“Cosmic Astral” by Memory Pearl – do you already notice what?

The idea of ​​having an impact on psychological suffering using musical sounds is presumably as old as the psyche itself. Already philosophers in ancient Greece such as Pythagoras and Aristotle talked about the healing power of music. And also in the Bible there are indications of the quasi -therapy use of music – for example in the history of David, which healed King Saul with his harp play.

The music therapist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Moshe Fisher-Rotenberg from Toronto ties in with the album »Cosmic Astral« of his solo project Memory Pearl recently published at Leipziger Label Altin Village & Mine. Specifically, he refers to the “Spring Grove Experiment” – a research project that was launched in the early 1970s. As part of this, people with mental illnesses were administered LSD, while classic works by Strauss, Bach, Handel and others ran in the background. A long -term effect could not be examined in more detail at the time, because the program was set again in 1976 due to growing media and political criticism.

In the context of his music therapy revival, Fisher-Rozenberg does not approach any drugs-but there is no less trip-up “Cosmic Astral”: Instead of changing substances, the musician relies on the psychedelic effect of modular synthesizers. Specifically, he has transformed scores of those recordings that were used in the course of the Spring Grove sessions, into MIDI files and then transformed them into new music using various digital manipulation techniques. Sounds crazy? Yes, in the truest sense of the word.

Like the spherical opener »Prelude«, together with its psychedelic-fermenting synth scenes, goes to the realm of the human unconscious without detours. Beats are only used very carefully, in the background a distant saxophone sound can also be heard. No question: The fact that Fisher-Rotenberg served a project of the seventies as a model becomes clear at this point-the track could come from the early ambient phase Tangerine Dreams or Brian Enos.

The path, which was chosen at the beginning of the album, is also consistently continued in the remaining eight tracks. Moments of irritation, the surprise, you are looking for a surprise. No wonder, every acoustic stear element could contaminate the desired healing process. And so tracks such as “relaxation induction”, “astral travel” or “post lude” inevitably cause a state of relaxation to which it is difficult to escape.

Who knows, maybe “Cosmic Astral” is actually ideal for future music therapy methods? In any case, one could confidently do without the LSD this time – in combination with the tripy music, the smallest amount of an overdose would probably be the same.

Memory Pearl: »Cosmic Astral« (Altin Village & Mine)