A few weeks ago Cyclic contributor and Barcelona resident Christopher Mann mentioned a mix he had worked on during lockdown. He called it his yoga mix, so intrigued I asked him to forward it, and perhaps because it intersected so closely to music that resonated heavily during my own lockdown I was instantly taken with it. So of course you’ve got your Popol Vuh, Don Cherry and Alice Coltrane, but then there’s Biosphere, and uh, Metallica? Yep. Any mix that throws Metallica in alongside Bené Fonteles and Tapes I wanna hear. So now you can too. It’s pretty timely too as Melbourne has just entered another snap 7-day lockdown. So wherever you are in the world we hope that this mix helps you like it’s helped us.
Also if you want to check out some of Christopher’s writing for Cyclic you can find it here, including his regular visits to Sonar.
This is what he has to say about it:
“I had only been doing yoga for around six months when the pandemic hit. It turned out to be an inspired decision since spending three months at home alone in total lockdown without it would have been even more insane. This mix is a homage to my debt to learning yoga and how it saved me in lock down and is dedicated to the people at Yoga Studios Barcelona. The idea for the mix started as soon as lockdown started especially with a need for new age music to provide some calm and I was looking to recreate something of the atmosphere of the presential classes especially as they were now closed. In the first month there was no online classes either as nobody was ready. But yoga became an essential part of the week.”
“The mix has six parts
01 – Pranayama and focussing mind. The first part of any class is to focus on breathing, calm the mind. Become the observer and focus on the sensations of the body.
02 – Mantra of Peace (Om Shanti Om). The mantra is used to calm and invoke the spirit. I refer to Joseph Campbell’s interpretation of Om actually represented as the four syllables AUM, A for the open mouth, U for the middle mouth and M for the closed mouth as the breath is expelled calmly with vibration of the body and vocal chords. The fourth syllable is the silence before and after.
03 – Surya Namaskar (Sun salutation). Sun salutation is performed at the beginning to stretch and prepare for the postures. This is youth and the awakening.
04 – Asanas (postures). A session of postures to reenergise the body and further calm the mind. The tempo should be slower reflecting sustained positions.
05 – Shavasana and raja yoga. Classes end in shavasana or the relaxed position or corpse posture, completing the life cycle analogy of yoga. Raja yoga or meditation is the ultimate goal of yoga once the body is prepared and can sustain itself in calm.
06 – Awakening Kundalini. The energy awakened by yoga is not kundalini. However kundalini can be awakened only when the self is not, being without all contrary or attracting forces, desires, wants.”
The mix was made only using Adobe Audition CS5
Track Artist Title (Label) Year
1 Eliane Radigue – Kyema, Intermediate states (Experimental Intermedia Foundation – XI 103) 1990
2 Morgen Wurde-Lässt (Los Kompakt) 2019
3 Henry Wolff, Nancy Hennings – From the Roof of the World You Can See Forever (Island) 1972
4 Popol Vuh – In Den Gärten Pharaos (Pilz) 1971
5 The Harmonic Choir – Part IV: Gravity Waves (Ondes Gravitationnelles) (Ocora) 1983
6 Pauline Oliveros – Tara’s Room (Self-Released / Important) 1987 / 2019
7 Adham Shaikh – Sri Kainchih Temple Bells (Instinct Ambient) 1995
8 John Coltrane – Om (Impulse!) 1967
9 Arun Amin – Om (Om Music, Aurovision Inc) Unknown
10 Seefeel – Ch-Vox (Reflex / Warp) 1996 / 2021
11 Somei Satoh – Mandala (ALM Records / WRWTFWW) 1982 / 2020
12 Alice Coltrane – Om Shanti (Avatar Book Institute / Luaka Bop) 1987 / 2017
13 Arun Amin – Om Shanti Shanti Shanti (Om Music, Aurovision Inc) Unknown
14 Bené Fonteles – O M M (Self-released / Music From Memory) 1983 / 2017
15 Metallica – Wherever I May Roam (Elektra) 1991
16 Tapes – Silence Please (Good Morning Tapes) 2020
17 Infinite Music – A Tribute to LaMonte Young (Fire Records) 2018
18 Shafqat Ali Khan & Annapurna – Emptiness is Form (Hearts of Space) 2002
19 Tarotplane – Sleeping Harmony (Aguirre) 2015
20 Buddhastick Transparent Feat. Something In The Air – Red Incense On Golden (Sharira) 1995
21 Buddhastick Transparent Feat. Something In The Air – Bamboo Triangle (Sharira) 1995
22 Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Tides IX (Touchtheplants Studio) 2018
23 Laraaji – Connecting with the Inner Healer Through Music (A Transmission of Musical Verbal Information)
(Stones Throw Records) 1983 / 2015
24 Biosphere – Hyperborea (Origo Sound / Biophon) 1997 / 2011
25 Matthewdavid’s Mindflight – Unfolding Atlantis (Leaving Records) 2016
26 Fred P – Substance 2 (Private Society) 2020
27 Legowelt – Vanished in Tromso (Air Texture) 2014
28 Don Slepian – Sea of Bliss (Plumeria Productions) 1980
29 Robert Rich – Cave Paintings (Soundscape / Hypnos) 1984 / 2013
30 Tetsuo Inoue – Automatic Motion (Fax +49-69/450464) 1995
31 Terekke – NuWav2 (Music From Memory) 2018
32 KMRU – Solace (Editions Mego) 2020
33 Chihei Hatakeyama – Dark Sea (Rural Colours) 2013
34 Eliane Radigue – Adnos I (Table of the Elements) 1973-74 / 2002
35 Buddhastick Transparent Feat. Something In The Air – Weaver Golden (Sundance 3 Snakes Respect T.I.) (Sharira) 1995
36 Outland – African Virus (Electronic Sonata With A Cold Loved By Nature) Part II (Fax +49-69/450464) 1996
37 Popol Vuh – In Den Gärten Pharaos (Pilz) 1971
38 Takashi Kokubo – A Dream Sails Out to Sea – Scene 3 (Sanyo / Light in the Attic) 1987 / 2019
39 Adham Shaikh – Guru Sambhu Dada (Instinct Ambient) 1995
40 Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra – Movement 1 (Luaka Bop) 2021
41 Don Cherry – Om Shanti Om (Black Sweat Records) 1976 / 2020
42 Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra – Movement 7 (Luaka Bop) 2021
