PATH OF THE SUN “Path of the Sun” C40 (Inner Islands)

 

It’s sort of not fair, is it? Daniel Guillén (Lunaria) and Steve Targo (Inner Travels) uniting under one moniker for forty minutes of cosmic drift? And yet they do, as Path of the Sun, perhaps the most aptly named collaboration in existence. What do you think, in your mind, the sun sounds like as it hurtles through space, part of the Milky Way galaxy, ever pressed outward as a result of the Big Bang? I’ll give you a hint: press play on this baby.
 
It’s not fair because you’re powerless against it, much like anything in the sun’s way on its celestial path is powerless against it, plowed through or over, or sucked into orbit, or simply obliterated, matter and molecules blasted this way and that by the energy of an actual bloody star. Sounds daunting! But wait, take a step back a minute – remember that everything’s relative? OK, with that in mind, observe the sun from a great distance. Doesn’t look like it’s moving very much, does it? Planets don’t seem to be either. More like hovering. Peaceful. Intense. Soundtracked by synthesizers.
 
That’s the Path of the Sun experience. That’s how it makes you feel. That’s how Daniel Guillén and Steve Targo work their magic, their alchemy, their science. It’s weight and release all at once, gravity and freedom. The push and pull is incredibly gratifying.
 
https://lunariamusic.bandcamp.com/
 
https://innertravels.bandcamp.com/
 
https://innerislands.bandcamp.com/
 
--Ryan

ASHAN “Sacred Springs” (Inner Islands)

 

Not that long ago I was feeling down, so I did what any sane person feeling down is apt to do: pull out every Inner Islands release on the shelf and systematically listen to each one of them, one by one, until I attain enlightenment. Or something. The point, of course, is to heal thyself. And, as listener of said recordings, I did heal thyself. Myself. Whatever.
 
Sean Conrad curates his label with this in mind, and as Ashan he contributes his own work to the corpus. He’s done this before – thirteen times as Ashan alone – and the results are never less than stunning. But for Conrad, “stunning” doesn’t refer to “in your face,” or indeed an overwhelming sensation in any way. “Stunning” here is the sense of cosmic peacefulness one attains while listening to an Ashan (or, broadly, Inner Islands) release. “Stunning” refers to how “stunningly” peaceful I feel while I’m awash in Ashan sounds.
 
Sacred Spring is the third in Conrad’s Drifters Series, following Far Drift Afield and Transfigurations – incidentally two of the releases that helped calm and center me in my time of distress. It too promises and utterly delivers a majestic quiet, a solitude where thoughts merge with the rest of the body, where deep peace is achieved among the flow of the infinite. The concept of forever contained in a hidden mountain spring is too tempting to not reach for it whenever possible. I think Sacred Spring is going to make a welcome addition to my emergency Inner Islands stash.
 
https://ashan.bandcamp.com/
 
https://innerislands.bandcamp.com/
 
--Ryan

CHANNELERS “Isles Beyond” (Inner Islands)

How does one get to a place that’s as Zen as Sean Conrad’s state of mind at exactly all times? Because if someone’s got the secret, I’d like to know about. Maybe it’s not such a secret after all – Conrad’s been running Inner Islands for a minute now, and this is his tenth (!) Channelers release, and first since 2015. He’s recorded solo and with others as Ashan, Orra, Skyminds, and he’s surrounded himself with a likeminded group of astral travelers and interior explorers. The secret is all in the music itself – bottled, distilled, ready for distribution.

 

Isles Beyond is an exploration of devotional improvisation utilizing mainly acoustic instruments, and the results are stunning (as per friggin usual). No one goes down a meditative path like Sean Conrad does – he’s just the new master of the new New Age headspace, perfectly placing those dulcimer hits and those guitar string plucks and those piano fragments. It’s even more impressive that Conrad does not wield a synthesizer like a crutch – it’s so easy to draw out those tones (and I LOVE me some cosmic synth work, don’t get me wrong), but here the music is much more lived in, the subtleties much more natural, the spirituality much more accessible. How is it that each Channelers release is as gloriously uplifting as the last? It’s that secret again – it’s in the DNA of the music.

 

https://channelers.bandcamp.com/

 

https://innerislands.bandcamp.com/

 

--Ryan

CHANNELERS “Isles Beyond” C60 (Inner Islands)

Primarily acoustically composed with dulcimer and piano, Channelers’ most recent long-burner showcases riff after wholesome new-age riff of serene vibes and cosmic breezes to curl up and power nap inside of. It's seriously like listening to a warm cup of lightly-honeyed chamomile tea.

https://innerislands.bandcamp.com/album/isles-beyond

and/or

http://www.innerislands.com/

—Jacob An Kittenplan

CHANNELERS “Depth of Rest” C42 (Inner Islands)

If Ashan’s (Sean Conrad/Inner Islands) recently released “Transfigurations" album embodied the centering breath and its power over one’s wayward consciousness, SC’s other primary altar* ego’s following release as Channelers, this “Depth of Rest”, acts more as a Yerba Mate-fueled, micro-dosed hiking meditation.

Pairing rich environmental field recordings with synth pads, dulcimer, and Irish low whistle(!), DoR excitedly wrangles our stirrups and tugs us along a spirited* trek through straight-up M-A-G-I-C-A-L arboreal ecosystems, leading us down shady, gentle streams, ducking under fallen redwoods, getting tickled by ginormous ferns…you get the idea. This is a glorious New Age pick-me-up with some mild psychedelic overtones** that’s well, well worth back to back listens while hitting your favorite woodland trails!

https://innerislands.bandcamp.com/album/the-depth-of-rest

and/or

http://thegentleways.com/

—Jacob An Kittenplan

*intentional

**Riders on the Storm-style!

INNER TRAVELS “Nature Spirit” C40 (Inner Islands)

In just over a half-decades’s time, and over a dozen and a half releases, Wisconsin’s Inner Travels has trekked across many (if not all) of New Age’s sub-sub-strains, and, with “Nature Spirit”, out on Inner Islands, it may be safe to say that Steve Targo has dreamt up his most centering, beatific release to date.

Across three tracks, IT* calmly guides our mind’s ear through confidences of crisply executed field recordings** that stretch well into our subconscious as Halpernian anti-riff after eye-surrendering anti-riff of reverb-drenched glockenspiel/chime runs and sunshine-doused synth-pad washes each take turns un-hooking us from any semblance of movement or melody, untethering us from any likeness of compositional scaffold and expectation…and, ultimately, anxiety.

This is capital-H “HEALING” stuff, and is truly, absolutely perfect for unwinding after a very long day/life.

https://innerislands.bandcamp.com/album/nature-spirit

and/or

https://innertravels.bandcamp.com/

—Jacob An Kittenplan

*the exact antonym for that scary clown, in fact!

**that would be well worth listening on their own!

ASHAN “Transfigurations” C44 (Inner Islands)

Sean Conrad, current head-honcho over at Inner Islands (AKA Ashan AKA Channelers AKA 1/2 of Orra AKA 1/2 of Skyminds, just to name a few) has been a stalwart well-spring of New Age and chill electronica in the SF Bay Area for over a decade now, but none of his releases have quite managed to transfigure the essence of deep, meditative breath and its relationship to staving off fleeting, errant thoughts quite like this latest release, “Transfigurations".

 

Across six spacious sections and with the patience and pace of tides, Ashan unfurls beatific drone-swells to rise and fall as concerted breath, a serenity of focus all but delivered straight unto our mind’s ear; yet with a catch…

Lying just below these troughs of the sonorous sines lies a celebrated glitch, a nervous energy, a delayed distraction competing for our attention. Ashan has managed to acknowledge/embody this Monkey Mind, to map and draw it out for the listener to experience, first-ear; it’s magnetism and engagement are revealed, reconciled, and then ushered off into the aether, all this performed again and again and again, with mindfulness and grace. Truly beautiful stuff!

In a world terrified of cheesiness and predictability, SC/II continuously provides a nervous system-centering anchor and non-chemical-based prescription for how to decompress and re-center ourselves. Thank you!

https://innerislands.bandcamp.com/album/transfigurations

and/or

http://www.innerislands.com/

http://thegentleways.com/

—Jacob An Kittenplan

CHANNELERS “The Depth of Rest” C42 (Inner Islands)

There is no one better at filling their days with beautiful and fascinating meditative music than Sean Conrad, aka Channelers, aka the purveyor of Inner Islands records. This is good news for all of us out here, somewhere beyond the boundaries of Oakland, California (and probably for everyone within those boundaries as well), because if we are lucky enough to get our hands on a Channelers (or Ashan or Orra or whatever) release, our days can also be filled with beautiful and fascinating meditative music. This time around Channelers tackles The Depth of Rest, and by tackles, I mean Conrad really plows into this thing and wrestles it to the ground – all in the most delicate and respectful of ways. Imagine getting so wound up that you have to plow into the idea of “rest” like it’s the WWF defending champion or something! That would be idiotic.

But still, and seriously, the “Channelers way” is in full effect here on The Depth of Rest, its four languid tracks full to bursting with field recordings of birds and insects and water – basically the outdoors with accompaniment from “keyboards, dulcimer, and Irish low whistle.” If that sounds like what you’d expect from Sean Conrad, you’d be right. But Channelers keeps growing, keeps evolving, even though it’s all within that New Age idiom. The depth of melody and consistency of vibe continue to astound, and Channelers continues to be at the crest of the Inner Islands modus operandi. It’s all dream state, probably all the time around II HQ, so somebody’s gotta get in there and craft new fantasy suites and “[project] magical realism … onto the canvas of ordinary perceived reality.” That someone might as well be Sean Conrad. He’s pretty much the best at it.

https://channelers.bandcamp.com/

http://www.innerislands.com/

--Ryan

KENJI KIHARA “Scenes of Scapes” C44 (Inner Islands)

Sharing Pacific island space with heavy-weights like Celer, , Endurance, Chihei Hatakeyama, and Hakobune (amongst a plethora of other comparably brilliant solo ambient-guitaristas…), Japan’s Kenji Kihara knows that, to set himself apart, he’ll have to augment his gorgeous six-string swells with some serious, precious gemstone bling…and gawt-DAMM does he! 

Beneath angelic choirs of chime, harmonics, phased synth warshes and time, time, time, KK dependably adds further and further depth and mesmerism to the Inner Islands roster, like you’d expect, but with a hint of somberness that reminds us simultaneously of eternity and our fleeting lifespan.

The physical tape is already sold out, but maybe the DL will come with 30-second, deep breaths and/or a crystal pendant? Keep the eyes peeled for more in the future!

https://innerislands.bandcamp.com/album/scenes-of-scapes

and/or

https://sphontik.bandcamp.com/

— Jacob An Kittenplanj

CHANNELERS “Entrance to the Next” C44 (Inner Islands)

Historically, Sean Conrad (Inner Islands’ fountainhead)’s Channelers project has been the more ambient/free-form spring of his to flow forth gorgeous ambient/dronal beatitudes…but with his earlier (ASHAN/ Far Drift Afield) release picking up that loosey-goosey, serendipitous sway-baton, I wondered where Channelers would go...

Turns out... further Glacial, into the flawlessly-polished, silvery-mirrored cave-of-consciousness. Slow-motion tip-toe. Vibrator-enhanced cafunés, under lavender breeze. “Entrance to the Next” is the incremental soundtrack to parading towards all meditations of yesterdays’ afterlifes’ very sum. Think “peace”, but, like, the sound of it, of bitterness’s very absentia. SC is on the next level, and his myriad projects dig deeper and deeper into Valhalla’s ceiling. Turn on. Tune in. Drop…

https://innerislands.bandcamp.com/album/entrance-to-the-next

and/or

http://thegentleways.com/

— Jacob An Kittenplanj

ASHAN “Far Drift Afield” C42 (Inner Islands)

ASHAN, AKA Sean Conrad, is head honcho over at Inner Islands, and he, as you might rightfully infer by the label’s name he currently curates, is pretty much the true embodiment of today’s New Age movement.  You can damn near feel your crystal chakras pulsating rainbow peace-pipes into trans-infinite bliss alongside his every drone, swell, and arpeggiation, because he (SC) has been at it for a loooong, long time, and he can pretty much om/freestyle up a mid-day nap-spell upon anyone whose ears his vibes doth impregnate at the drop of an incense ash.

“Far Adrift Afield”, however, isn’t just your average ASHAN album! 

With this release, he has righteously shrugged off the compulsory percussive scaffold of releases past and now lets his legions of harmoniously hypnotic counter-melodies weave an all-infectious ghost-of-groove, instead, relieving us rapt listenerfs of any heavy-handed demand to follow an explicit Beat…and I, for one, am grateful to hear what I’d consider to be the True Nature of these consonant movements, liquidly coinciding and diverging at their own frequencies, sans-metronomics. It makes all the difference, and this release feels like a Serious Step Forward.

For the ASHAN completist, FDA will be a crown jewel; and for the newbie, it’ll be everything you’ve ever wanted out of ambient/new age bliss-outs.  With AND without headphones, it’s guaranteed to lull you into a better place!

Keep an eye out for the follow up to this, dropping at the end of August!!!

https://innerislands.bandcamp.com/album/far-drift-afield

and/or

http://thegentleways.com/

— Jacob An Kittenplanj

SODA LITE “Vale & Stone” (Inner Islands)

The confluence of events of May 18: Soda Lite releases “Vale & Stone” on Inner Islands (2019); my brother is born (1980); my friend John is born (1977); Pope John Paul II is born (1920); Mount St. Helens blows a gasket (1980); Ian Curtis commits suicide (1980).

Yeesh, May 18, 1980, was quite the day.

Still this is 2019, and this is Inner Islands, so “Vale & Stone” is sure to be a glistening pool of sonic healing, a mana or health spring of twinkling light-as-nourishment, fit to banish the bad vibes of May 18ths past forever (except for the birthday ones, because those are pretty great). And even beyond May 18, 2019, I have hope that Soda Lite’s newest excursion will be the balm that quiets the anxiety of modern discourse, a correction to a toxic course and a check/balance to emotional overload. Will it satisfy those criteria?

It will.

Life is/should be simple, and the tranquility of Soda Lite illuminates the path to self-healing and internal reason. New Age meets ambient by the serenity pool, where stacks of smooth rocks imbue meaning and joy while fountains and other water features trickle in the background. We are encouraged to eschew dysfunctional thoughts, and the anxiety we retain from long-past trauma can be obviated in the face of a brand new dawn. Look how “Vale & Stone” is contributing, helping! It’s like a natural high, and a lifting of weight from burdened shoulders.

https://soda-lite.bandcamp.com/

https://innerislands.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan

SKYMINDS"Skyminds" C44(Auasca)

Skyminds is a hypnotic collaboration between Oakland stalwarts Selaroda (Michael Henning- Sanity Muffin/Inner Islands/Petit Mal) and Ashan (Sean Conrad- Inner Islands, Itinerant Home), both of whom are no stranger to releasing mesmerizing ambient/new-age soundscapes with a fresh, world-fusion tinge added, for extra zing.

Their debut eponymous album reveals itself like a book of short stories, all songs loosely related in their authorial voice, but each detailing a separate tranquil world to get lost in. Through cosmic synth swells, infinite organ drones, celestial chimes, pensive piano ploddings, saucy lap steel licks, Djembe pulses, quena riffage and more, Skyminds tells their timeless tales of inner cultivation and celestial beauty.

https://skyminds.bandcamp.com/

https://selaroda.bandcamp.com/

https://ashan.bandcamp.com/

and/or

http://thegentleways.com/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

CHANNELERS “Slow Leaf Spell” (Inner Islands)

“Patterns and repetitions to contrast the ever-changing self.” We know Sean Conrad gets it. Over his many releases as Channelers, Ashan, and half of Orra, as well as curating the like-minded he surrounds himself with on his label Inner Islands, Conrad has become an institution, a purveyor of inner peace and personal betterment through meditative music, or music and meditation, and his corner is an easy one to be in because it’s all done in the interest of harmonizing yourself with your environment before embarking on a path of sharing that peace and joy with others. That’s why his pastoral ambient/drone/folk tunage is the sincerest pastoral ambient/drone/folk tunage, his personal pumpkin patch of sound is surely the one the Great Pumpkin is going to visit this Halloween. Over four languid tracks, Conrad explores change as he stretches out his compositions and allows them to become their own entities, growing and evolving along with their composer until they become one in the mind and the heart. As always with Channelers releases, there’s that great “Om” potential where inward projection of consciousness may just indeed lift you to some higher plane of tranquility. Consider the fern on the cover of “Slow Leaf Spell,” and imagine the sounds passing up and down the living cells of the plant, energizing it and allowing it to align its vibrations with that of ours. As we listen and contemplate the cellular workings of it, we are slowly and methodically hypnotized by its life force. We can learn from that, and we can make the Inner Islands way, the Channelers way, a part of our own existence.

Channelers 

Inner Islands

--Ryan Masteller

INNER TRAVELS “Sea of Leaves” (Inner Islands)

It does look like a sea of leaves from up here, the forest spreading out into the distance, foliage rippling in the wind like waves, just dusk enough in the evening that the deep green isn’t so easy to make out against the shadows, mimicking the opaque depths of a vast body of water. From a height, atop a mountain or other scenic point, imagination takes over as the sunlight fades, is replaced by the trickier illumination of the moon, and the mysteries of your vision deepen. Steve Targo, our maestro, our guide, reflects through synthesizer on the “splendor of nature,” internalizing the landscape that he’s witnessed (Celestion, Pell Lake, Wisconsin, Fall 2015 to Fall 2016). This is New Age for a new age, a desperate grasp at inner peace before the peace can be directed outward and shared with those who need it most. Targo’s nailed it, understood that “desperate grasp” and “inner peace” need not be mutually exclusive when confronted with intentionality. Through natural beauty and connection with the earth, Targo is inspired to share the paths to personal wholeness. His gentle meditations penetrate your mind and your body and remove you from daily stresses that only serve to poison your outlook and thereby your relationships. Once again the Inner Islands way prevails, with “Sea of Leaves” yet another guidance system to a better life.

Inner Travels
Inner Islands


--Ryan Masteller

CHANNELERS "Faces of Love" C40 (Inner Islands)

Inner Islands is well known for deeply zen, mind-clearing, meditational releases, and this release from Channelers,  "Faces of Love" is no exception. I would like to throw around a lot of dreamy terminology about how this music helps you find your inner dimension, the essence of peace floating on a calm ocean of tranquility, but instead, I would like to focus on how analog this music sounds. The warmth and stillness of this recording nears something sacred.  It evokes wide open spaces filled with natural light, and one could uses it to prepare for sleep, or to prepare to truly awaken. 

Side A is called "Always Been" and it's twenty minutes of harmonium infused bliss. Side B, entitled "Pressure Sigh," blesses you with minimal notes from a bright and shining piano, each utterance fading into the distance for so long that the next note surprises you with its arrival. The two sidelong pieces compliment each other perfectly

Presented for you in a pro-dubbed chrome tape, white cassette with black print on both sides, and a three-panel J-card. Edition of seventy-five.

innerislands.bandcamp.com

www.innerislands.com

-- Gray Lee

STAG HARE “Starlights Gloom” (Inner Islands)

Stag Hare, we hardly knew you. Saying farewell to any artist we love is always a hard thing, and it’s no less difficult realizing that this is Willow Skye-Biggs’s last go-round under the current moniker. Stag Hare has always been such a go-to concept for melancholy ambient tunes, and it’s also been the obviously-in-love-with-humanity celebration soundtrack for the meditative set (see, specifically, the 4CS set Tapestry), so it stands to reason that there’s no shortage of contemplative electronics and synthesizer flourishes on STARLIGHTS GLOOM. Recorded with Skye-Biggs’s son in mind over a period of multiple years, the tracks on STARLIGHTS GLOOM pulse with nocturnal energy, flitting through forest clearings like pixies in search of mischief. This quick-moving Stag Hare is somewhat unusual given the slower burn of earlier releases, but the 4/4 rhythms and indebtedness to an environmental, arboreal vitality is a welcome diversion, and a fitting endpoint. Even with the beats and periodic vocals, this Stag Hare release retains the classic Stag Hare hallmarks: an embrace of the natural world, of people, of peace, and a musical color palette that’s inviting and mesmerizing all at once.  As with most Inner Islands releases, STARLIGHTS GLOOM is an inward-facing document, but it’s the one closest to realizing personal wholeness and bursting outward to engage more than just the self. Knowing that, I can’t wait to hear what Willow Skye-Biggs comes up with next. What, did you think that just because she gave up the Stag Hare name that she’d simply disappear into the ether? You’d be dead wrong! (Well, I hope you would be anyway. Here’s to more music!)

Stag Hare                                                                                                                                                                                    Inner Islands

--Ryan Masteller