Imagine life without gravity: weightlessly floating with ease. Images of the earliest astronauts bouncing in slow motion on the moon’s surface and drifting in space exude this feeling. This is also the effect offered by a lovely reimagining of the Apollo soundtrack by the 12-piece UK ensemble Icebreaker in collaboration with pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole.
This new release is the third and final CD in the "Mermaid Avenue" project, which totals almost 50 songs.
"All Fall Down" is Colvin’s eighth studio album—and as usual, Colvin has set melancholy and witty words of love and loss to gentle, lyrical rhythms anchored in a country-western feel.
I came to activism out of a desire to make a difference, but I stayed for the music. I marvel at music’s capacity to open us up, lift us up, and touch us so deeply. And I marvel even more at how it connects us to one another and to the causes we hold dear. Like meditation and prayer, music engages us in a way that is truly transcendent. Emma Goldman had her dancing, and for me it is the music that keeps me inspired to be a part of the revolution.
Over the last decade, one of the most fascinating areas of research in psychological science has been the study of “priming” behavior. Social scientists found, for example, that a reminder of mortality, such as “orange alerts,” primes voters to choose a strong, charismatic leader; and marketers proved that $3000 handbags in store windows help prime shoppers to consider $100 T-shirts a bargain. But perhaps the most powerful “prime mover” is music, which can change our moods and our behavior within seconds — whether we are aware of it or not.
In a research project at the University of London, volunteers were asked to listen to 15-second snippets of music before judging the emotional content of faces. The results were remarkable — happy music caused the volunteers to judge the faces as happier, while sad music caused the volunteers to judge them as sadder. Interestingly, the emotionally charged music had the greatest effect when the faces were, in fact, emotionally neutral.
This is soul-nourishing music, leading beyond thought to a contemplative realm in which an acoustic symphony orchestra and instruments from foreign lands blend with and support a human choir in an ethereal song of love and devotion to the spirit of life.
hen study participants at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore listened to music that brought them a sense a joy, the inner lining of their blood vessels began to dilate, increasing blood flow to their hearts. But you probably guessed that already.
By Shevaun Rafferty
You are touched by music and sounds in more ways than you may ever know. In the scientific study of cymatics, both simple sounds and complex pieces of music can be shown to create patterns in matter: the higher the frequency, the more complex the patterns, the more beautiful and harmonious the sounds. You can find amazing examples of this on the web, such as this TEDx talk, and this YouTube video.
Reiki River
Niall
Paradise Music
