Music is healing. I don’t know how often you think about it in those specific terms, but my guess is that you can think of a song or two that you might listen to if you’re in some kind of pain. What comes to mind?
I’ll share one that comes to mind for me: “New Grass” by Talk Talk off of their 1991 release entitled “Laughing Stock”. I find the sense of space and sparse instrumentation both relaxing and transcendent.
One of the things that I’ve puzzled over since starting this web site and blog is how to bridge the gap between what I do in a live setting and the music I share here. In a live setting, I get to track how the music is landing, and change it in the moment. In that sense, I truly get to play Your Music For Healing. When sharing my recordings here, I don’t have any live feedback to work with. Although I always base my recording process around starting with a healing intention, it’s kind of like sharing My Music That I Hope Is Healing For You.
Even though I may never know exactly how a piece of pre-recorded music is landing with someone I can’t see, I’m bringing the same kind of listening into the recording process. I hold in mind an imagined listener who I might be playing for, and let my imagination of how the music might land with that listener affect how the songs are developed, played, edited, and mixed.
Playing music that adjusts to meet the listener, live or imagined, is my favorite thing to do.
Thank you for being on the other side,
–Alex