Greetings from the low-rolling plains of East Central Indiana,

You’re receiving this newsletter because you may have expressed interest in the Inter-Dimensional Music “heavy mellow meditation” broadcast, or one of Daniel “Cosmic Chambo” Chamberlin’s other art projects in the past. Or perhaps you participated in one of my meditation workshops, yoga sessions, or Basking in Gravity “mindfulness installations” at PlySpace Muncie, Indianapolis Zen Center, StorageSpace Gallery, Healer, Magick City Brooklyn, or at Returning Home Farm during Migration Festival 2018 in Pittsburgh.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, or if you’re no longer interested in these topics, don’t hesitate to smash that unsubscribe button (down below) and peace be upon you.

After our recent road trip to visit friends, explore crystal grottoes, soak in hot springs, sit in quiet dharma rooms, and inhale lungfuls of high altitude air in Memphis, Jemez Springs, and Taos, I realized that I’d migrated communication about my various projects to social media out of laziness.

Many – if not most – of the people I care about aren’t on social media. And I enjoyed the mental clarity that followed spending two weeks free from such unpredictable sources of dopamine. A few colleagues have started projects on Substack, and so I’m trying it out. I’m still deciding if I want to turn on any of the subscription features. More on that later.

I’m also doing this because I’d like to hear from you – old friends and new friends alike – if you’re in the mood for correspondence. As I proceed through my 40s I am experiencing many nostalgias, but perhaps most of all I miss old-fashioned long-form emails.

For the time being I’m still using Twitter, Instagram, Mixcloud and sometimes my old-timey Into the Green blog. My decision to disengage from Facebook 13 years ago seems more prescient as the years go by.

Publication will surely wax and wane with my dopamine and interest levels. I’ve been including more readings from dharma teachers, anarchist anthropologists, and poets on Inter-Dimensional Music, and I may write about those in more detail here. I’m still not sure how or when to bring back IRL meditation or yoga happenings – I’m vaccinated, immunocompromised, and the pandemic has helped me realize that I enjoy laying low more than many.

With that said, I’m super stoked to announce the impending return of the Void Contemplation Tactics virtual mindfulness installation series. The first 2021 installment features audio and video from my good friend, collaborator, and mentor Karl Erickson. It features guided meditation from me, and language from Alan Watts. Watch for the premiere next week, and discover more Karl on Instagram.

I’ll also be sharing information on upcoming projects with the British Columbia-based ambient music duo PJS, and a still-forming collaboration with ornithologist and musician Rob Frye that extends from my 2019 Dead Bird Blues video and his excellent Chihuahuan Desert Birdscapes album.

Inter-Dimensional Music recently marked its 11th year on Marfa Public Radio, its first year on dublab’s LOOKOUT FM network in Los Angeles, and 150th show for WQRT Indianapolis with zero fanfare. Yet our resolve to continue this understandably unpopular weekly experiment in “heavy mellow, kosmische slop, and void contemplation tactics” remains mostly intact.

I’ll leave you now with the first part of our ongoing series of programs loosely inspired by Zen Master Dogen’s “Mountains and Waters Discourse.” If you’d like to read along, here’s a link to three different translations.

Thanks for reading!
DC

Inter-Dimensional Music 20210625 is North America's Gnarliest mix for studying the moment when water sees water

Fridays 12p ET
Mondays 8p ET
99.1 FM WQRT
Indianapolis

Sundays 11p CT
93.5FM Marfa Public Radio
Far West Texas

Random encounters
LOOKOUT FM
Los Angeles

Archived at mixcloud.com/CosmicChambo

As the ID Music Mobile Soundsystem goes offline and on the road to Taos, we leave you with the first chapter in a practice series loosely based on Zen Master Dogen's "Mountains and Waters Discourse", as translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi. Join us to study the moment when water sees water and self meets self.

We'll keep earholes saturated along the way with the sounds of Honolulu acid-folkies, oceanic death metal mandalas, and organic invocations to the water goddess from Hamid Drake and Adam Rudolph. We'll let Croz and Graham bring us down with ethereal bummer hymns for cetacean wakes. Our practice begins and ends with the heavy hydrological layers of dj))water)), and excerpts from Dogen as slowed and throwed by your host.

📹 Untitled (White River Slow Flow High Waves) – Daniel Chamberlin
🔊 "Wayfaring Strata" – dj))water))
✍️ Zen Master Dogen

Void Contemplation Tactics

Inter-Dimensional Music for 2021