"You can kill people with sound. And if you can kill, maybe there is something opposite of killing."
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Recorded live at AURA Music & Arts Festival at the Tribal Council dome as live musical accompaniment for a yoga class (tracks 1 - 5) and a guided meditation (tracks 6 - 9) on February 16 - 17, 2013.
This 33 minutes of music is my latest gift to you, a musical trace fossil chronicling one of the most buoyant, sunny, optimistic sets I have ever played. In other words, perfect music for your summer soundtrack. Download it for free here. My first review:
"You've got soul my friend; very nice work...you can really feel into the music and spaces as you create. It is beautiful. Some of your final tracks awaken my kundalini without me even sitting for meditation. I had you playing in the background as I was doing work on my computer, and I suddenly noticed your instrumental energizing something deep within, coaxing an unwinding and rising of my kundalini energy. Amazing!"
– Ashley Ray, Crisis Intervention Specialist
Juicy! If you've had an interesting experience listening to my music, feel free to leave your own impressions here. About the album:
Michael Garfield defies expectations, remixing the familiar conventions of acoustic music with a fifty-pound pedalboard of beat slicers, filters, delays, and multi-channel loopers, welding fingerstyle technique into a cybernetic bed of live hardware production.
Picking (or often bowing, with an electromagnet) while twisting knobs and DJ'ing live samples with his toes, Michael's performances embody his other life as an evolutionary theorist and futurist – liberating the organic into the digital, and the idioms of Americana into a new species of transcendental trance.
MG on the Psychedelic Salon Podcast!
From host Lorenzo Hagerty's program notes:
Today we only go back in time a short way, back to December 12, 2012 when Matt Pallmary and Michael Garfield took a break during their work on the stage production of Matt's novel, “Land Without Evil”, in Austin, Texas. In this wide ranging discussion between salon favorite, Matt Pallamary, and long time saloner, burner, artist, and musician, Michael Garfield, one of my favorite topics was Michael's very positive take on the long-term impact of the work of Terence McKenna, regardless of the fact that the Timewave theory had obviously been disproven. Michael is also a regular performer on the festival circuit, and his schedule may be found online at michaelgarfield.net.
Meme of the Week
My homie Jonathan Zap, dream interpreter and fierce critic of the Singularity, will be one of several amazing speakers on this year's all-star Sonic Bloom panel discussion – along with Mark Heley, Jordan Pearce, Jamie Janover, Alaya Love, Lux Moderna, VerDarLuz, & ReSUNator. Word on the street is that it might be recorded by The Bloom Series, which would be awesome! I hope to share what I know will be an inspiring and invigorating conversation between a real bouquet of perspectives...
Fan-Made Custom Homage Electric Guitar
Badass! Michael Aronson's wife Jane reproduced my painting, "This Was All Ocean, Once" on his hand-built electric guitar. I can only imagine it'll affect his playing...maybe even the tone. ;)
This is the first time that anyone has copied one of my paintings and if that weren't a great enough honor, it is also definitely on a guitar this man built with his own hands. I mean, damn...look at that!
Exclusive Interview w/ Incision Magazine
Incision News just interviewed me in depth about music, magic, and my five-year participation in Colorado's Sonic Bloom Festival. Read the whole interview here.
Q: What makes SONIC BLOOM unique to you?
A: Sonic Bloom is the first festival that gave me any responsibility as an organizer, and I’m deeply grateful to festival director Jamie Janoverfor giving me an occasion to which I could rise. Funny story, back in 2006 I actually emailed every single one of his 900-plus Myspace friends and introduced myself as someone who wanted to apprentice under him, because here I saw a guy who was successfully bridging the worlds of acoustic and electronic music, facilitating a community of visionary artists and musicians, and generally just rocking out in all kinds of cool collaborations worldwide.
That apprenticeship never formally happened and like everyone I’ve had to follow my own star, but I still look up to Jamie (in a more mature, grounded, realistic, human way), and after my four-year stint living in Boulder, Colorado, I have a lot of powerful heart connections to the people and the land of Colorado’s Front Range. So in many ways this festival is a homecoming for me every year, and it’s a delight to see it grow and change, and to grow and change along with it.
New Festival Announcements
After I let go of trying to plan everything in advance, this summer started to overflow with beautiful gigs at smaller festivals and healing arts convergences. You may not have heard of these events – check them out – there are amazing things happening!
If you want to help me in my tireless mission to inspire people and spread the excitement about great stuff like this, you can join my more enterprising friends at the Michael Garfield Street Team FB Page they made. I'm not responsible for it, but I am honored.
Thank you for reading. May this work nourish your soul and benefit all beings!
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