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Music for the Next Phase of Evolution


Oystein Sevag: Space for a Crowded World (2012)

Cover art for Oystein Sevag's 2012 album, "Space for a Crowded World."

Cover art for Oystein Sevag’s 2012 album, “Space for a Crowded World.”

My favorite album in quite a few years. Sevag is not only a technically-masterful keyboard player and synthesist, he is also a tremendously sensitive musician who leads first with his heart, then by his ear, and only finally by his brain.

I am a big fan of “Close Your Eyes and See,” Sevag’s ground-breaking 1989 album, but while his subsequent albums from the 90s and 2000s have been sensitive and progressive flavors of new age/world fusion, I have found them to be rather uninteresting. Try as I may, I have just not been able to connect with them.

So I have been thrilled to have been listening to “Space for a Crowded World” for a couple months now. It has been in heavy rotation like no album since I made the concerted, willful effort to engage with U2′s “No Line on the Horizon” back in 2009 (not that that concerted effort was difficult or anything– I *love* NLOTH!). The difference between the two albums is that, while I knew that NLOTH was coming well before it was released, SFACW came out of nowhere, and has blasted through various psycho/emotional barriers I have built around myself, and through my heart and soul in a totally unexpected way. I mean, I *knew* that Sevag had it in him– CYEAS is one of my favorite albums of all time and I still listen to it regularly (its opener, “Horizon,” blows me away every time)– it’s more like Sevag knew what *I* needed in my life, *right now*; like an old friend has moved into my town after decades living across the country, and we’re now connecting more than ever.

So, what do I actually *like* about the music on this album? Well, it is beautiful, as we all expect from Sevag, but it’s not *only* beautiful. It is also sophisticated and technical. As I mentioned before, Oystein Sevag leads with his heart, then ear, then only finally by his brain. The difference between this album and everything since CYEAS is that this one has more *brain* in it. The cover art illustrates the feeling of the album perfectly. It’s like Sevag has been to the International Space Station and has experienced the “Overview Effect,” in which space-goers undergo a transformed perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it, or of course more likely, he has been closely following and has been deeply influenced by all the amazing photographs and information flooding our modern media by the various space probes, telescopes, satellites, and planetary missions that are currently out there extending our eyes, ears, and brains.

I know that *I* have been deeply moved by all the space imagery and mind-blowing data that NASA, the ESA, and other space ventures have been generating in the past 10-15 years. And it seems like Oystein Sevag has been, too. And therein lies, I think, the deep connection between SFACW and where I am in my life right now. I am currently undergoing divorce after 15 years, with the major changes that entails. And likewise, Sevag seems to be guiding our hearts out of the nest, so to speak, lifting our eyes to the skies, preparing our souls to take the next logical evolutionary step outward, off of our home planet, into the great void beyond the warm confines of our sweet Earth. But, while I do consider this to be “space music,” it is not *deep-space* music– rather, it is “low-earth-orbit” music. It is an introduction to space music, which takes a first few baby steps off-planet, while also maintaining an intimate heart-connection with its mother Earth. This album makes me feel adventurous and insightful, as I am seeing my home and my life from a new, broader perspective, yet maintains a comfortable, familiar relationship with what I already know.

And that points to another connection I have with this album: I am a teacher, and as a teacher, I know that humans learn by cognitively connecting new knowledge with current knowledge. To me, it seems like Sevag has experienced a major life-change of his own– one in which he is now supremely comfortable utilizing his amazing technical talent to express his expanding heart. The opening three tracks of SFACW (“Landing,” “Urban Nocturne,” and “Gentle”) convey a feeling of both a zen-like peace and centered self-assuredness, combined with an intelligent anticipation and heartfelt longing to reach out and connect with all the beauty and magic he knows is out there in the Universe beyond.

So, I think what makes this album so perfect for me right now is that it is harmonizing with my current vibration: I am feeling fragile and sensitive and in need of comfort and heart-connection, while at the same time I know that major change is also occurring and that I will soon outgrow my current confines and step forward into a new life. I am feeling “crowded” by my past and any expectations I may have of myself, and “Space for a Crowded World” is my spiritual guide for the next phase of my journey, helping me connect the best of my past, of who I *was*, with the best that I *shall be.*

Thank you, Oystein Sevag, for the blessed gift. Namasté.

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Tamara Cortez’ Flow Notes: Gifts of a Truly Compassionate & Loving Healer


Cover art for Tamara Cortez' Flow Notes.

Cover art for Tamara Cortez’ Flow Notes.

Tamara Jo Cortez’ new book, Flow Notes (E-book version reviewed, available at Balboa Press or Amazon) may at first glance seem a sweet, simple collection of positive affirmations. However, while her notes do positively affirm my oft-disturbed spirit and give rise to smiles in the same way as do sweet and simple post-it notes on my steamy, post-shower bathroom mirror, Tamara’s little insights reach deep into my soul with a perfectly deft, balanced touch of gentle, delicate honesty and unfettered, powerful insight.

Tamara is a healer in an age when this whole planet is in the throes of massive change, an evolution of which she is keenly aware. And thus, with the sensitivity of a true empath, she utters just the right words at just the right time to just the right audience. I have been reading Flow Notes for about a week now, and each time I have picked it up, it has spoken to me. To me. And not just “little” me, but “BIG” Me– the Divine Keith, the Universalis creatorem-cum-Keith. It is precisely when I have been feeling least powerful, and least divine, that Flow Notes has brought me back into the fold, back into the flow of the current moment, which is, after all, the only moment in which we can feel– and therefore, the only moment in which we can feel ourselves AS Divine, AS Connected-to-Universal-Source, as a natural expression of the Universe-in-the-process-of eternal-becoming.

Flow Notes is littered with such reminders of our divinity, straight love-arrows aimed squarely at the delicate human inhabitants of today’s crazy world. We don’t encounter healers of Tamara’s caliber every day. But with Flow Notes, she blesses all of us with her gifts of true compassion and pure love.
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Off the Farm 2012: Once Again, Old is New, and New, Old.


Cover art for Off the Farm 2012

Cover art for Off the Farm 2012

Off the Farm 2012 is the latest incarnation of Dell Little’s annual mixtape-nee-CD-nee-mp3 collection, which continues with the series’ down-home, upbeat groove. I love this year’s cover: a conductor of what seems to be a radio orchestra, of course from the 30s or 40s or 50s. There’s a funny kind of irony to Dell’s choice of such old-tymie, small-town imagery mixed with his often-electro-techno, progressive-pop choice of usually-bleeding edge current/new musical artists. I love that irony: it adds to the earnest, heartfelt feeling of all his Off the Farm mixtapes, and makes me appreciate even the songs that I may not otherwise even give a glancing moment of attention. Good stuff.