• Members of the previous forum can retrieve their temporary password here, (login and check your PM).

Philip Glass Ensemble and LSD

Mister_Niles

Mister_Niles

Esteemed member
I'm planning for an upcoming led trip. Now that Im getting older there is a lot to be done before such a big event and commitment. A lot of it is actual physical work. Cleaning up. Getting my studio free of clutter and set up optimally, just in case I feel creative. some of the work is mental. Meditation, journaling etc. Some is logistical. Finding a good time. Getting my family out of the house for a day in a way that will be fun for them. Getting chemicals out of my body. I've already successfully tapered off of one medication (for headaches) that may have interacted with the LSD. Working on another. etc. etc etc.

Then there's the music. I'll pull out some old tripping favorites:

Peter Gabriel - Security
King Crimson - Discipline
Brian Eno - Another Green World ( I once turned into this album on a trip :shock: )
XTC - Black Sea
Glenn Gould - Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach (1955 performance, of course)
Yello - Claro Que si

Now, I've listened to Philip Glass plenty while on acid. Mostly Glassworks and North Star. I recently discovered the expansive wonder that is Music In 12 Parts. It is HUGE. Some people would probably say it would be loop inducing, because it's so repetitive, but when you really listen to it, there are constant changes. Plus, the solfege vocal patterns seem to create words that change over time. That could be interesting and evocative.

Any thoughts? Check it out:

[YOUTUBE]
 
Good choice… I like minimalist stuff on LSD - the spaciousness of the trip really allows for the time it takes to become enveloped in these long pieces. They build and build with these subtle variations that I am usually acutely aware of on LSD.

Its a long trip, heres another contemporary of Glass that would be a nice counterpoint:

[YOUTUBE]
 
Never been a huge Glass fan, but that piece builds and builds and the underlaid voices - great! music with many layers is always good for tripping, so I vote yay. :)

Check out La Monte Young's "the well tuned piano"if you are not already familiar with it. It is 5 hours long, so might be a good length for a trip.

Cheers,

JBArk
 
jbark said:
Never been a huge Glass fan, but that piece builds and builds and the underlaid voices - great! music with many layers is always good for tripping, so I vote yay. :)

Check out La Monte Young's "the well tuned piano"if you are not already familiar with it. It is 5 hours long, so might be a good length for a trip.

JBArk
Click to expand...

Jbark - I'm really picky about Glass. I don't like most of his work, Have you heard North Star? Good stuff. Early Ensemble work. Music In 12 Parts is It though. 3 hours of greatness.
I'm a La Monte Young fan, but I don't know how I would react to five hours of microtonal music while on acid. I like his drift pieces a lot though. Second Dream especially, and Dream House of course. Speaking of, Tony Conrad played at my record store back in the 90's. Awesome.
Maybe some Terry Riley, but I'd probably go for his more accessible stuff like Shri Camel or Persian Surgery Dervishes.

I am thinking of getting really daring and listening to some of my own music during the trip. Never done that before. I have issues. I've been doing some really long ambient/drone pieces that I'm very pleased with. Listening to my own music might stir up some really deep insecurities. Maybe that's a good thing.

Thanks for the input.
 
Amygdala said:
Good choice… I like minimalist stuff on LSD - the spaciousness of the trip really allows for the time it takes to become enveloped in these long pieces. They build and build with these subtle variations that I am usually acutely aware of on LSD.

Its a long trip, heres another contemporary of Glass that would be a nice counterpoint:
Click to expand...

Amygdala - I love Six Marimbas and Sextet and earlier Reich. I might have to drag out Six Marimbas. When I first got that record, I wore it out. My roommates hated me. :) I have all of his albums. I prefer his earlier to middle period work. He lost me at some point. There's a documentary about him that I've been meaning to watch. I think it's on youtube.
Thanks for the reminder. I've never listened to Come Out while tripping. That could be interesting... or scary.
 
Mister_Niles said:
I've never listened to Come Out while tripping. That could be interesting... or scary.
Click to expand...

It's awesome. Especially with nice headphones and in the dark. The breakdown of language into phonetic sounds really contributes to my thoughts becoming less linguistic. I can't have a stream of verbal consciousness when that song is going… its just like vibration everywhere.

Must repeat this soon.

And BTW, like your tastes… would be interested in hearing some of your other dosing (and non-dosing) musics.
 
If you are into Philip Glass may I also recommend checking out Terry Riley and in particular his piece titled 'In C'. One of the early masterpieces of minimalism and just a wonderful and uplifting piece of music. You can find it on the YouTube thingy.
 
I've had some great times with La Monte Young's "The Well-Tuned Piano".

I still remember the day that I found it, I was at work drawing some artwork up but when the piece really picked up. It was unlike anything I had ever heard before and completely what I had been searching for. I believe some tears were shed which is pretty rare when listening to music I have never heard before, usually if a song gets me it's usually for some sort of nostalgic value.

I've had great times trying to go to sleep with the Well-Tuned Piano - stoned and the force of the music waking me up to the point that I felt like I was levitating.

But, on LSD - it was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. The way my mind reacted to it was similar to a sub-breakthrough on spice. I had not had spice yet but as I recall how it felt and interacted it definitely had a
audio-interactive "physical" effect that I never had again until I started smoking low doses of spice.
 
Voyaj - A ringing endorsement for The Well Tuned Piano. The second vote for that piece. I obviously need to revisit it. I first encountered it when I was 18 and wasn't ready for just intonation. I had to put it on after reading your post. It's sounding good, with only caffeine onboard. Thanks. Do you think I should familiarize myself with the piece first or just surprise myself during the trip? I think I may have the boxed set... on cassette!

spinCycle - I like In C, but I've never liked it as much as I like Rainbow In curved Air or Shri Camel or the Dervish records. I'll pull it out though. It's been a long time. Thanks.

Amygdala - I have a feeling we would get along. I just noticed the DFW quote in your signature. That coupled with your avatar of some guy who seems to be psychically imploring me to embrace slack, and the fact that you pulled out Six Marimbas right away....

It's been over 20 years since my last acid trip, and I don't use music with dmt. I'll have to go way back. The single most important tripping album of all time, for me is A Wizard, A True Star by Todd Rundgren. Side one is a trip itself. It feels like he was taking a lot of lsd while making the album, but I read somewhere that he was actually really into mescaline at the time. My friend introduced the album to me during what turned out to be one of the most important trips of my life, so it holds a deep importance for me.
I'll have to think of other important tripping albums. It's been a long time.

Musically, I am all over the map. Right now, my obsession is the first album by Judee Sill. I listen to a lot of ambient music. Lately Richard Lanhart and Thomas Koner have been favorites. I love a wide range of electronic music, from Aphex Twin and FSOL to more obscure stuff from labels like Line and 12k.
I like a lot of pop music. XTC is a huge band for me. Lately Pretty & Nice have been a really important band for me. their latest album is great, especially if you like Elephant 6 collective stuff and angular, start/stop stuff.

It's funny, I can usually talk about music for hours and spin off endless lists of music I am into. My brain is betraying me this morning though. What are you into?
 
Mister_Niles - good stuff. I love the elephant 6 collective - just saw neutral milk play twice this tour, was one of the best shows I've seen. Circulatory system is playing with them this next leg - always wanted to see them.
 
Amygdala said:
Mister_Niles - good stuff. I love the elephant 6 collective - just saw neutral milk play twice this tour, was one of the best shows I've seen. Circulatory system is playing with them this next leg - always wanted to see them.
Click to expand...


Lucky dog! A friend was supposed to get me tickets and let me know about the Neutral Milk Hotel show here in Montreal but forgot his promise so thoroughly that he emailed me 3 days after the show to tell me how good it was! I was very busy, but that'll teach me to rely on other people... I am still kicking myself (it was 2 weeks ago...)

Cheers,

JBArk
 
Back
Top Bottom