Altered States: Vedic Somatic Breathwork and Sound Bath [RGMS-014]

 RGMS-014

Released December 31, 2023

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Musings: 

We traversed worlds within 

without…within…like the steady breath of dreaming cosmic giants 

who sleepless for eons at last took repose under the bodhi tree 

like the saints who at once felt the great inhale 

and became a beacon of collective release, 

exhaling all the world’s sorrow beyond this bodily sheath. 

Drifting into the deep, into a realm of curious beings - 

a state of motionless peace 

where the heart beat slows, yet we run headlong into celestial weaves 

from the substrate of being, our own, our ancestor’s, our solar system’s 

but it was not night time, and we were not asleep -  

Altered States: Vedic Somatic Breathwork and Sound Bath

Breathwork by Manjinder Singh Benning 

Sound Bath by Sean Kiley

27 Short Songs [RGMS-013]

 

RGMS-013

Released November 13, 2023

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Musings: 

There’s ghosts in the machines - 

or are there? How could there be? 

I sighed, I wept on the shores of a thousand placeless smiles, 

teeth glimmering like the cheshire’s. 

Then the ghost awoke in me 

and these new eyes perceived the infinite stairs on which I wound. 

No longer passing through endless Kansases, 

shortness of breath transformed into the one long inhale from the edge of the universe. 

Angelic murmurings became a whisper and without warning spoke to me: 

“Fly to the lands of abyme and find the bloom of night. 

Fly to the heart of time and see the one without eyes.”

There the great cosmic body without organs, shifted its starry light to at last smile upon this great unfolding.

The wondrous ghost of life, playfully haunting it’s kin with the ancient drama of this entropic vie. 

27 Short Songs

Composed and Produced by Dexter Dine

Altered States: RGMS-006 Morning Bells LIVE

ALTERED STATES Vol. II

 December 10, 2022

RGMS presents a live installment of 'Morning Bells' adapted for the new series 'Altered States'. In collaboration with Island Ayurveda, this series makes use of immersive guided breath-work and sound healing modalities to induce altered states of consciousness or trance states in participants. 

This live session strives to ground participants into a deep theta altered state in order to tap into the root centre for the coming winter season. May the sound of the bells serve to awaken and initiate your soul on this journey to confront the shadow of the darkness in winter. There, we hope you may find a new transcendence, transfigured until the light of spring returns.

Meditation Objects, Supplements, and Sequences (MOSS) Vol. II [RGMS-012]

RGMS-012

Released January 17, 2022

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Musings: Somewhere in between background noise and a symphony, in between the ocean and your open vein… an object, or new furniture of sorts – a supplement, which opens the room for the breeze to come in – a sequence, guiding you through new land. Straddling the four cardinal directions, earthly meditations, to dive deep into the waters of the unconscious, in search of the eternal flame, glowing like a scarlet lotus on the ocean’s floor, oh to breathe in the depths through consummated eucharist in harmony with the logos. Moss, the great mother, welcomes us unto it to soothe our wounds, then gently guide us back towards the path. Here we are, taking a moment to lay in its bed, amidst a journey which fractures into ten thousand directions, spiraling always towards the mandate of the heart. 

Meditation Objects, Supplements, and Sequences or MOSS, is a curated collaborative album from members of rgms consisting of tracks designed for meditation. This album was inspired in response to the seemingly rather monotonous tone of most meditation music found online today. Here, the aim is to explore a wide variety of states of being possible within the meditative posture. Herein, we have tracks, which lilt us in a gentle state of at onement, others which guide us through strange lands and circular quests, yet others still which take us to that part of ourselves we have not visited in a while, and while our initial urge may be to resist, the vibrations coax us to stay and have a look around for a little while, until we might find this once unfavorable place not at all too unbecoming.

Tracklist: 

MOSS #9: Subversion of Feedback (Aaron Stearns)

MOSS #10: Morning Walk (Chris Chraca)

MOSS #11: Säännös (Timo Pehkonen)

MOSS #12: A Cloudless Rain (Davis Connors)

MOSS #13: The Anchor Dragged Across the Sand (Noah Rosa) 

MOSS #14: A Blue Fire (Iminah Kani)

MOSS #15: Ousers (Dexter Dine)

MOSS #16: A Mercurial Liminality (Sean Kiley) 

MOSS #17: are we not on less, concrete shores? (James Layton)

MOSS #18: Dying Fly (Sampson Hollander)

MOSS #19: In the Backwoods on a Cool Summer Day (Natalie Dzbik)

MOSS #20: Streaming from a Hollow Top (Ben Kinsinger)

MOSS will be an ongoing series, which aims at exploring the breadth of meditative experiences possible within sonic environments. Volume I explored a more atomized realm produced by 8 members of rgms. This volume served as an opportunity for the artist to begin to articulate their own personal musical language of meditation. Here, with Volume II rgms strives towards developing a cohesive whole, in lieu of the individual ca. 10-12 minute experiences produced for Volume I. Volume II is a sonic journey from Human Sounds - anything man-made (machinery, bodily, cars, tools, breath, speaking ((non-communicative), etc.)) to Non-Human Sounds - anything in nature, which takes place without the influence of humans (ocean, river, birds, wind, trees, etc.) This journey then from Human Sounds to Non-Human Sounds takes place over the course of the whole album.

Sine Wave Experiment No. 1 [RGMS-011]

RGMS-011

Released November 5, 2021

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Musings:

Here, prima materia crossing over

From quantum into material 

Perception preceding experience 

Translations between realms, improvised into existence 

Cerebral electric signals - from nothing, a Vision

A mystery, represented in bits 

Sine Wave EXP No. 1

"Untitled #1" Composed by Davis Connors

"Untitled #2" Composed by Sean Kiley

See the companion research publication: 

Towards More Objective Translations for a Non-Synesthesiac: Light to sound

Promo: Sine Wave EXP No. 1

Solétudes [RGMS-010]

 

RGMS-010

Released April 30, 2021

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Musings: 

Clarion radiance refracts through a pellucid aether. 

Cast in ambrosial tidings of incendiary’s essence. 

Mellifluous approbation resounds within the empyrean. 

Irises commensurately cried out, while Carnations climbed from chthonic depths. 

Dahlia and Hyacinth vibrate melic duets, the Chrysanthemum resurrects. 

Those atavistic once dormant, manumissioned and renewed. 

Tempest of Sol, from resplendence’s pleroma, 

Crosses over

Into the firmament of this mould, as the heart’s true apotheosis of gold. 

Solétudes

Composed and Produced by Noah Rosa

Promo: Solétudes

Music for Sine Waves II [RGMS-009]

RGMS-009

Released April 16, 2021

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Musings: An Anahata Nad, heard but never struck

Aloft this dance of air, fire, water, earth - in placelessness beyond all birth

Unraveling the labyrinth in mirrored waves

Reflects upon itself, uroboric yet heaven bent

Still, un-shimmering elixir

Holding fast to fleeting moments

The sine o' the times beckons us:

Fly

Music for Sine Waves II

Composed and Produced by Timo Pehkonen

Promo: Music for Sine Waves II

these memories are not my own, they're borrowed from my past [RGMS-008]

 RGMS-008

Released January 22, 2021

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Musings: That which has been infolded coming undone, unraveling - ten thousand things spontaneously. Hidden behind the veil of time, put on display in convolving ephemerality. Catching sight of the force that compels all, from immanent to transcendent, and back again - a processes’ journey, becoming flesh. No sooner born, then relegated to remembrance. Borrowed from the realm of being and non-being, memories, which shape this form, yet seem to perpetually inhabit a new self. Those borrowed from the ten thousand things: these vague recollections of a willing participant in the dance of entropy - nostalgia from a supernova - or those of a cog in a great concentration, some collective inhalation: the stringing of a spiders’ web, the sprouting of some Amazon, the songs of virile Wood Thrushes - all of which, converge, to bring a realization in the present moment, a reverence for those moments past, and an anticipation for a reunion of the two, reconciled into one.

these memories are not my own, they're borrowed from my past 

Composed, Performer, and Produced by James Layton

Mixed and Mastered by Sean Kiley

Promo: these memories are not my own, they're borrowed from my past

Scylla / Charybdis [RGMS-007]

 RGMS-007

Released December 29, 2020

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Musings: Here we are, venturing into uncharted waters, betwixt the whirlwind of Dionysus and Apollo, searching for an unknown shore, a new route homewards. Steering as Odysseus, out of reach from Scylla, the fallen nymph, lusus naturae of the sea. She is the looming threat of Dionysus, poised to swallow us whole into undifferentiated collectivization, while Charybdis, progeny of Poseidon and Gaea, the personified whirlpool, awaits just across the way. She, like Apollo, impends upon our psyche, coaxing us down the proverbial rabbit hole of the solipsism. Yet – despite such hazards, like Odysseus, we maneuver clear, holding fast to such temperance both in our hearts and actions. A liminality, which pervades all domains. Between this performance of the automaton and the human being, between cacophony and harmony, between the ring chaos and ring cosmos, between solemnity and ecstasy, between Scylla and Charybdis, we continue unwaveringly, towards some ineffable home.

"Scylla" 

Composed and Performed by Davis Connors and Sean Kiley

Produced by Davis Connors 

"Charybdis"

Performed by Sean Kiley, Timo Pehkonen. and Colin Malloy

Composed by Sean Kiley and Davis Connors

Produced by Sean Kiley

Promo: Scylla / Charybdis

Morning Bells [RGMS-006]

 RGMS-006

Released December 21, 2020

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Musings: This circular quest, from such mystic labyrinthine annals to deep within the canals of Mars. Awakening to some sort of journey, a Grail vaguely articulated passes briefly through the imagination. A vertical memory of those bells, which bind some ineffable tradition. That which breaks the silence of the dawn, marking transition from reflection into memory, wherefrom word and writing will soon be born. An Apollonian form, which seems to wander in the fields of Eleusis, beckons concentration without effort. The reward is kairosis; solemnity transfigured into ecstasy. Dionysus has been revealed by the infinite unfolding. From first light (Luce Prima), to a prolonged awakening from dreams (A Somno Somnia), which swirl before thine eyes foreboding the dark night of the soul (Nocte Animam), so that one may transform exaltedly (Transfiguratione), for no tree can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.

“No sleep yet cools my eyes; 

day is already beginning 

outside my chamber window. 

My troubled senses rummage still 

here and there among my doubts, 

creating nightly visions - 

Alarm and rack yourself 

no longer, my soul. 

Be blithe. Already, here and there, 

morning bells are awakening.”

Morning Bells Composed and Produced by Sean Kiley

Mastered by Davis Connors

Promo: Morning Bells

Early Studies in Sound [RGMS-005]

RGMS-005

Released November 30, 2020

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Musings: This aural mythology, an augmentation of environment  - just as the deeds of the heroes of old reach fantastical heights in ever evolving portrayals, musique concrète beckons us to see the world in a new fiction. Every act of the soundscape center-stage and glorified. Imaginal conversations between cave water drops and radio transmissions, between Socrates and Christ, leaping across the barriers of time. It is said that God may be likened to the principle of attraction, and that eternity is no more than the perpetual attraction of matter in space so as to compress beyond time. As our sonic environments condense and convalesce into the whirlwind of musical experience, undergoing transmutations from isolated temporal event to musical motif birthed anew into the present. Each sound attracting, closer than ever before heard, gradually escaping the bounds of temporality, precipitating on eternity. 

"During our lives we reflect on what we create, how we act, and how we present ourselves. For some who consider themselves artists, reflection upon one’s craft is the way that craft may evolve and become something unique. That is what this album Early Studies in Sound is, a reflection of my artistic journey during my early time studying and experimenting with sound, in particular my fascination with Pierre Schaeffer’s research and work on the sound object and musique concrète."

Early Studies in Sound Composed and Produced by Christopher Chraca

Promo: Early Studies in Sound

Meditation Objects, Supplements, and Sequences (MOSS Vol. I) [RGMS-004]

RGMS-004

Released November 17, 2020

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Musings: Somewhere in between background noise and a symphony, in between the ocean and your open vein… an object, or new furniture of sorts – a supplement, which opens the room for the breeze to come in – a sequence, guiding you through new land. Straddling the four cardinal directions, earthly meditations, to dive deep into the waters of the unconscious, in search of the eternal flame, glowing like a scarlet lotus on the ocean’s floor, oh to breathe in the depths through consummated eucharist in harmony with the logos. Moss, the great mother, welcomes us unto it to soothe our wounds, then gently guide us back towards the path. Here we are, taking a moment to lay in its bed, amidst a journey which fractures into ten thousand directions, spiraling always towards the mandate of the heart. 

Meditation Objects, Supplements, and Sequences or MOSS, is a curated collaborative album from members of rgms consisting of tracks designed for meditation. This album was inspired in response to the seemingly rather monotonous tone of most meditation music found online today. Here, the aim is to explore a wide variety of states of being possible within the meditative posture. Herein, we have tracks, which lilt us in a gentle state of at onement, others which guide us through strange lands and circular quests, yet others still which take us to that part of ourselves we have not visited in a while, and while our initial urge may be to resist, the vibrations coax us to stay and have a look around for a little while, until we might find this once unfavorable place not at all too unbecoming.

Tracklist: 

MOSS #1: on the invisible lips of the dark (by Sean Kiley)

MOSS #2: Oceanographic (by Natalie Dzbik)

MOSS #3: Sein Blick (by Iminah Amal-Hill)

MOSS #4: Loading Dock (by Davis Connors)

MOSS #5: Field Propulsion (by Timo Pehkonen)

MOSS #6: Sounds of the Worker Drone (by Chris Chraca)

MOSS #7: Slidetracked (by Aaron Stearns)

MOSS #8: jean, you forgot to pay the electric bill! (by James Layton)

American Ozymandias [RGMS-003]

 

RGMS-003

Released October 30, 2020

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Musings: The arm of the record player gazes into the grooves of its patient. Today's procedure will be another extraction, a lobectomy or a lobotomy of sorts, but not so much in the physical sense. Dr. T. Arm received his doctorate in depth psychology from the University of Shellac. He is renown for his shamanic like ability to draw out the unconscious of his subjects. An avid practitioner of hypnotherapy, Dr. Arm induces a state of music; he enters the mind of the patient and travels concentrically towards the ego, peeling back the layers of the unconscious self to reach the identifying agent, the name tag, the 'credits' around which the 'self' orbits. There are scars and traumas and impassible rings within this great tree of the mind, so Dr. Arm takes a less linear, more intuitive approach; leaping like a frog from lily pad to lily pad, occasionally going for a swim in some deep scar tissue to test the waters, Dr. Arm will have us humming everything we never thought and unearthing the delicate orchestrations upon which our very own identity rests. Let's have a look at his latest case study shall we? 

~side effects may include dizziness and the urge to disintegrate~

Here, Patrick steps out from behind the shadows of his many projects such as The New Pollution and Chinese Hackers to bring forth a record that speaks from the subconscious. American Ozymandias is a series of meditations on memory, melancholia, tranquility, and American society. The source material used on the album is a combination of old WWII era vinyl records retrieved from a dusty family basement. The sounds were created as Patrick "played" the turntable, speeding it up and slowing it down, using certain objects to disrupt playback, and using the tonearm to create odd noises. Current American society full of its materialism and politics can be likened to the setting of a certain famous poem, proclaiming its great might and power. Yet one day it may be the ruins that stretch far and away...

American Ozymandias Performed and Recorded by Patrick Jessop

Promo: American Ozymandias

Music for Sine Waves I [RGMS-002]

RGMS-002

Released October 23, 2020

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Musings: Staring into the color blue, one begins to see a barrage of shades infiltrate the once seemingly monotonous space. Listening to a rushing river, the echoing whitecaps begin to play tricks on the ear. Was that an airplane I heard? No, it was the river. Who is it that comes this way? Oh, it’s just the river.
The sine wave, a mathematical purity, the limitation of all limitations, a painted white canvas, in which we observe the brushstroke patterns more acutely than ever. or - an entirely white room, yet unlike the mono-brushed drywall, here there are four completely distinct microcosms within the realm of whiteness. We are standing on the blueprints, always slightly obscured by our feet, we are ourselves the veil to the composer’s process, but if we crane our heads towards the ceiling, there is the spirit supreme; the fumes of the paint rise and mingle in the air of our experience. we become intoxicated, no longer desiring any other color. this new world has swept us off our feet and we find ourselves at the behest of its stream. 

Music for Sine Waves I is a full-length album and compositional experiment in reduced orchestration in order to achieve an alternative appreciation for basic sonic relationships. It is music created by a human and executed by a computer. It is then experienced by humans. This process in particular has been done before. However, these three definitive steps are carefully considered for the undertaking of this project. 

Music for Sine Waves I Performed and Recorded by Timo Pehkonen

Promo: Music for Sine Waves I [RGMS-002]

Lecture on Nothing [RGMS-001]

RGMS-001

Released October 9, 2020

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Musings: One has the perpetual option of leaving or returning to Kansas. However many breaths taken between each decision, between each word uttered, Time, the nihilistic prince, reminds us that the continuum remains an open system whose center is nowhere, yet everywhere. Like the oak tree within the acorn that harbors its own acorns, an infinite involution deep within the dna of evolution. For that which is to become whole must first be reconciled with its opposite; therefore, not only stare into the void, but speak its name, for gestalt is the key to that evasive ephemerality we impend upon with such tenebrous kairosis. 

This speech was supposedly delivered by John Cage somewhere at some point in 1959 or so, although no recordings seem to exist. It is written not like that of a mere quotidian speech, but rather, like a piece of music. The deliberate spacing and repetition are intended to stir a musical reaction in the listener, and may be likened to a German Lied (song) turned on its head. Whereas in German Lieder a composer sets the work of poet to music to give it a wider range of expression, Cage ostensibly sets music to a speech (or poem) to mute the range of expression musically, and widen the range of literary expression without crossing fully over the realm of music.  Sean did not like any of the available recordings of this piece, and decided to do one himself. This being the first release for rgms serves to set the tone for releases to come, and Kansases to be passed through. 

For the transcript of the original speech see here: John Cage's Lecture on Nothing

Performed and Recorded by Sean Kiley

Mastered by Davis Connors

Composed by John Cage

Undercover Coroner [RGMS-000]

RGMS-000

original release date: March 2, 2019

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Long before 'The Great Highway Theft' (see: origins), a mysterious force re-awoke in a time when the gods had returned. In the wake of the rift between Apollo and Dionysus, a deep abyss began to form. Its depths travelled so far down they reached the levels of Tartarus. There, the million pieces of Kronos, Zeus had once cast down, had begun to reassemble themselves. With the abyss ever-widening, the slowing reforming Kronos was able to climb out of the nadir and into the realm of man. While he was still far too weak to challenge the gods for the throne, his subtle influence on the plane of manifestation began to take shape. Kronos, the king who had consumed all his children, he is Time, the world's coroner, could now sow discord in the realm of man. For if the abyss continued to plumb the depths of Tartarus so too could his loyal fallen Titans again rise up. In the shadows, on the horizon in the east at sundown, just out of sight in the corner of your eye, he lurks, undercover, anticipating a moment of weakness to strike. Bifurcation, polarization, nihilism, those thoughts which whisper and whimper through the night, these are the doldrums of Kronos, the coroner, poised to pronounce time of death.

Such a force began to more clearly rear its head in the time of brothers Bobby and Tony Goldberg. At the behest of Athena they conjured a weapon from the divine manuscripts bequeathed by her (see blueprints). Sown into the fabric of the vibrations from this record, a great spell cast upon the earth to combat the undercover coroner; only, yet, the gods do not know the mighty origins of this force, Kronos still steals unbeknownst. Such a spell as this could only do so much to cast down such an indomitable foe. And now, with the manuscript in the hands of rgms, the coroner may again roam unhindered. That is, unless - the rgms may perchance just stumble upon the mysteries imbued within the manuscripts, mysteries which hath the power to mend the Apollonian and Dionysian breach, and thus again seal the ancient gateway from Tartarus. 

Undercover Coroner Composed and Produced by Davis Connors and Sean Kiley

 Promo: Undercover Coroner

For insights on the complete methodology behind Undercover Coroner, see here