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A warm welcome to my friends and family that joined the list this week!
I’ve been thinking a lot about spirals as inspiration for healing since the post last week. They add dimension to cycles. Coming back to the same place, with that slight difference that sometimes makes all the difference.
Here is another spiral song, recorded with the intention of bringing us along for the ride. May it support you in coming back to yourself.
Some additional notes on this recording:
Read more…My favorite music spirals. That last sentence seems incomplete, but I mean it literally. Music that moves, relative to a liminal reference point, may it be up, down, in, out, around, or any combination thereof. One of my great joys in playing with instruments is discovering spirals, and letting them sing for a while, the way a surfer rides a wave for a while.
I found this recording from about 15 years ago. I offer it as an antidote to the mainstream cultural suggestion that we’re going anywhere. Welcome back to 2026!
Wishing you and your loved ones a harmonious new year,
–Alex
This is a soundtrack for 6 minutes out of time. At this winter solstice, when slowing down and going inward is nature’s prescription, this is here to support you.
From what I’ve seen, the world is not going to slow down for us to catch our breath. For this, we have to use our own tools, and I’ve got one to share that has been used for thousands of years: the sound of the drone. A steady hum that supports the body and nervous system. The instrument making this sound is called a Shruti Box, and it’s used most frequently as an accompaniment to instrumental and vocal spiritual music in India. Here’s a 6 minute recording of the drone:
(Lots more of these drone recordings here)
“Sea of Snakes”, featured a couple weeks ago, landed on all the streaming platforms this week. It’s a wintery, inward song to support your nesting
listen on: Spotify – Apple Music – Amazon Music
Finally, perhaps interesting to some, a story about a bicycle project that spanned summer solstice to winter solstice this year. Photos of the results below ⬇️ .
Read more…Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we are heading towards the longest night as if the last dying embers of the hearth are going to sleep. Here is some music to remind us of the sparks we carry inside that will cross the threshold with us, and kindle the sustaining fire of Winter.
Today I’ve got one with guitar, bass, and drums! I’m sharing this song to support this question:
“When what lies below the murky waters scares the bejeebus out of us, what keeps us sailing forth anyway?”
This was recorded in 2019 for an album called “Double Helix”.
A warm welcome to my new subscribers, connecting us from coast to coast, and across the world to a mountain kingdom!
Happy December. I have something of an audio antidote to the endless, tiring chant to buy, buy, buy…
Where are we? Is this post-reality, waking dreams, or dreams of being awake? Or… something else? I don’t know, but I’ve been feeling particularly inspired of late to let “dreamy” be the guiding inspiration for my recordings.
Here’s a dreamy track for you. May it land well, and bring something healing into your week.
The story of this recording continues after the audio player.
Friday night, the kids were just asleep, and we parents were moving quietly about the house, enjoying the moment to be more in control of the direction of our attention. I had just received a new microphone in the mail and was softly playing my guitar with the intention of warming up to record something. I turned on my recording software right at the moment of whispering to my wife “You should play more of that thumb piano” referring to the instrument that had just rung out in perfect harmony with my guitar while she was putting it back on a shelf. I kept that intro whisper in the recording because it sounded so… dreamy.
Read more…Where do dreams come from? If I get extra sleep after being short on rest, I always have more dreams. Like my mind was waiting for the chance to process things it hadn’t had time for.
I edited last week’s post because I didn’t think to mention that the music was directly inspired by the feeling of my dreams the night before. I liked making a “dream composition” so much that I did it again this week.
You can click on the player below to hear this new dream song.
I hope the energy of these “Dream Songs” is healing for you. I can feel my next album coming together here.
Wishing you a good week,
Alex
I woke up and played this music, inspired by the feeling from my dreams.
It’s a short song that leaves enough space to hear your own thoughts.
Please enjoy this cup of the life force of the universe,
and may you be recharged and refreshed.
–Alex
I’ve always been focused on playing healing music for the moment. Not so much on figuring out how to market myself. So, I couldn’t figure out how to get the attention of the organizers of a big annual musical Summer Solstice showcase in Oakland. However, I knew my music would be perfect for the event. So I just brought my guitar and set up in my own little section of the sprawling Chapel of the Chimes, to my delight and that of the visitors that came through where I was set up.
Among the people who filtered in and out of the room where I was playing was a DJ of a very established weekly radio program on KPFA called “Music Of The World”.
She slipped a note in my guitar case that said, “if you want to be on the radio, contact me.” I did, and it was a highlight of my musical life, getting to play a live concert for healing, to the whole radio audience at once!
Read more…