Rhodes to Cannabis Bliss
Steven Halpern’s internationally-acclaimed albums radiate relaxing, meditative and spiritually uplifting audible (and inaudible) frequencies that have touched the lives of millions worldwide. Halpern is a Grammy®-nominated recording artist, producer and author, he has pioneered the field of modern sound healing.
Since 1975, a new genre of music has evolved: sound healing music. Most users know that marijuana makes most any music sound better. What they don’t know is that this ancient aural artform can balance your brainwaves and biofield and tune your “human instrument” to higher levels of health and well-being… just by listening.
One of Halpern’s latest albums, CANNABIS DREAMS, provides instrumentals that were created to show the world that sound healing music can be positively enhanced by the cannabis experience. Many who have tried cannabis know of the revelatory sensations that music provides, but nobody has specifically focused on the connection between cannabis and sound healing using the Rhodes keyboard, in this way, before now.
Halpern has the unique credentials for accomplishing this exploration in a serious and professional way. Through his music, writings and media appearances, Steven launched a “Quiet Revolution” in modern instrumental music. He has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from numerous music, massage and spiritual organizations. Steven’s music has been heard around the world in leading healing and holistic health centers, addiction and recovery centers, VA hospitals, massage therapy offices, private homes, many popular healing spas and streaming playlists.
On all tracks of CANNABIS DREAMS, Halpern plays a Rhodes Mark 7 electric piano which can range from sounding like a piano to sounding more electronic. He is joined by some of his friends on various tracks, Kristin Hoffmann contributes some vocals; Paul McCandless on Bass Clarinet and Michael Manring on Zon® Fretless Bass play on one track; Rasheed Richard Horowitz on Prophet-5 synth is heard on another track; and Fabien Maman plays on the Monochorde. Fabien Maman is a musician, composer, acupuncturist, author, researcher, healer, teacher, “bioenergetician” and martial artist. As a musician/composer, he performed his original compositions in the great concert halls of the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Tokyo Opera, the Paris Olympia and the Berlin Philharmonic.
The medium is wordless but the message is clear, delivered using the Rhodes’ electronic sound, which extends the reverie adventure. Floating is possible in dreams, and the realization of inner discovery provides the tools for solving almost any problems. The pace of this music is stately, the tempo is calming. Pleasure and joy are part of the cannabis experience for most people, with electronic sound this sensation is extended.
The key is to make knowledgeable choices. When it comes to relaxation, healing and higher consciousness, not all music is created equal! Most classical and popular music are based on compositional templates that create additional stress without our realizing it, with rhythms that make your heart beat too fast to relax.
This album calls you to experience a fuller understanding of the relationship between cannabis and well-being, but does not require that you actually indulge in the partaking of the substance of cannabis, which is not currently legal in many places. These instrumentals were created to show the world that sound healing music can be positively enhanced by the cannabis experience. Anyone who has tried cannabis knows of the revelatory sensations that music provides, but nobody has specifically focused on the connection between cannabis and sound healing using the Rhodes keyboard, in this way, before now.
The album opens with Halpern’s mystical electronic keyboard and the vocals of Kristin Hoffmann, soaring and illuminating the path ahead, “Cannabis Dreams Part 2” (5:23). The beach is the perfect place for letting your thoughts ascend to new places, and “Cannabis Dreams Mirayo Part 1” (5:05) changes the soundscape, but the flow and inspirational sensation sustains. Mirayo is the brand name of a line of cannabis strains being marketed in California by Carlos Santana. According to the Mirayo by Santana website, Mirayo (“my ray,” or “my lightning”, in Spanish) “is all about inviting human beings to invest emotionally in their own lives by accepting the light inside their hearts.” Santana continues, “In Autlan, Mexico and later in Tijuana, my mother would make salves of cannabis to relieve various pains and symptoms. Maybe that’s why I think of cannabis as a medicine more than a drug. Drugs are made in a lab. Medicine is made by a beam of sunlight into plants. For me, cannabis is a blessing worth sharing. Mirayo is my salute and invitation to celebrate your invaluable, essential divine light.” In sharing “Cannabis Dreams Mirayo’’ (parts 1 and 2), evidently Steven Halpern believes so, too.
Continuing high above the clouds, the vocals of Kristin Hoffmann are graced by the Rhodes, “Cannabis Dreams part 3” (5:07); on the beach, “Cannabis Dreams Mirayo part 2” (5:06) allows your mind to wander in beauty, to privately wonder, and to let go of your hidden tension. Simply breathe and release your thoughts to discover your infinite internal peace. Paul McCandless on bass clarinet and Michael Manring on Zon® fretless electric bass join Steven on “OG Sonic Chronic” (7:24), a meditation on cosmic awareness and discovery, respecting the inner voices and flowing like a dream into new undersea caverns with mysterious glowing vistas.
The rise of craft cannabis growers has brought about new standards in quality, experimentation, research, and diversification of strains among private-sector producers. Cannabis aficionados recognize three distinct types — Sativa, Indica and Hybrids — based on such factors as morphology, native range, aroma, and subjective psychoactive characteristics. “Plant Medicine” (5:24) provides a heart-felt instrumental electronic soundtrack for your ameliorative journeys. The oldest written Western record (c. 440 BCE) of cannabis usage is the Greek historian Herodotus’s reference to the central Eurasian Scythians taking cannabis steam baths.
Electronic music can blend the technical with the universal. The sound is not naturally produced but electronically, and it does not usually resemble the traditional instruments found historically in concert halls or performance parlours, but it does provide the wonderful ingredient for feeding our imagination. What is this ingredient? This question can allow us to discover deeper and deeper mysteries. The answer is probably quite simple, but the act of wonder opens new doors that should never be stopped with one simple resolution. “Joint Venture” (5:00) is a duet, Steven is joined by Rasheed Richard Horowitz on Prophet-5 synth.
The medium is wordless but the message is clear, delivered using the Rhodes electronic sound, “Cannabis Dreams (part 4)” (5:27) extends the heavenly adventure. Floating is possible in dreams, and the realization of inner discovery provides the tools for solving almost any problem. The pace of this music is stately, the tempo is calming. Pleasure and joy are part of the cannabis experience for most people, with electronic sound this sensation is extended. “Cannabliss” (5:00) sustains the breakthrough into amazing delight, unfolding through imaginary landscapes of your own internal realms.
Maui Wowie, also known as Maui Waui, is a sativa dominant strain from the Hawaiian Islands. The buds are covered by wonderful crystals which make it look quite tempting and provide a hint of pine along with citrus and lavender. “Maui Wowie Dreams” (12:58) is also quite effective against stress, chronic pain and depression. The musical sound comes in the form of timeless enhanced solo piano reveries.
The names given by the botanical cultivators of the cannabis plants are colorful, provocative and sometimes playfully naughty. Thunderfuck, also known as Alaskan Thunderfuck, Matanuska Thunderfuck, Matanuska Tundra, or ATF, is a well-known sativa dominant strain originally from the Matanuska Valley region of Alaska. The top reported flavors are a strong chemical flavor with hints of lemon and pine. The closing adventure, “Matanuska Thunderf_ck” (16:45) is presented in the form of an extended solo piano exploration, celebrating and pondering the reverberations and sustained tonalities of the Rhodes keyboard.
The story of the name of the track goes something like this: While traveling, and in an unexpected Greyhound bus station, Halpern came upon a friend from college, who told him “I’m an anthropologist now. I’ve been studying with shamanic healers in Alaska. This is some of their ceremonial smoke. They call it Matanuska Thunderf*ck,” and he hands Halpern a joint. From that came this amazing track which speaks for itself, the sound is probably the strongest Auditory Contact High (ADH) ever recorded.
The word “marijuana” refers to parts of or products from the plants Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica that contain substantial amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC is the substance that’s primarily responsible for the effects of marijuana on a person’s mental state. Cannabis plants produce a unique family of terpeno-phenolic compounds called cannabinoids, some of which produce the “high” which may be experienced from consuming marijuana.
For over 5000 years, cultures throughout the world have revered the healing properties of cannabis. Traditional Chinese Medicine recognized the Cannabis plant and the (c. 3rd century BCE) Erya dictionary defined xi 枲 “male Cannabis” and fu 莩 (or ju 苴) “female Cannabis.”
The ancient Greek writer and traveler Herodotus (ca 400 BC) reported that hemp grows in Scythia, which once included the lands Northeast of Europe and around the Northern coast of the Black Sea. He had a cannabis experience there. His hosts would take some of this hemp-seed, which grows in flower form at the top of the female plants, and, creeping under the felt coverings, throw this substance upon the red-hot stones, giving out a vapor as no Grecian vapor-bath could ever exceed, and delighted, all would shout for joy.
Before being initiated into a Ministry of Sound Healing, Halpern was a jazz/rock trumpet player, who also played guitar and bass in R&B and acid-rock bands. Halpern was introduced to marijuana in college in 1966 by musicians and poets, who honored its ability to heighten creativity and deepen meditation. His life changed dramatically during a deep meditation in a sacred redwood grove, when he heard, on the inner planes, a new kind of healing music.
Throughout his solo recording career in the sacred space of the studio, he noticed that different strains would affect the music he composed. He began an informal DIY research to find specific strains that allowed him into “the zone” in which he would “hear music in my inner ear.” Steven began composing and recording this new music, trading his trumpet and guitar for the soothing tones of the Fender Rhodes electric piano. Challenged by Dr. Stanley Krippner to prove the healing powers of the music, Steven conducted landmark brainwave and biofield biofeedback research, which indeed confirmed its almost universal effectiveness.
During landmark biofeedback studies beginning in 1973, researchers documented that my original music evoked the “relaxation response” and balanced both hemispheres of the brain much more effectively than most other music. These findings complemented Dr. Herbert Benson’s Harvard studies that proved the profound mind/body benefits of reducing stress and deep relaxation.
Like the growing database of medical marijuana research, sound healing researchers document its potential for stress relief, PTSD, sleep problems and many other conditions. Some evidence suggests modest benefits of cannabis or cannabinoids for chronic pain and multiple sclerosis symptoms. Research Funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) are investigating the potential pain-relieving properties and mechanisms of action of substances in cannabis, including minor cannabinoids, some of which do not contain the mind-altering substance THC, and terpenes, which are substances in cannabis that give the plant its strain-specific properties such as aroma and taste. The goal of these studies is to strengthen the evidence regarding cannabis components and whether they have potential roles in pain management. There is ample anecdotal evidence that there are many healing properties associated with cannabinoids and terpenes to suggest that further research may be valuable.
This album, CANNABIS DREAMS, calls you to experience a fuller understanding of the relationship between cannabis and well-being, but does not require that you actually indulge in partaking in the substance of cannabis, which is not currently legal in many places. These instrumentals were created to show the world that sound healing music can be positively enhanced by the cannabis experience.
CANNABIS DREAMS TRACKS
1 Cannabis Dreams (part 2)
2 Cannabis Dreams (Mirayo) part 1
3 Cannabis Dreams (part 3)
4 Cannabis Dreams (Mirayo) part 2
5 OG Sonic Chronic
6 Plant Medicine
7 Joint venture
8 Cannabis Dreams (part 4)
9 Cannabliss
10 Maui Wowie Dreams
11 Matanuska Thunderf_ck
Where to score:
https://www.stevenhalpernmusic.com/product/cannabisdreams/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WP8CCFC/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_WS3FHWDBCD68MFAZ8MZ0
MORE LINKS
Steven Halpern
https://www.stevenhalpernmusic.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/StevenHalpernMusic
https://www.instagram.com/lpernsteven66be/
https://twitter.com/stevenhalpern?lang=en
https://www.facebook.com/stevenhalpernfanpage/
Michael Manring
https://manthing.com/
Originally published at https://ello.co.
