Ten Laws with East Forest

When Rob Lowe and Michael Muller founded Balmorhea in 2006, their goals and expectations were modest, as they created music to share with friends and family, and slowly developed a following in their hometown of Austin and beyond. They couldn't have anticipated that their music would take them on multiple tours of the US and Europe, and even to Asia. Nor did they expect the praise their work would receive from such well-respected publications as Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic among myriad others, and that their work would become quietly ubiquitous, doing the emotional heavy-lifting for national TV commercials, films, radio and cable programs, and countless documentaries. Lowe and Muller had developed a wordless language with a seemingly limitless potential to stir the listener's soul. Over the course of 5 full-length albums and a 7” EP, the duo pushed their work to its outer bounds, concluding the first chapter of their career with their maximalist, genre-leaping full-length Stranger (2012). Now five years later they return with their most fully realized album to-date, Clear Language. Almost a decade on the road, near-constant musical output, and shifting creative priorities caused Lowe and Muller, to soberly assess the band’s future. What, in the form of Balmorhea, was there left to say? And did they have the energy to say it? To answer that question the duo decamped to their east Austin studio, where they worked simply and with restraint, letting intuition guide them as they molded 30-plus raw ideas into the 10 elegant, spacious gestures that comprise Clear Language. Co-produced and engineered by David Boyle in Austin’s Church House Studios, Clear Language finds the duo returning to the simplicity of their roots. They eschewed complexity for complexity’s sake, allowing a watery, sand-hued mood to settle over their use of analog synthesizers, piano, vibraphone, electric and bass guitar, violin, viola, field recordings, and, for the first time in the band’s history, trumpet, performed by Tedeschi Trucks' Ephraim Owens. A relaxed, clear-eyed sense of reflection flows gracefully through the album as these two old friends transmit unfettered meaning through simple sonic gestures that resonate with the cosmos as much as they echo the pulse of a human heart. In a culture dominated by the loudest, ostentatious voices, Lowe and Muller continue to prove the power and importance of restraint and minimalism. This fall, in cities across the U.S. and Europe, Balmorhea will bring Clear Language to life with a full band of multi-instrumentalists, and the ensemble will be enshrouded in a light/video projection that’s being developed to mirror the emotional tone of Clear Language. Audiences can also expect to hear classic works from All is Wild, All is Silent, Stranger, Constellations — the spareness of which invites comparisons to Clear Language — and more from Balmorhea’s dense catalog, dating back to 2006 Listen to LOWER RIVER

Synthesis offers legal, medically supervised, and scientific based psychedelic retreats in Amsterdam. They make the psychedelic experience accessible for curious individuals who want to utilize moderate-to-high doses of psilocybin truffles to catalyze creative breakthroughs, explore consciousness, find meaning, improve confidence, and search for a mystical experience. Martijn is the Co-Founder of Synthesis as well as HighExistence and Apotheosis; he has a background in interdisciplinary science and philosophy, and with a strong foundation in coaching and entrepreneurship, he aims to make psychedelic tools accessible in a safe, legal, and modern context. Martijn has been writing and speaking about psychedelics, interviewing experts in this field, and helped organize The Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelics Research 2016 in Amsterdam. He first reached out to psychedelics when he was in search of new perspectives and clarity to reorient his way of being. Today it is his mission to lower the barrier for deep transformation. synthesisretreat.comeastforest.org

Hailed as one of the forefathers of both ambient electronic and new age music, Laraaji is best known for his 1980 collaboration with Brian Eno, "Ambient 3: Day of Radiance."Born in 1943 as Edward Larry Gordon, Laraaji attended Howard University in Washington D.C. on a scholarship to study composition and piano. He later spent time in New York persuing a career as a stand-up comedian and actor. In the seventies, Laraaji began his lifelong study of Eastern Mysticism, was initiated as a swami, and merged music with spiritual practice. Following an intuition, he bought a zither from a local pawn shop, converted it to an electronic instrument, and, while busking in Washington Square Park, Laraaji was discovered by Brian Eno who offered to produce him on the spot.His recordings can be found at labels: WARP records, All Saints records, GLITTERBEAT ,Numero Group, Stones Throw, Leaving Records, Soul Jazz, Virgin, Flying Moonlight, RVNG records.laraaji.blogspot.com/

In 2014 Cody watched as his father and close friend were swept over a 100ft avalanche;  his own life still in balance on the precipice of that cliff. While they all survived, the impact of the event left a wound on Cody's psyche that the tools of traditional psychotherapy he had been trained in were inadequate to heal. Determined to find a way back to himself, he set out on a journey.From ancient ceremonies in the jungles of Peru, rites of passage in the remote islands of British Columbia, indigenous healing rituals here in Colorado to immersions in yogic and meditative lineages and a re-education in graduate level courses; Cody faced his own darkness head on and explored every healing modality he could find. Now he is walking those lessons back into the world - for the good of all. Combining ancient wisdom with modern neuroscience, Cody's approach to therapy is a unique offering for those seeking to go beyond talk therapy. If you are called to do the deep work - to break free from old patterns, heal the core wounds, and create the depth, meaning, and purpose you have always craved in your life - then your journey begins right where you are.codywiggs.com

Enjoy this guided meditation that takes you through a thought experiment of the perfection of our path, and the merging of the divide between material rationalism and divinity. eastforest.org/podcast

Dr. Bruce Damer is a liminal traveler of many realms, some magic, others mundane. His work focuses on the origin of life on Earth and finding a pathway for us, a remarkably rare form of complex life, a sustainable path forward into the cosmos. He also places matters of healing and coming from the heart at the heart of his work and life. His Ancient Oaks property hosts transformative retreats and the center called Wyldflower which enable and empower deeper understandings of self and the world. Decades of work in tech, for NASA, in origin of life at UC Santa Cruz, and his collecting and archiving of the history of computing and the lives of Terence McKenna and Timothy Leary have opened a deep well of new stories and visions which Dr. Bruce shares in talks and podcasts, including his own, the Levity Zone (www.levityzone.org). Join Dr. Bruce in his Patreon community for live salons, webinars, project work and personal mentorship at: www.patreon.com/brucedamer and find more about him on the web and at his site www.damer.com. eastforest.org/podcast

Recorded live at the East Forest "Spirit Dive" Fall Retreat in Southern Utah. Recorded in the Psiloon with live East Forest music, plus discussion with the retreat participants and moderated by Marisa Radha Weppner.The East Forest retreat is a chance to dive into the inner space through a mixture of wilderness, music, yoga, dance, co-creative music, meditation, organic food, and technology detoxification. Join us at eastforest.org. ***Download/Post/Share this Ram Dass Grammy image: http://bit.ly/RD-Grammy-Image eastforest.org/retreat

Raised on Orcas Island off the coast of Washington state, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith's compositions are surreal yet rooted in nature. Combining the organic elements of her upbringing with the technological prowess gained from her studies at Berklee College of Music, Kaitlyn's impact on modern music is distinct and significant. Informed by her experimentation and the unique sounds of the Buchla 100 synthesizer, Kaitlyn's music has put her on the path to global recognition. This upward trajectory was later cemented with the release of her 2015 full-length, Euclid, on Western Vinyl.The following year saw the launch of her celebrated 2016 album, EARS, as well as a collaboration with new age pioneer Suzanne Ciani. Both EARS and Kaitlyn's subsequent full length album The Kid have earned numerous best-of nods from the likes of Pitchfork, NPR, Rolling Stone and SPIN. Additionally, Kaitlyn has been regularly scoring film, TV shows and spots for brands. Her collaborations include projects with Google, Reggie Watts and Ben Dickinson’s short film Brasilia, as well as the 2018 Duplass brothers film Duck Butter. Kaitlyn's participation in the 2018 Telekinesis event saw her performing with the BBC Orchestra, and later that year she headlined alongside Grizzly Bear and TV On The Radio at the Hollywood Bowl. https://www.instagram.com/kaitlynaurelia/http://eastforest.org/podcast

In this episode East Forest tells the story of how his eponymous song, "10 Laws" came to be.  "10 Laws" features the voice of VCJ, a mystic and friend who spoke his hunter gatherers code of ten which became the sample for "10 Laws" - the first East Forest song and most popular East Forest track to date. From VCJ,"I have not paid much attention to the praise or criticism by the public, about my work over the years, but  I am very grateful to the nation which has granted me such freedom of expression and I feel indebted  to those who have seen to the matter of securing the right for its citizens, have encouraged it and exampled  it in so many beautiful ways. Art is a game worth playing and its effects should be shared. An artists works are not always published, but when they are, they give inspiration to so many who might not otherwise see the originals. I am one  such person. I am glad to have enjoyed the works of the masters in their published forms and I feel that I  must share some of my work in pen, brush, woodcut and scratchboard at this time. I am not   expecting to publish a book of my work any time soon, so I apologize and offer it in this form.”  See VCJ's art (aka Mr. 10 Laws) - VCJ GraphicsEastFroest.org Do not sample these recordings without express permission.  And don't go looking for VCJ in the woods for your personal development as he doesn't want to be found!© East Forest 2008 - 2019

Michael Meade, D.H.L., is a renowned storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology. He combines hypnotic storytelling, street-savvy perceptiveness, and spellbinding interpretations of ancient myths with a deep knowledge of cross-cultural rituals. He has an unusual ability to distill and synthesize these disciplines, tapping into ancestral sources of wisdom and connecting them to the stories we are living today. He is the author of The Genius Myth, Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of The Soul, Why the World Doesn't End, The Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul; editor, with James Hillman and Robert Bly, of Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart; and editor of Crossroads: A Quest for Contemporary Rites of Passage. Meade is the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, a nonprofit network of artist, activists, and community builders that encourages greater understanding between diverse peoples. mosaicvoices.org eastforest.org