Sounds of Jazz Echo Out

As I was struggling to describe the experience of working with Elvin Jones and co., on Ask the Ages, I got a call from Beverly Korenwasser who had an old poem I'd written that conveys the nature of it in a general way. I wrote it a few years ago to go on a brochure about Jazz Art.





Sounds of jazz echo out of the crowded clubs
down streets ablaze with neon lit sculptures of light.

Flurries of syncopated notes scatter and tumble out of saxophones and trumpets soloing, signaling a group excursion toward an unknown domain.

Deep moods of indigo, chartreuse and blue swing the soul of the night further out to foreign spaces, traces of the human life transcending routine and hardship
expressing joy, pain, loneliness and community,
to make a home for intrepid explorers of dissonance and harmony.

What time is it?
No, not by the spin of the earth
but what is the signature of time this time?

Rhythm, the foundation, the keystone,
the motive force driving the sound to
heights, depths and dimensions in-between.
Jazz. Ecstatic. Takes us out of ourselves.

New insights, new outsights, delicate melodies,
bombasts of chord clash all conspiring
to take us through the night.

Weaving Threads part II

Sound can act as a practical weapon against death. The traditional method involves reading aloud to the spirit or being of the person who has recently died. The reading transmits practical instructions for handling the bardo space. This method has been used by Tibetan Buddhists for thousands of years and is now gaining popularity in the West.

Apart from a human voice reading instructions, there are other ways of using sound to help the being through death. One of the first times I met E.J. Gold, author of the American Book of the Dead he told me that sound can be used to navigate the Bardo.

This led me to try a series of experiments recording the ambient sounds of a variety of churches, museums, temples, street scenes, etc., wherever I could find interesting sounds that reminded me of death, psychedelic experiences, or the feeling of being out of body. Also ambient sounds that had a musical quality as John Cage might hear it.

The first results of this recording experiment was released on a cd called All Around the World.



From the liner notes:

There is also an underlying theme running throughout. This theme is a practical technology for preparing and surviving bodily death. The sonic motifs and collages contained here are designed to simulate the environment of the post-mortem journey through various afterlife scenarios.

THE INTENTION HERE IS TO USE SOUND AS A MEANS FOR EXPLORING SPACE.

More on the story behind that cd later.

It seems that the most practical way for gaining the ability to survive death is by simulating the conditions of death. The bardo reality can be seen as a puzzle to solve, a maze to negotiate, or a very elaborate maze - a labyrinth to navigate through.

Any kind of meditation encourages death of the ego to a greater or lesser degree. In some way, the conditions of death, its sensations, feelings, cognitions, etc. can be simulated through meditation. Not just seated meditation. There are many activities that have a meditative quality, one prime example being the playing or listening to music.

When a group of musicians is fully present with their music, they are effectively dead to their ordinary lives and personalities. They engage in a form of non-verbal communication, perhaps a form of telepathy, and take a journey together within the spacial contours of the music. I maintain that this musical journey simulates a bardo voyage. Going on a simulated bardo voyage = bardo training. As Brion Gysin, William Burroughs, and Aleister Crowley were fond of saying: We are here to go. Of course, not all music has consciousness expanding qualities, much of popular music seems superficial entertainment.

Years ago I assisted Jason Corsaro recording an incredible jazz group of Elvin Jones, Pharoah Saunders, Sonny Sharrock, and Charnett Moffatt. This Bill Laswell produced cd, Ask the Ages was recorded at Sorcerer Sound in downtown New York.It was before I knew anything about bardo technology. The combination of those musicians and the music they played, largely improvised, took me far outside my ordinary mind in an unique and unrepeatable way. Walking home after each session, I felt very energized, just plain naturally high, buzzing with electricity.

The power of the music from these Jazz Giants charted and reconnoitered new paths into the Unknown. It seemed to happen as naturally as breathing. It's all there, documented in the recording, and if you can find the cd, available for use.

Weaving Threads

How does Crowley fit into The Oz Mix?



I have a slightly different take on his work than most Thelemites. For those who may not know, he called his system of spiritual development, Thelema, an ancient Greek word that means Will. Thelema adds up to 93 in Greek Qabalah. Another ancient Greek word, Agape, which means love, also adds up to 93 in Greek Qabalah. This indicates that Thelema and Agape, or Will and Love, have an equivalence expressed as "love under will." I think of this as directed, or intentional agape. My own term for this, High Velocity, is the name of the sound engineering company that I work for.

Aleister Crowley was a pioneer in the exploration and mapping of bardo spaces. He also presented extremely effective methods for getting into, functioning, and working in the bardo.

His most important book, the central document of Thelema, The Book of the Law, which he claimed was channeled to him by Higher Intelligence, is divided into 3 chapters. The first chapter relates to Nuit, an ancient Egyptian name for the archetypal Mother or Woman also known as Infinite Space. The second chapter is from Hadit, the archetypal Male also known as the infinitesimally small and concentrated Point of View. Ra Hoor Kuit, is the child, the androgynous union of Nuit and Hadit, or Manifested Existence. The 3rd chapter is Ra Hoor Kuit's.

From chapter 1, verse 26:
Then saith the prophet and slave of the beauteous one: Who am I, and what shall be the sign? So she answered him, bending down, a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all penetrant, her lovely hands upon the black earth, & her lithe body arched for love, and her soft feet not hurting the little flowers: Thou knowest! And the sign shall be my ecstasy, the consciousness of the continuity of existence, the omnipresence of my body.
(emphasis mine)

The next step in human evolution is the conquering of death. When we get fully trained ( if such a thing is possible) in handling bardo conditions, in gaining the ability to stay conscious in the space immediately after the death of the physical body without blacking out, we will know and remember "the consciousness of the continuity of existence" as we journey from lifetime to lifetime.

From chapter 1 verse 56:

But thou hast all in the clear light, and some, though not all, in the dark

The Clear Light is how the space right after death is described in the Tibetan and American Books of the Dead.

Robert Anton Wilson was transmitting along a similar wavelength in his Cosmic Trigger Vol. 1 when he presented Timothy Leary's SMILE formula for the Next Step: Space Migration + Intelligence Increase + Life Extension. Wilson's mistake was in thinking that life extension meant extension of the physical body or brain beyond death. We now realize that life extension means the extension of life outside the physical body. Nuit says: "And the sign shall be my ecstacy..." Ecstacy = ex-stasis - outside the body.

Well this is what I postulate, anyway. Don't take my word for it. I've made experiments and observed things that, for myself, have indicated support of this hypothesis.

I was fortunate to be able to visit with my Father in the hospital the night before he died after an operation. I didn't know that he was going to die the next day but he did. He had been considered a fairly brilliant scientist and had invented a medical device that helped doctors to diagnose diabetes. He was a Physics Professor but also taught a class in Comparative Religion early on, and for several years had presented a class at the University of Calgary on Paranormal Activities. He had an off and on relationship with the Roman Catholic Church.

That night, at one point, he got very scared and started crying. I asked what was wrong and he said that he had nothing to believe in. "I don't believe in Science and I don't believe in Religion, I have nothing." I was witnessing someone very close to me who was completely unprepared to die. There was a great deal of fear. It was very shocking to see this. I tried to comfort him.

The night after Bob Wilson died I read for him from The American Book of the Dead and had one of the strongest contact experiences I ever had reading for someone. I had a clear vision of him looking like a beatific, illuminated Saint. Wherever he was, the Clear Light?, he seemed totally at home and doing just great. I'd never felt anything close to that degree of comfort from someone who had just died in my 20 years of reading for people. Maybe he felt relief about getting out of his pain wracked body for good. I saw the effect of all the magick and conscious work he'd done, in effect bardo training. Apparently it works!

After that reading, I felt waves of gratitude for both Bob Wilson and E. J. Gold for the technology and ability to give something back at a crucial moment. I had learned about bardo readings and its emphasis on the power of sound to aid, from Gold's Lazy Man's Guide to Death and Dying. The reason I bought the book in the first place is because it had an Introduction by Robert Anton Wilson.

Perdurabo

A prominent client recently suggested assembling a library of all the classic books on Metaphysics. A vast compendium of all the world's knowledge on various arcane and occult subjects housed in one building - to give the peasants something to try and bring down.

An excellent title to start off this ambitious project might be the recently revised PERDURABO, The Life of Aleister Crowley by Richard Kaczynski. The blurb on the front of dust jacket says: The definitive biography of the founder of modern magick. Having read the first edition of Perdurabo, and every other biography of this controversial figure, I readily agree.



This edition was just released. There's still a special launch offer available through Weiser Antiquarian: a signed copy of this 700+ page hardcover book for $25. The offer is good for only a few more days then goes to its regular and unsigned retail price of $29.95. The full offer and a link to Weisers is here.

I received my copy yesterday. The book is beautifully produced. It includes many rare and revealing photographs. Diving into the first chapter, Birthday, it becomes immediately apparent that the factual research of Crowley's life and history is thorough and extensive, bordering on pedantic.

Perdurabo begins with Crowley's initiation into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn on November 18, 1898 the date which he ever after referred to as his magical birthday. The initiation includes solemnly making several vows one of which is: Neither will I use my occult powers for any evil purposes...

I laud Kaczynski for addressing this issue right at the top. The common, profane, misperception of Crowley is that he was an evil black magician who did all kinds of horrible things. That couldn't be further from the truth. However, Perdurabo is a critical account, not a white-washed attempt at spin control of Crowley's legacy. Paul Feazy, the webmaster of Lashtal.com put it well in a blurb used on the flip side of the dust jacket:

...Roundly rejecting the pantomime villain at the center of previous biographies and deeply suspicious of the nonsensical hero-worship of some of his modern followers, Kaczynski's portrait is balanced and well-informed...

Perdurabo is Latin for "I shall endure unto the end." It was the motto Crowley chose when initiated into the Golden Dawn in 1898. He took it from the New Testament, Mark 13:13:

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Kaczynski ends the book with:

In our jaded modern age, magick offfers an opportunity for adventure and discovery in the only uncharted domain that doesn't require a space shuttle: the spirit. Crowley may be gone, but look around: the spirit of Frater Perdurabo endures.

Sound in Seance

Here's an idea for music Producers and Engineers to consider:

Mixing down a song requires repeated playbacks. As you are listening and mixing, take the posture that you are in seance with the music.

We commonly think of a seance as an attempt to communicate with the dead. However, the word seance derives from an Old French word, seoir which simply means "to sit."

A seance has become associated with special conditions, darkened lights, people sitting in a circle holding hands, etc. These conditions are intended to set a particular mood to aid spirit contact. I'm not suggesting replicating the conditions of a traditional seance. Nor is it relevant whether seances actually work to contact the dead.

The idea here is to model a mixing session after the form of a seance.

A special room is set aside and set-up a particular way, in our case, the studio control room.

Special conditions are applied to the seance space to aid an intended result. Broadly speaking, this refers to the particular music we're working on. It can also refer to art objects, or other paraphenalia arranged in the space to help create a mood.

Yothu Yindi, an Australian band, mostly Aboriginal with some Anglo members, brought all kinds of tribal artifacts into the control room and the live recording area. They had banners of traditional artwork and shamanic imagery raised up and running the length of each side of the large control room. By the end of a 10 hour session, these images, very definitely and somewhat uncomfortably, looked alive. It was if a portal to a world of strange, non-human critters opened up. A foreign intelligence was also sensed with this feeling of sentience that was engendered by the art.



Another time, my friend Wylie Woods arrived with a live chicken in a cage that looked like it had been wrung through an old-fashioned washing machine more than once - one of the scraggliest specimens of poultry to ever grace God's green earth. We were mixing his band, Stiff Dead Cat out in the remote hills of Northern California. I called their music outlaw bluegrass - they were a string band fronted by Wylie on mandolin and Dave Luxrezo on dobro but they covered James Brown, Frank Zappa, and punk rock with great irreverence. The chicken fit right in. Last I heard, Wylie was trying to teach it to play the washboard.

So special conditions are produced to create a mood or atmosphere for the seance.
The participants then enter, focused, concentrated and mindful of partaking in a specialized ritual intended to bring about non-human communication. This could take the form of contact with your dead Aunt Mimi in a traditional seance, or an incredible mix of a piece of music that can change people's lives.

Angel on the Highway - A Night in Köln with John Zorn

Early in 1994 one of those crazy rumors that you only hear in California started circulating the grapevine. Apparently on at least 2 occasions motorists had been stopped on the highway by an "Angel" and had been told that on June 17th the " last trumpet would blow." The Archangel Gabriel would be the one to do the honors though I'm not clear if the Angel told this to the motorists or if it was assumed.

This refers to a passage from the Book of Revelation (8:2) :

“And I saw seven angels who stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.”

The angels proceed to sound these trumpets, and each is accompanied by terrible judgments upon the earth. The seventh trumpet heralds the reign of Christ (cf. 11:15) The phrase in verse 2, about the angels “who stood before God,” is a clue to our mystery, for in Luke 1:19, Gabriel states that he “stands in the presence of God.” This is perhaps the linkage which serves as the basis for the idea that Gabriel will be the one to sound the last trumpet. But again, Scripture is not specific on this point, though we can enjoy viewing it with what a former pastor of mine calls our “sanctified imagination.”

The above explanation, courtesy of David Winkler, provides the Biblical basis for Gabe's final trumpet solo.

Hard to believe, but this rumor gained some credibility among the open-minded. Maybe not as widespread as the Y2k fear or the notion of the world ending in 2012, but somewhere along those lines. I found it interesting but also dismissed it.

June 17th, 1994 found your humble reporter in Köln, Germany getting ready to mix a night of John Zorn related music at Koln's Musik Triennal. Most of the performances were held at the magnificent Philharmonie concert hall, described as:

The giant, round and simultaneously beautiful concert hall radiates with a light wood interior and the red upholstry of the seats. Astounding are the lighting and audio systems recessed in the ceiling. The hall lies, incidentally, underground between the Dom (cathedral) and the Rhine in the Dom-knoll.

The final act, Painkiller, played at a nearby club.

Earlier in the day, I took a walk on Köln's quiet and pristine streets meeting up with, then walking along the Rhine river to the venue. Beside the hall was an equally new museum - both buildings were less than 10 years old. Outside the museum I saw a poster with John Zorn on one side and Pierre Boulez on the other. I thought, 'how cool is that?' Zorn up there right beside a pioneer, icon, and one of the world's foremost exponents of contemporary avant garde music. I took a snapshot of the poster, which I still have.

Waiting in the spacious dressing room at the Philharmonie that night, I suddenly remembered the angel story and that today was June 17th, the day the last trumpet was to blow. I went over by Zorn, sat down, and proceeded to relate the story then told him that today was the day it was supposed to happen. He took it in with interest.

Afterward, I went to the other side of the room to get something. I swear to God, Goddess or whomever, that not less than 5 minutes later the sound of a trumpet blowing came out of the dressing room loudspeaker at a rather healthy volume. Zorn and I just looked at each other from across the room in surprise and incredulity. The timing couldn't have been spookier.

The trumpet, which played again about 5 minutes later, was the Philharmonie's sound cue for the audience to take their seats. I was unable to determine if an Archangel had played it, but the experience certainly jolted me into a highly alert and attentive state.

It turned out to be one of the most profound nights of musical communication for me of any event I've either worked at or attended.

First of all, the sound system and acoustics were extraordinarily spectacular as was the lighting effects. I, of course, had the best seat in the house.

Every performance carried some "angelic" significance for me. During the opening act, whomever operated the visuals made figures of 5 pointed stars (pentagrams) float, dance, and morph into various colors, sizes and shapes around the circular hall.

I don't have a program book to recall all the groups and performers, but as I remember it, next up was The Sirius String Quartet. The Sirius connection is well known to fans of Robert Anton Wilson, Kenneth Grant, and/or to visitors to the Dogon land of sub-Sahara West Africa.

They were followed by Zorn's piece called Lacrosse, an improv game piece, where, as I understand it, the musician soloing 'passes the musical ball' to another musician through a signal, maybe just by looking at them. The music gets passed around like a lacrosse ball. The Joycean in me transliterated this as 'la cross' ie the cross, which contains much magical significance. Zorn played reeds on this one, and I remember guitarist Mark Ribot as part of that group. I later recorded Ribot with Tom Waits for the Mule Variations album.

The last group, Naked City, performed an avant garde ambient piece called Absinthe, a piece that I'd mixed for cd. My memory has it that Zorn conducted this live performance. Absinthe is the psychoactive spirit that inspired, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Toulouse- Lautrec, van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, and Aleister Crowley. Naked City's rendition that night certainly conjured the absinthe spirit, known in literature as the Green Fairy.

After the program at the Philharmonie was finished, Zorn and I hopped into a large white van for the short drive to the nightclub where Painkiller was to go on. I asked Zorn what else he was doing and he mentioned his groups Masada for which he had an electric version and an acoustic version. I asked what the name Masada referred to? He told me that it was a mountain in Israel that had been the site of some important battles and defences against the Romans. I remember being acutely aware at the time of how incredible this was to get a valuable lesson in ancient history as we drove through the night in-between musical transmissions. The Angel was working overtime.



The Painkiller set was just what the doctor ordered. Loud and powerful. Adventurous and intense. Zorn, with original players Bill Laswell and Mick Harris, rocked it out like nobody's business. Scanning the net moments ago, I noticed a bootleg version available on cd. The site grades it as A+ which sounds about right to me.

Back in the hotel room afterwards I still felt pretty amped and wired from all the musical information and energy. I flipped on the tube trying to relax and chill out. Only 2 channels tuned in on the dial. One had a panel of ex-drug addicts .... boring! The other was the televised historical event of O.J. Simpson's famous "car chase" in Southern California.

Yes, it was also June 17th, 1994 when this bit of arcane history unfolded as part of the O.J. Simpson dramatic fiasco. I heard some people interpret his low speed car chase as the manifestation of "the last trumpet blowing" though I confess that the logic of this escapes me. Yet everyone will have their subjective experience that day. Maybe for some, O.J. Simpson matched the story. He did seem "accompanied by terrible judgments upon the earth." as Revelations quoteth, so who knows?

Perhaps another Biblical reference relates more to my observations that night:

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

I didn't sleep, and I was changed by John Zorn's music that night.

Off to Éire, "the Abundant Land"

Several times I've noticed strong synchronization between the song I'm mixing and the outer events in my life. I wonder if other producers/mixers have noticed this? If they pay attention to such things? For some reason not clear to me, I seem to act like a lightening rod for all kinds of synchronicities, big and little. A partial explanation might be that I take note of coincidences and view them as possible guides.

A rather dramatic coincidence between song and life ... in this case death, occurred on January 11, 2007. I was mixing the West African artist, Wasis Diop at Prairie Sun, and had randomly chosen to mix the cover he did of Leonard Cohen's Hallalujah. The decision to mix this song on this day was entirely mine, Diop, also the Producer, wasn't there. I chose it only because it was next on the list.

Believe it or not, I'd not heard the song before, or if I did, had never paid attention to it. I'm not that familiar with Leonard Cohen, or with Jeff Buckley who did a well known, live cover version. Diop's take on it was very spiritual and moving. It struck a strong emotional chord in me although not directed at anything in particular.

After I was finished that evening and logged online, I discovered that a significant figure in my life, writer and teacher Robert Anton Wilson, had finally, for good this time, shuffled off his mortal coil. I reflected that Hallalujah was an appropriately good song for the transition of death, the transition into bardo awareness. At the time of mixing, I hadn't connected the song with death.

Some time later, I saw that the television show West Wing had used Buckley's version of the song in a montage that conflated the death of one of the characters with the decision to assassinate a foreign diplomat who was a terrorist.

January 11th, 1/11 is also known as Anna Livia Plurabelle day. She is Irish expatriate writer James Joyce's name for the Goddess archetype from the epic novel Finnegans Wake. Wilson was an authority on Joyce, and a deep and profound lover of all aspects of the Goddess, often in the form of his beloved wife, Arlen.

Well today I found myself mixing a House Concert given by E.J. Gold and Friends that I'd recorded in July. One of the pieces had featured performer, Se Duggan, leading a traditional Irish jig on his mandolin before singing Will The Circle Be Unbroken.



Se also lived as an Irish expatriate for a number of years. He is an expert in the history of traditional Irish music and musical instruments as well as being an accomplished musician.

Just an hour or so after mixing Se singing Will The Circle Be Unbroken, I found out that he had left that morning for Dublin. He had been required by US Immigration to return to Ireland. From what he told me, Se doesn't have family or friends there to speak of. It will be starting over for him, finding a job, a place to live etc. Rebirth into an Irish life.

Ireland fascinates me. I haven't been there, but am a huge fan of James Joyce who frequently celebrates and criticizes Ireland in his literary masterpieces. My great-grandmother was Irish.

Éire is the traditional name for Ireland:

The modern Irish Éire evolved from the Old Irish word Ériu, which was the name of a Gaelic goddess. Ériu is generally believed to have been the matron goddess of Ireland, a goddess of sovereignty, or simply a goddess of the land. The origin of Ériu has been traced to the Proto-Celtic reconstruction *Φīwerjon (nominative singular Φīwerjō).^[1] This suggests a descent from the Proto-Indo-European reconstruction *piHwerjon, likely related to the adjectival stem *piHwer- (cf. Sanskrit pīvan, pīvarī and pīvara meaning "fat, full, abounding").
This would suggest a meaning of "abundant land".

Wishing Se a joyful and musical return to Éire, the Land of Abundance!

Rupa and the April Fishes

Mixing in the mountains is always a beautiful place to work. Yesterday, I was delighted to be at the Wanderlust Yoga, Music and Nature festival doing the Front of House sound for my friend Rupa, and her band the April Fishes. The festival is held at the Squaw Valley ski resort near Lake Tahoe, the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics.

The weather was gorgeous, warm and sunny with an occasional mountain breeze to cool things down. I was thankful that it wasn't too windy as that can wreak havok with sound at an outdoor show. Sound, as experienced at a concert, consists of variations in the atmospheric pressure cause by the movement of air molecules by loudspeakers. Wind is also a fluctuation in atmospheric pressure that causes air molecules to move. It can counteract the intention for musical molecular alignment and propagation.

I got there early, met and conferred with the stage and PA crew over some technical issues.
Everything looked good with the stage, the backline (the various instruments and amps rented for the musicians to use) and the sound system.

After the preliminaries, I sat in the shade of the tent suspended over the Front of House mixing area facing the stage. Behind me about 100 feet was another area shaded by arched tenting where a well attended yoga class was being given.

While I was waiting, a member of the previous night headliner, Hamsa Lila, came into the mixing area and filmed a quick interview where he was asked to describe trance music. At one point he called it ' that place you go to where you just are.' He didn't do too bad of a job trying to put into words a state of cognition that goes way beyond words. I laughed silently to myself - everywhere you go, it seems people are describing their experience of the Bardo.

We held the opening slot so there wasn't much of a soundcheck. At festivals where they allow soundchecks, many of them only let you do line checks to see that everything is working, the opening act always soundchecks last as they are first up. Rupa opened with a song that introduced each band member and gave them a short solo to help me get the sound balanced at the beginning of the performance.

The current April Fish line-up is: Aaron Kiebel on drums, Safa Shokrai on the double bass,
Micha Khalikulov playing cello, Isabel Douglass on accordian, Henry Hung - trumpet, and Rupa who sings lead vocals and plays acoustic and electric guitars. All of the muiscians contribute back-up vocals. A special guest Ara Anderson was brought in as an additional trumpet player.

I've known Rupa since recording her album Este Mundo last year. Ara I've known since he was hired as a session player on Tom Waits' Alice and Blood Money albums.



I would describe Rupa's music as World Music with a conscience. This reviewer wrote:

"Completely unclassifiable! Where the hell do you place a woman, Rupa Marya, who was born to Indian parents, brought up in France, moved to San Francisco and plays music with its heart in Southern France and Spain and has elements of Chanson, Gypsy, reggae and Kletzmer. Personally I would place her at the top of the tree because I can’t find a thing to criticise in this wonderful blend."

Rupa, also an MD, uses her music to actively support the cause of securing medical rights for illegal aliens.

One can notice in the background of Este Mundo's artwork, the appearance of projective synthetic geometry, the same kind of geometry artist Freida Harris incorporated into the design of Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot cards. This geometry is based on the teachings of Rudolph Steiner and Goethe.

The show went extremely well. Rupa connected with the audience immediately when she mentioned noticing all the yogis doing the "downward dog" (a yoga asana) in the parking lot.
The crowd danced and responded with much enthusiasm and appreciation for the entire show.

A highlight for me was their version of The Clash's Guns of Brixton. This song underscores the emergency nature of the current world situation. Yesterday, as it usually does, this song struck me as a wake-up call. Hearing it sung in a beautiful female voice with more subtle nuance than The Clash made the message that much more poignant.

But just to rewind for a second, while waiting for the soundcheck to commence I was reading a book a friend had sent called The Law of Undulation by Ikuro Adachi and came to this passage:

Wave energy exists in a state where it can be transmitted to and received from any point in the Universe as long as it is in resonance.

I related this to the notion that I've heard, but not yet verified, that whales are able to communicate with each other on the opposite side of the world using high frequency emissions and the principle of resonance. They are supposed to be able to transmit a sound around the world in 6 minutes.

I've often wondered if the feeling, the powerful mood and atmosphere invoked at authentic musical events, could be transmitted and broadcast around the world using a resonant system of some kind. Apply the Hermetic formula, As Above, So Below and armed with the knowledge that:
Resonance phenomena occur with all types of vibrations or waves: there is mechanical resonance, acoustic resonance, electromagnetic resonance, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), electron spin resonance (ESR) and resonance of quantum wave functions. Resonant systems can be used to generate vibrations of a specific frequency (e.g. musical instruments), or pick out specific frequencies from a complex vibration containing many frequencies.

it does appear possible. I've heard that material relevant to resonance reveals itself in the Rosicrucian gnosis. I continue to research and apply my findings.

My next time mixing for Rupa and the April Fishes will be September 12th at Golden Gate park in San Francisco. If you can't be there, perhaps some resonant effects of this uplifting music will drift your way, who knows?