Steven Halpern's "Cannabis Dreams"

Steven Halpern, the Grammy nominated founder of the sound healing movement, released a new album, Cannabis Dreams. Cannabis Dreams is the latest of Halpern's 100-plus music albums that for over 45 years have helped his listeners manage stress, reduce pain and facilitate sleep. I still enjoy listening to his 2001 CD release, Chakra Suite: Music for Meditation, Healing and Inner Peace. Cannabis Dreams is among the first to link healing music and healing cannabis, whose ancient roots trace back more than 5,000 years. The 11-track album features Halpern's signature sound, an electric piano combined with hypnotic brainwave entrainment technology. The music supports relaxation, healing, meditation and spiritual well-being.
 

The seed concept for this album was planted in 1982 when an anthropologist handed Halpern an extraordinary cannabis strain used by an indigenous Alaskan shamanic healer. "One toke, and I heard music in a very different way," says Halpern. "It inspired an improvised grand piano jam that was different from anything I had recorded previously. I wondered if certain other strains might inspire a new composition if used exclusively. The answer turned out to be Yes."
 

In 2015, Halpern was invited to be a Celebrity Brand Ambassador for a leading Cannabis dispensary. Although the collaboration was short-lived, their top shelf strain, called Mystic Haze, evoked a meditative, healing and spiritual high, and inspired the several variations of the title track on Cannabis Dreams.
 

The album was completed when Halpern read about the new spiritually-uplifting strain released by entrepreneurial musician Carlos Santana and Left Coast Ventures. "After hearing music in meditation after sampling this strain, it was obvious I needed to include a new track inspired by Mirayo by Santana," he said. "I was able to book time in a recording studio on 11/11/20, and two extraordinary compositions now complete the album."
 

The spirit of each strain speaks through the music. Deep alpha brainwave entrainment tones are subtly mixed into the music, which entrain your brain to higher coherence to further support your immune system functioning. The artist suggests that one "grabs a set of headphones for the full psycho-acoustic effect." Cannabis Dreams is Halpern's heartfelt "thank you" to the master growers who keep improving on the spiritually uplifting and creativity-enhancing strains.

The Modern Shamanic Sound of Namgar

"Nayan Navaa" is the superb new album from Namgar, a band that plays modern sounds rooted in traditional music from the Republic of Buryatia in southern Siberia. The Moscow-based band led by renowned female Buryatia vocalist Namgar Lhasaranova features Buryat, Russian, Tuvan and Norwegian musicians. Together, the band presents a unique multi-ethnic musical mix that includes shamanic vocals, throat singing, galloping rhythms, rock, jazz, and mesmerizing soundscapes.
 

The melodic music Namgar creates was passed down to Lhasaranova from her grandparents and father, who sang to her as a child. The inventive arrangements are new, but the stories told in the songs are as old as the indigenous Buryats themselves, with tales and myths of ancient Mongol fighters, champions, horses and famous battles. The lyrics are based on traditional Buryat and Mongolian songs, reflecting Buryat nomadic culture. Topics include hunter, wedding, family, and yokhor round dance songs, as well as songs about horses, ancestors and shamanic rituals.
 

The group uses various traditional instruments from Buryatia and nearby regions such as the yataga (a 13-stringed zither), the chanza (a three-stringed lute), the khomus (jaw harp) and the morin khuur (a two-stringed bowed instrument), along with modern instruments like electric bass and drums to craft its unique sound. Lhasaranova has a beautiful, impressive voice. Her power, energy and amazing vocal range go beyond words and language, taking her listener on a journey to Siberia and the world of the Buryats, people whose roots reach back to Ghengis Khan and the Mongolian Empire.

"The Shamanic Drum" eBook Sale

Mark your calendar! I am taking part in the 13th annual Smashwords July Summer/Winter Sale, taking place Thursday, July 1 through Saturday, July 31, 2021. For the entire month of July, all of my ebooks are 50% off list price: The Shamanic Drum: A Guide to Sacred Drumming, I Ching: The Tao of Drumming, Shamanic Drumming: Calling the Spirits, Shamanic Drumming Circles Guide, and The Great Shift: And How To Navigate It. Choose from multiple file formats including .epub, .mobi for Kindles, and PDF. Click on the following link to my Smashwords author page and you will receive the 50% discount automatically by adding my books to your cart: Smashwords July Summer/Winter Sale.
 

Why does Smashwords call it "Summer/Winter"? Here in the Northern hemisphere, it's mid-summer. Readers are loading their e-reading devices for summer beach reading and long-awaited vacations. South of the equator, readers are now in the middle of winter. They're ready to curl up in front of the fireplace and enjoy a great read too! Smashwords is the world's largest distributor of indie ebooks. They make it fast, free and easy for any author or publisher, anywhere in the world, to publish and distribute ebooks to the major retailers and thousands of libraries. The Smashwords Store provides an opportunity to discover new voices in all categories and genres of the written word.