polinos
I suppose you could call 'Sonic Essences' kind of new age, but definately not of the klicheed type - or rather, Angela Winter turns klichees like mantras and nature sounds into something new and exiting. Good for meditation and dreaming, definately, but also great experimental music with a dark streak.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Includes a PDF booklet with notes about everything that went into creating each track (mantras, flower essences, and field recordings), an FAQ, plus images from the making process.
Purchasable with gift card
$8USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Comes in an eco-friendly jacket printed on heavy recycled cardstock with green-friendly inks, with artwork by Angela Winter (sunflower) and Mohammad Asadi (back cover and disc photo), @mohammadix on Unsplash
Includes unlimited streaming of Sonic Essences
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
100% of the proceeds from sales of Sonic Essences will go to direct humanitarian relief for the people of Ukraine via People in Need, a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization that’s been working on the ground in Ukraine since 2014.
ABOUT
Sonic essences are audio blends of whispered mantras, flower essences, music, sounds from the natural world, and divinatory guidance. These tracks provide shiny, otherworldly spaces for you to slip into for meditation, manifestation, dreaming, creativity, bodywork sessions, yoga, and more. Sonic essences concentrate the energies that go into making them, and every time they’re played, they send those energies out into the world. They’re like aural prayer flags.
Several years ago, after I started creating my own flower essences, I intuited that if I consumed an essence before creating a music track, my body, voice, and consciousness could infuse the energy of that essence into the music. This would allow me to create a track that delivered the essence sonically, making it stronger and more easily shareable. I decided to embed essences in field recordings of mantras, singing, and other sounds, and I named the resulting audio tracks “sonic essences.” Since then, I’ve created sonic essences privately for my patrons and people who’ve commissioned originals, I’ve performed them live, and I’ve integrated them into my daily meditation and movement practices. They’re powerful and beneficial for a variety of purposes.
Everything is energy, and energy is vibrational. Sound vibrations evoke changes in energy fields and physical media; geometric forms and other shapes emerge in response to sound waves. Researchers and visual artists have shown how this looks through cymatics, the study of vibrational wave phenomena. Some of the Sonic Essences tracks feature artworks with shapes made by me singing tones into a cymatics generator.
When you create sound waves for specific purposes, as sonic essences are designed to do, you can evoke specific physical and energetic changes in your life, just as different sound waves evoke different images on cymatics plates.
Sound creates form. Play with it and see.
You can play sonic essences during meditation, manifestation, and ritual work. You can listen to them as you daydream, stargaze, bathe, or prepare for sleep. Some folks say sonic essences are good background ambience for creative work like writing, knitting, and painting. You can play them as prayers, as vehicles for exploring consciousness, or as rooms for listening. The only activities I wouldn’t partner sonic essences with are driving vehicles and operating machinery, as they may put you into a light trance state.
Sonic essences are an artistic and energetic experiment. To my knowledge, no one has delivered blends of flower essences, mantras, and vocals in audio form until now.
This album includes a Sonic Essences booklet as a PDF download with notes about everything that went into creating each track (mantras, flower essences, and field recordings), plus images from the making process and an FAQ section.
WORKS CITED
Ashley-Farrand, Thomas. Healing Mantras: Using Sound Affirmations for Personal Power, Creativity, and Healing. New York: Ballantine, 1999.
Easwaran, Eknath. The Mantram Handbook. Berkeley, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1998.
Jenny, Hans. Cymatics: A Study of Wave Phenomena and Vibration. Newmarket, NH: Macromedia Publishing, 2001.
Lynch, David. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. Narrated by David Lynch. New York: Penguin Audio, 2006. Audiobook.
THANKS TO
my patrons—for fueling Sonic Essences with your love, first listens, and generosity, and for making this album possible—I’m deeply grateful for every one of you
Andrew Weathers—for your exquisite ears and mastering (nailing it on the first round, wow!)
Karla Capacetti—for teaching me how to make flower essences and for your magical presence
Alyson Plante—for your artistic assistance, generosity, and love—so many cheers and hugs are coming your way!
Michelle Cassandra Johnson—for recording your amazing bees from the Sting and Isis hives and for your friendship, magic, and love
Chuck Cunningham—for your keen eye, your wry wit, and your generous gift that keeps on giving
Jeff T. Byrd, Giovanna Giaco, and Mohammad Asadi—for sharing your inspiring field recordings and photographs for remixing via the creative commons
Kim Dupre—for holding space for this project and for your friendship and encouragement
Thomas Ashley-Farrand, Eknath Easwaran, Hans Jenny, and David Lynch—for your teachings and support on the meditative, mantric, sonic, and creative paths
Dhanvantre, Durga, Ganesha, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Brahma-rishi Vishwamitra, Brahma-rishi Vasistha, Paramahansa Yogananda, Sri Sri Yukteswar, Mother Meera, and all my spiritual teachers and guides—for your divine grace, guidance, and support
Brent Winter—for loving my weirdness, for editing my texts, and for your immensely generous support and wide-open heart—you inspire me to be a better human every single day
Elder Malidoma Patrice Somé (1956-2021)—for your presence, your teachings, and the tremendous changes you shepherded me through as I “jumped into the hands of Spirit” to follow this musical path—your life was a blazing-bright gift to Earth, and I will always be grateful for you
credits
released April 1, 2022
CREDITS
PRODUCTION—Produced, recorded, and mixed by Angela Winter; mastered by Andrew Weathers, andrewweathers.com
PUBLISHING—Written and published by Angela Winter (ASCAP)
PERFORMANCES—Field recordings, vocals, and synths by Angela Winter. Additional field recordings on Prosperity: honeybees of the Sting and Isis hives by Michelle Cassandra Johnson in Winston-Salem, NC; hummingbirds feeding by Jeff T. Byrd in Orcas Island, WA, freesound.org; coins falling by Giovanna Giaco in Sao Paulo, Brazil, freesound.org
DESIGN—Sunflower (album cover) grown and photographed by Angela Winter; blue field and yellow flower photograph (on-disc print, back jacket of the CD) by Mohammad Asadi, @mohammadix on Unsplash; CD jacket design by Angela Winter; CD merch image design by Alyson Plante, Plante Creative Studio, Richmond, VA; track notes, photos, and Sonic Essences booklet design by Angela Winter
PHOTOGRAPHY—Bandcamp profile photograph of Angela Winter by Chuck Cunningham, No Context Zine, @nocontextzine, Mebane, NC; digital art by Alyson Plante, Plante Creative Studio, Richmond, VA
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