The first Basking in Gravity session outside of Indiana since our pre-pandemic visits to Magick City in Brooklyn was a total thrill. This realization of the immersive yoga/meditation/audiovisual performance art project was our debut in Taos, and also the premiere of the latest video work: an as-yet untitled projection made entirely from my fragmented photographs of lichens that I encountered in the Tippy Rock region of the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York. As with previous Basking in Gravity videos, the work slowly undulates and unfolds over the course of the 90-minute session, a visual accompaniment intended to augment the durational effects of the slow-and-low yoga and the gradually intensifying heavy mellow soundtrack.
As with recent sessions in Muncie and Indianapolis, DJing the soundtrack from my yoga mat also worked out well, and I appreciate everyone’s patience with the occasional bluetooth glitch. Look for a full Taos debrief in the days to come. Shout out to our hosts at High Frequency Loft, photographer and confidante Whitney Joiner, radical connector Spiros Antonopoulos, and to everyone who came through!
We’re leaving New Mexico behind later this week, heading to Los Angeles where Basking in Gravity will find its maximum volume = maximum results realization on Sunday, July 16 in the hallowed DTLA concrete bunkers of Coaxial Arts. Tickets are now available: No one turned away for lack of funds, but there is limited space. Reservations via Withfriends are strongly encouraged.
From there it’s on to our final stop of the tour (or is it?) at The Alembic in Berkeley, CA on Saturday, July 22. Tickets for this session are now available at Eventbrite. Once again, space is limited so get yours and tell a friend sooner rather than later! We’ll be pre-gaming this iteration with the crowd at the Sun Ra Arkestra show on Friday July 21. Overheard chatter at previous sessions suggests that Basking in Gravity may be an effective re-integration experience following such heady rituals.
We wish we had more time on this tour for many reasons, but as the Cosmic Chambo Mobile Soundsystem prepares to depart from New Mexico, it feels like an especially heavy bummer that we were unable to find the extra week(s) required for a swing through our former home in the Big Bend of Far West Texas. With so many beloved kindred spread from El Paso and Dell City to Valentine, Marfa, Alpine, and Terlingua, it felt like a mistake to try for a Chihuahuan Desert homecoming in just a few days. Hopefully a Winter 2023-24 Basking in Gravity Occupied Northern Mexico tour can happen, because I love and miss you all so much. Thank you for not getting mad at me for becoming another “but the Big Bend’s just sooo far away” type-of-guy. :(
As for Inter-Dimensional Music, we worked closely with the staff of Marfa Public Radio and WQRT Indianapolis to pre-load a month of special broadcasts recorded live at the final pre-pandemic IRL Basking in Gravity sessions in 2019. Turn on and tune-in at all the usual times on all the usual frequencies for an auditory sneak peek into the experience that awaits the lucky few in Los Angeles, Berkeley, and at to-be-announced homecoming dates in Indiana this August. And of course you are all encouraged to indulge in self-directed practice with the massive trove of sounds in the Mixcloud and subscriber-only Vøid Contemplation Tactics archives.
As always, I am deeply stoked that you choose to be here. Likewise, if this newsletter is no longer of interest, thank you for having been here: Smash that unsubscribe, and fare thee well!
blessing up and blessing down,
Daniel
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