It’s been 18 years since I left Sydney to live on a mountain, set up a studio with my partner and raise a baby girl. We had no idea how we were going to make it all financially work-out, splitting away from the city to a rural area with low employment but somehow everything always just fell into place. At the time some of our friends said don’t sell your house and leave Sydney , you will never be able to get back into the market ! Of course on the inside Celeste and I said Yay ! Who’d ever want to return ? For us it was a no-brainer. Trade-in a small old semi-house for a mountain top vista ? About half of my place is covered with original rain forest. Its rare and untouched. Normally one associates rain forest with hot climates but this is cool and temperate, full of tree ferns and lichen and chocolate coloured wallabies and wombats. Wisely this rainforest, to protect itself, creates boundaries of harsh prickly plants and stinging nettles to stop intruders. We have also ensured with a lot of fencing that cows and other heavy hooves cant get in – encouragingForest Walk – by Stephen Fearnley
Spring and the Musical Body – by Stephen Fearnley
In Christian Schubart’s “Ideas for an Aesthetics of Tonkunst” ( Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst -1806) he lists all the musical keys and tells of its virtues and emotional values. But what on earth is tonkunst? An old German word mainly out of use meaning the art of tone. I have no idea how this method or art was developed. Maybe it a was synesthetic thing, maybe it came handed down from one musical teacher to another. But it is in keeping with today’s scientific investigations into how music and keys effect us. This Scientific America article explores yet another interesting take on how music evolved and why it moves us: “ …new research by Logeswaran and Bhattacharya adds yet more fuel to the expectation that music has been culturally selected to sound like an emotionally expressive human. While it is not easy for us to see the human ingredients in the modulations of pitch, intensity, tempo and rhythm that make music, perhaps it is obvious to our auditory homunculus.” (Mark Changizi on September 15, 2009) Music is a hologram of the human body…made by humans. It’s an invisible vibrational space we create around us and into us viaSpring and the Musical Body – by Stephen Fearnley
Evening Prayer – O Gladsome Light! – by Stephen Fearnley
I quite often bump into a paradox when making sacred music for OML : Im very conscientious of composing music that feels like a journey or perhaps a landscape or a space that can embrace a very singular intention- such as love or peace or wellbeing or even a specific chakra or even a colour . At the same time – and heres the paradox – this soundscape has to be pared down in detail so that it doesn’t get in the way of your own experience. More like a sandy path that provides a direction – to stop you wandering just enough to keep you in a place that is intrinsically aimed at deep thought- so you can reach alpha brainwave states without trying. This month’s composer’s choice is called Evening Prayer – a universal practise that is found in all religious and sacred rituals. You will notice this universality in the instruments I’ve chosen, even including some slightly detuned Indonesian bells primarily to keep your mind present so you don’t drift off too soon… Ive even referenced ( not sampled) a rhythmic sequence from a song called “ Teardrop” by Massive Attack (1998). I found the lyrics goingEvening Prayer – O Gladsome Light! – by Stephen Fearnley
The Secret To Attractiveness – Pre-Session
This episode was originally broadcast Jun 17, 2016 We cover so much territory in this Pre-session, from Krishna to Tony Robbins. Listen along as we track the core essence of LOA (the Law of Attraction) as it pertains not only to attracting those we need into our lives but also in the way it makes those we need in our lives appear more attractive to us! During this chat Naomi C got “that scholar look” on her face and reflected on a new friendship, Stephen brought up the subject of how LOA played an important part in the creation of One Mind Live (juicy backstory!), and Naomi J highlighted the difference between the attracting power of thinking about what you want and feeling the joy of already having (and shared a cool trick for how to do this… About our Pre-Sessions: Every week, for 15 minutes or so before we began our group meditation broadcast, we opened the mics so that our members tuning in for the session could listen in while we talked about what was going on for us personally and spiritually, and what trends we were noticing. It was a fun way to get everyone settled andThe Secret To Attractiveness – Pre-Session