Cosmic Portals – A Playlist by Natalie Rose LeBrecht

La Monte Young is a master at opening portals into the cosmos through sound. This recording of his miraculous work, “The Well-Tuned Piano” is a six hour, 25 minute structured piano improvisation performed on May 10, 1987 at the DIA Art Foundation in NYC. The piece was played on an Imperial Bösendorfer piano, which has 97 keys, and it was tuned to a precise “just intonation” tuning that La Monte had devised. This magical tuning facilitated “extraordinary periodic acoustical beats [that] became suspended in the air like a cloud over the piano,” according to Young. The effect is bewitching, and it is common to experience aural hallucinations when listening. If someone played me the recording and I had no context, I never would guess it was just one person playing a piano. In moments, it sounds like an otherworldly orchestra – there’s a full sound that is completely unique and unidentifiable. I served as Young and Zazeela’s production assistant from 2006-2008 and lived part-time above their apartment at their Dream House installation and their artistic archives. I’ll never forget the night that I was wandering through their labyrinthine archives and found Young’s well-tuned practice-piano. Of course I played it, and of course, it was no longer precisely tuned, but nonetheless, it was thrilling.

In 2005, I saw that a Japanese Buddhist court music, or Gagaku, ensemble called Reigakusha, led by Sukeyasu Shiba, was performing at Carnegie Hall and decided to buy myself a ticket and go. I had never seen/ heard anything like it before. The way the instruments were played was impeccably choreographed visually, and this interplay of sound and visual presentation was truly extraordinary and elegant. I had a sense that these were elevated beings. The sho (a free-reed instrument made up of 17 bamboo pipes) droned on sublimely, and the next thing I knew, I had completely left my body and was one with the music itself, all-consumed in a blissful state of being. When the music ended, I crashed back into my body and actually began weeping from the harshness of getting kicked out of nirvana. That was my introduction to Gagaku music, which completely changed the way I related to music. After that experience, I realized that music could open a portal to divinity.

I risked getting a computer virus circa 2014 when I found out Alice Coltrane had non-commercial, unreleased private ashram tapes of devotional music and found some sketchy website where I could download both “Divine Songs” and “Turiya Sings”. It was well worth the risk, as “Divine Songs” became my daily listening bread. I was completely blown away by what I was hearing – ethereal bending synth crescendos over majestic string arrangements, and the raw, resplendent voice of a goddess calling with devotion for the ultimate oneness. Beyond how distinguished it sounded, was how it made me feel. I was feeling powerful new feelings, and as my emotional body was expanding, my psyche was being cleansed. This music is not ordinary, and it certainly is a bridge to celestial realms.

Preetyland is a radiant composition by Vorhees, the nom de guerre of NYC-based musician, audio engineer and sound designer, Dana Wachs. The interstellar piece introduces ethereal soundscapes full of wonder. There are waves of distinctive sounds – electronic, acoustic, and sampled – flowing into one another with subtle, kinetic fluidity. There are Steve Reich-ian, trance-inducing repetitions with shimmering electronic twirling and shapeshifting timbres interlaced. The moods within are gentle, yet transplendent. With her background in sound engineering and sound design, Vorhees has a supernatural, consummate talent for making everything sound blissfully amazing!

The “Qatsi” film trilogy by Godfrey Reggio asks us to contemplate the miraculous yet tragic state of the human condition that has come to be controlled by a globalized capitalistic military industrial complex. The imagery of these films is stunning and educational, but it’s the music by Philip Glass that transforms these films into a poignant religious experience. The soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi feels like a prayer to the Universe that begins with a confession in “Koyaanisqatsi”, is followed by recognition of and gratitude for the divine in “Vessels”, marvels at creative potential in “Cloudscape”, reckons with the impact of possessed power in “Pruit Igoe”, pleas for harmonic reconciliation in “the Grid”, and asks for mercy while mourning the apocalyptic effects of negative karma in “Prophecies”. The music is imbued with deity-like power and grandeur, leaving the listener awestruck, with goose bumps, and possibly even in tears. Music that evokes feelings this monumental is certainly connected to the stars out beyond the sky.

Promises is a modern musical masterpiece – a scintillating dreamscape set in the glimmering stars of the galaxy. Floating Points composed a perfect aural realm for the magnificent star, Pharoah Sanders, to dazzle in. Sanders’ sax playing comes in as airy as a supremely beautiful voice, diaphanous yet confident and robust. The spaciousness within the piece gives prominence to all the nuance of Sanders’ woodwind dance, which builds and expresses lovingly, charged with life force that is wielded magnificently. It’s a delight when Sanders makes utterances with his voice, highlighting a primordial quality of playfulness. When the orchestral strings take their turn in “Movement 6” it brings in a breathtaking regal magic that serves as a sweet homage to Alice Coltrane, a friend and important collaborator of Sanders. The remaining movements give Floating Points moments to shine, as his inter-dimensional electronic flourishes lend a fantastical element to the mix. Promises is Pharoah Sanders’ swan song, and in collaboration with Floating Points, he left us a final glorious jewel amongst his treasure trove.

The entire album, Maggot Brain, is a really fun listen, but here I’m focused on the album’s lead track, “Maggot Brain,” a ten-minute guitar-centered piece that is filled with such soulful playing by Eddie Hazel, the listener can’t help but feel their emotional body expanding out into the cosmos, landing at a primordially raw place, perhaps the intersection of birth and death itself. This makes sense, seeing that bandleader George Clinton, under the influence of LSD, directed Hazel to play as if his mother had just died.

The full album is not on YouTube, so I include a fun sample track from it here, but I recommend listening to the complete album, as it is an extraordinary ride through vast, intergalactic terrain by a true maestro.

Kunzang Dechen Lingpa, a Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen Master, and his entourage of monks and nuns toured the United States annually from 2001 until KDL’s passing in 2006 to conduct a series of Healing Chod tours, which this recording of A Tibetan Song For Healing stems from. The Healing Chod is an ancient Buddhist ritual known for its power to heal mental and physical sickness and remove karmic obstacles to spiritual growth. The extraordinarily exalted melodies in it are said to have originated from “sky dancers”, female divinities from sublime dimensions, and are noted to have a healing power simply by virtue of hearing them. I was fortunate enough to attend two Healing Chod ceremonies where we were instructed to lie down on our sides and just relax as the ensemble of nuns and monks, under the visionary leadership of KDL, sang these transcendent melodies to the hypnotic beat of their hand drums and bells. I recall drifting into a celestial vastness and settling into a feeling of profound peace during these ceremonies. This is sacred music, a gift to humanity.