Soundtrack: Fire in the Rainstorm – Kori Linae Carothers

Kori Linae Carothers hails from Cedar City Utah and grew up listening to the music of Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Carly Simon, Seals and Croft, James Taylor, But the John Williams’ soundtrack to Star Wars, really caught her ear! She says that

. “…the group that made me want to be a musician and compose music was the Beatles. I absolutely loved their earlier material.” –

But her musical journey had a rocky start, at the age of 5 years old it was discovered that she was deaf in her left ear!

From her website….

….. Her young peers found out and the teasing began. In addition, throughout elementary and high school, Kori was constantly told she would never become a musician. Undeterred, she kept learning and practicing, never surrendering her dream. Despite these discouragements, Carothers was passionate about her calling and now, 45 years later, she is an acclaimed pianist and keyboard player with four albums to her credit. Clearly, she is an example of a person following her muse with courage, humor, and determination. – Read More

I really like this beautiful album of solo piano tunes. All of the tracks were composed by Kori who started taking piano lessons at the age of eight and composing her own tunes at 14!! Will Ackerman of Windham Hill Records who co-produced the album with Tom Eaton and Kori says this about Kori…..

Kori Carothers is, without question a brilliant pianist and composer. What sets her apart, however, is the broad range of styles she utilizes so gracefully. Kori moves between the worlds of achingly beautiful acoustic piano composition and lavish keyboard production with remarkable ease. –Read more

So check out Fire in the Rainstorm and the music of Kori Linae Carothers . As for me there are four other albums from Ms. Carothers that may be the soundtracks of future runs!!!

Links to Further Explorations of the Music of Kori Linae Carothers…

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Bandcamp
YouTube

Here’s Kori Linae Carothers performing “Time Passages” from Fire in the Rainstorm

 

The Safari visits Ethiopia and finds the Music of Mulatu Astatke – Sketches of Ethiopia

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This afternoon the Music Safari took a little trip of the most populous landlocked country in the world Ethiopia. The reason for the trip was to explore the music of Mulatu Astatke. The genesis of the trip  was a review of the World Music Charts – Europe – where his most recent release Sketches of Ethiopia was spotted at No 4!

A trip to Wikipedia revealed that Mulatu  is an Ethiopian musician and arranger best known as the father of Ethio-jazz. From Wikipedia:

 

Born in the western Ethiopian city of Jimma, Mulatu was musically trained in London, New York City, and Boston where he combined his jazz and Latin music interests with traditional Ethiopian music. Astatke led his band while playing vibraphone and conga drums—instruments that he introduced into Ethiopian popular music—as well as other percussion instruments, keyboards and organ. His albums focus primarily on instrumental music, and Astatke appears on all three known albums of instrumentals that were released during Ethiopia’s Golden ’70s.[1]

Astatke’s family sent the young Mulatu to study engineering in Wales during the late 1950s. Instead, he earned a degree in music through studies at the Welsh Lindisfarne Collegeand then Trinity College of Music in London. In the 1960s, Astatke moved to the United States, where he became the first African student to enroll at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he studied vibraphone and percussion.

While living in the US, Astatke became interested in Latin jazz and recorded his first two albums, Afro-Latin Soul, Volumes 1 & 2, in New York City in 1966. The records prominently feature Astatke’s vibraphone, backed up by piano and conga drums playing Latin rhythms, and were entirely instrumental, with the exception of the song “I Faram Gami I Faram,” which was sung in Spanish. Though these records are almost indistinguishable from other Latin-jazz records of the period, some tracks foreshadow elements of Astatke’s later work, and he is credited as having established conga and bongo drums as common elements in Ethiopian popular music Read More

As I was listening to Sketches of Ethiopia knowing nothing about Mulatu Astatke, or his music I was struck by how much of a Latin flavor his music had. I thought that it sounded much like the Cuban music I’ve recently listened to. I also caught the sound of the vibes on one of the tracks (Hager Fiker) and wondered if  it was actually vibes or a traditional Ethiopian instrument!!

After listening, I started my research into Mulatu’s music I came across this All Things Considered piece at NPR from September of 2013 – After 40 Years, Mulatu Astatke Still ‘Sketches’ Ethio-Jazz Deftly  from Banning Eyre :

It is bold indeed for any jazz artist to evoke Miles Davis’ landmark album Sketches of Spain. ButMulatu Astatke, like Miles, is a true original.

The music Astatke first imagined 40 years ago sounds as fresh and contemporary today as it did in the swinging Addis Ababa of 1973 when Astatke created a signature “Ethio-jazz” style by blending jazz with Ethiopian music. Decades later, he earned an international following when his early recordings appeared on reissue CDs. Now, Astatke has rewarded fans with new album called Sketches of Ethiopia….

….Astatke doesn’t just compose, arrange, and play jazz. He uses it as a tool to explore cultures, and create musical bridges between them. On the song “Azmari,” he fills out his brassy jazz ensemble with Ethiopian drums and the masinko lute, orchestrating it around a cantering, traditional rhythm.

Sketches of Ethiopia incorporates ideas and musicians from three continents and many nations, but the music still maintains a strong Ethiopian stamp. It’s never predictable and, for all the surprises, it never feels cluttered or gimmicky. That’s the mark of a master. And we’re lucky that after all these years, the father of Ethio-jazz has not lost his edge. Read More and Listen to All Things Considered 

After finishing listening to Sketches of Ethiopia the Safari went back to the Chart and started checking out the other albums and artists – The Safari found several that it liked, so be forewarned theres more music to come!!

Here’s a live performance of “Azmari” (Live at Fontenay en Scènes, May 2013)