The Tranquility Studies series is an attempt to summarize and present my current explorations in medicinal music. I first became interested in healing music through early experiments in algorithmic (or automatically generated) music. I would listen to these pretty, repetitive, shimmering textures for hours at a time making slight tweaks, always feeling calm and blissed at the end of my sessions. These early ideas incorporated Just-Intonation (or whole number ratios between notes) and binaural beating between the ears. The idea being that when sound is passed between the ears at a certain speed (or frequency), it is possible to entrain the listener’s brainwaves to that frequency; in the case of my music I tend to shoot for “low-alpha” or “high-theta” (around 7-10 hZ), which is a very calming and focused brain-state. The constant variation and reinforcement of these healing frequencies creates a soothing, entrancing effect in the listener that I soon became hooked on. It wasn’t long before I took my explorations outside of the computer and began to incorporate my instrumental playing. I found that through playing a necessarily human, almost narrative component, could be added to the music that would act as a further anchor to the listener, grounding them in the sonic present while allowing for ever deeper immersion.
This synthesis of the instrumental with the electronic led me to launch the Soundbath series in June of 2021 at Jade Bar in Brooklyn. Tranquility Studies Vol. 2 is the collection of Soundbath music I composed over the course of that summer and refined over the following year. I have since performed these pieces in Churches, Bathhouses, Yoga Retreats, Corporate Retreats, and a variety of wellness spaces and bars. I hope that they may bring you peace and healing in listening to them as they have given me peace and healing in creating them.
-Jacob
credits
released May 20, 2022
All tracks composed, performed, produced, mixed and mastered by NTHNL
This Bandcamp exclusive comes complete with a head-spinning background story (check the album notes) and eerie electronics. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 29, 2023