Ambient Vibrations
Experimental Ambient Music
Ambient music usually doesn't adhere to a specific musical key, therefore it doesn't suggest a particular mood. By incorporating natural sounds, human voices, and other ambient elements, this type of music profoundly influences brain waves. It helps shift from the intense Beta brain waves to the more balanced and relaxed Alpha and Delta brain waves. This transition significantly aids in calming the mind and body, bringing them to a slower, more relaxed state. This makes ambient music a powerful tool for relaxation and mental well-being.
The 'Thunderstorm' study
Participate in the study by listening to the track whilst following the instructions:
1. Find a quiet place
2. Dim or switch off the light
3. Listen in headphones with eyes closed
4. As you listen, pay attention to any visuals that appear in your mind and emotions that you feel
5. After the piece is over, write down what you "saw" and felt and send it to us by using the contact form.
About the Piece:
"Thunderstorm" is an experimental music collaboration between Anna Starushkevych and James Dawson. During the pandemic in 2020, James captured the raw sounds of a powerful thunderstorm in Cambridge, UK. Inspired by the formidable force of nature, Anna Starushkevych then improvised her vocals directly over these recordings, blending her voice with the natural elements of the storm.
Existing study results/feedback
*** ...vocals are great: first I felt like I was on the top of a mountain inside a small church, a dark church. It was raining outside, and it feels like the singing is coming out of the altar and is bringing positive energy. But then it becomes darker and darker and it feels like it is a prophecy of some grief or a tragedy. At the end you realise that it is grief, indeed, which is a constant companion of humanity.
H.K.
***I was in a huge cave carved into a rock overlooking a vast plain, there were dozens, maybe hundreds of people there. We were waiting for something, I am not sure what. Maybe for the weather to change. Maybe for an invading army. It was awful quiet. All the animals had stopped singing. It was like ten thousand years ago.
M. S.
***...mountains in Galizien, hilly landscape, which are amplified by the echo. At sea, a sailor’s song came to my mind and I thought I heard the wind. Inhaling and exhaling with the waves I could taste the salinity of the air...
I was bedded in ochre light and the thoughts were to break out of the cycle of making money or
trading. Fo me, the thunderstorm had something like this constant rumbling of the world around me.
The thunderstorm gave me among other things the association of ‘money makes the world go round’ and how I am trapped in this hustle and bustle...the soothing rain and the singing reminiscent of flute tones, cello, with short excursion into the opera aria. Please excuse me for writing so much now, but I am deeply aware of my being a trader and I wonder about the interrelation of conscious and unconscious.
W.P.
*** The power of God: hope and despair, giving and taking, all is temporary and ever changing. The feeling of "I am saved, but I have to continue fighting to keep surviving. It was like I am listening to a siren singing". There was so much more than a thunderstorm and vocals, it felt full of energy and life.
Y.N.
***It is an exquisite and disturbing piece of work.
It felt close to a religious experience.
Just as being close to the power of nature is.
And as with a thunderstorm, it was a relief to sense it’s passing.
(H. A-W.)
*** “An Experiment”
He turned up the fire and started to make tea. There is a special guest coming today. He brought out the biscuit, lay the table and the tea sets. It was pouring outside and he was waiting. Then boy entered the house, his collar was damp, but rest of his clothes were well protected from the rain. He carefully pulled out something underneath his jacket. “Did you have it?” The man asked.
“Yes, I re-analyzed the data”.
“I did spectrum analysis and nothing special in the Fourier space. Except, at one point, if you do a Laplacian transform, there is a small peak you can funnel out”.
“That’s it?” The man asked.
“Yes, it was quite randomly distributed, no solution to the enchantment.”
“Have a cup of tea then.”
The boy took a sip and took a bite of the biscuit. The sharp taste of the ginger made him frown, while the man was carefully examining the data.
“Also I talked to her”.
“You did what?”
“It’s more of a singing rather than a talk. As you said, always use original and creative approach to science.”
The men shivered a bit but made no comments.
“What did you learn?”
“She told me she was sitting near the shore, singing to the sailors about the Ancient Greece. The vicissitude of Athens and the prophecy of the gold Apple. The heartbroken arrows of Artemis.” “Basically the Odyssey”
“Nothing else?”
“And one thing, don’t fall for the enchanted voice, it is what’s underneath matters.”
“You shouldn’t have done that. That was a huge mistake”.
“The heart wants what a heart wants”.
The man turned around, put the data analysis with on top of a file with a Red stamp on it “Rejected Thesis”. Titled “The genuine approach to a siren’s singing: the non-existence of enchantment”. 1952.
“Rejection reason: The student should focus fully on the scientific merit rather than non-supportive personal bias and by listening to her is a clear sign of enchantment, which makes any of the following statements invalid and unreliable”. XXX University.
Y.G.