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Natural Land Review
   
Listening to music is often one's
way of detaching from the stress and aggravation that is part and parcel
of living in these pre-millenial days.
Composer Charles Sorgie,
a certified Bikram Yoga College of India instructor, has put together “odysseys
into alpha,” a four volume set of CDs that are tailor-made for said detachment,
and that can be used for plain old relaxing or for use by professional
yoga and Tai Chi teachers, massage therapists, hypnotherapy, modern dance,
and other bodywork protocols.
Sorgie’s music induces
an alpha state in the listener, a relaxed but very aware brain state. He
composed and performed all the music in the alpha state, which has an immediate
effect on the listener.
This approach to composing
lends a distinctly compelling quality to the sounds he creates that are
a breed apart from the usual New Age music that is often monochromatic
flutes playing boring scales. Sorgie's style is more like sonic acupuncture
that relies on synthesizer-based tones augmented by organic samples of
gongs, oboes, sitars, french horns, and guitars.
Each of the CDs have
a central tonal theme which, over the course of the 45-minute duration,
takes the listener on an introspective journey that changes each time one
listens.
Tranquility is the
most unobtrusive of the four, probably best used for massage sessions and
yoga / Tai Chi workouts. Namasté is the brightest of the lot, best
heard in the morning for inspiration and purpose of thought. I of the Storm
could be considered “ambient” in its weightless dissertation of deep space
textures. Prana is also unobtrusive in its circular droning waveforms which
simultaneously center one's thoughts whilst describing a universe without
boundaries. This one is the least rhythmic and best used for Tai Chi sessions
and intimacy.
Overall, Sorgie has
created a unified aural theory in Odysseys Into Alpha which actually do
produce profound changes in one's attitudes and outlook. Upon repeated
listenings, new subtleties and nuances are discerned in the layers of sounds
and tones which make each listening a new experience. Highly recommended
for anyone looking to charge up their neurons for what is most surely going
to be an interesting millenium. -- Sonic Seasonings, Andrew J. Ligon
III, Online Group Editor |
