The Bowery Presents
Sweet Seals For You, Always
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Misplaced Lens Cap
Aqua Utopia｜海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
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One Nice Bug Per Day
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Game Changer & Make Some Noise
YOU ARE THE REASON
Fai_Ryy
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The Stonewall Inn
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@wencelaus
“I laughed when someone told me about parallel universes,” Sassure confided to me not long ago, “but when I went back and re-read the lyrics to “Parallel Lives” from the Vanilla World View CD, I began to realize that I had channeled a clue to what had happened to me back in 2003......”
Stage One South is about islands....but it’s also about creating a world where Music rules, where Love persists....think of Ibiza but on a much larger scale....
“Sirena”, from Stage One South, is not a woman’s name....it is the Siren whose song -- according to legend -- lured sailors to their doom.....
Adventures in Channeling
Sassure and I had been talking about music, his recent projects and his projected endeavors, when I happened to mention his claim to have channeled a good part of his recorded work.
“Oh, but you don’t even know the half of it,” he said, shaking his head.
“How is that? Do you open up your mind and receive energies, and then turn on the mike?”
He looked down at his hands. “There are a number of steps that I take before such channeling can occur,” he said. “Most of the time it doesn’t happen….it’s like catching a glimpse of a spirit. You can’t just sit down, close your eyes, and ask ghosts to join the band. I focus, use mantras, pick up on any energies in my immediate environment…..but most of all, I attempt to invoke a spirit energy if I have one in mind.”
“What,” I asked, pausing, “would have to be your most memorable spirit channeling?”
There was silence. Then Sassure took a deep breath.
“The Vanilla World View CD,” he said, “was experimental…..probably my most experimental project. I combined rock and meditation, I created a Stairway of resonance with ‘Parallel Lives’, and then……”
“And then…?
“I channeled John Lennon,” he said.
I took a deep breath. “That was quite a catch,” I said.
“I don’t know,” he said, looking down. “I still can’t judge the success of the channeling. But the crazy part is that several songs came from this session…..not just one, as usually occurs.”
“Which songs?”
“There were a few,” he explained. “There may have been as many as five, but the ones I know directly resulted from this channeling was ‘Meet Me in the Criss Cross,’ ‘Master Me’, and ‘The Balance’. ‘Rainbows Fall Apart in Pairs’ can be added, especially with the last line.”
“Why did you attempt such a thing?” I asked.
He smiled. “I had been reading a biography of the Beatles – I have always admired their compositions – and I started thinking of Lennon and the genius of his song ‘Nowhere Man’…..and I wondered if such genius was still present on the other side, and I wondered whether some of that could be channeled through me. So I decided to set up a séance, a channeling session……just me and a table and a guitar and a keyboard. That was all.”
“Did you feel anything strange? Did you go into a trance?”
“I went mindless briefly,” he said. “But then after a few minutes I felt ambitious, clear, and it’s as if I had words in my head and a voice pushing me through the music. The whole session lasted 5 hours…..but when I listen to the songs afterwards, I like to think that I see an essence there….but the songs aren’t really imitations. ‘Criss Cross’ has a message that I still puzzle over….. ‘Rainbows’ is probably the most opaque thing I ever recorded. But I think I learned something from the encounter.”
“Did you feel hostility from him?” I asked. “John was known to be somewhat testy in life.”
He shook his head. “I sensed a restless spirit,” he said, “but of course that is to be expected. What was unexpected is that the encounter lasted as long as it did…..the whole thing would have evaporated in five minutes if there wasn’t some connection on some level. There was one funny moment though…almost as if John played a joke on me….”
“What happened?”
“When I recorded ‘Rainbows Fall Apart in Pairs’,” he explained, “ there were three lines that went like this:
‘The need to morph the Daily Pain
Into a Purpose, a Line of Code,
A Destined, Mystic Road…..’
The words seemed to fit together well, and I distinctly remember hearing myself sing those exact words. Imagine my surprise when, on playing back the master, I heard this:
‘The need to morph the Daily Pain
Into a Purpose, a Line of Coke…..’
You laugh….I did too. But that is what I am singing in the recording……although how my words got changed I haven’t a clue. In fact, I was so impressed I decided to leave it in the final pressing. It’s quite obvious that Code would be paired with Road……but something really unusual happened. I can almost hear Lennon’s laughter…..”
“Do you think this channeling is something others can do?”
He paused. “Oh it can be attempted,” he said. “But I have a lot of road behind me, so I knew precisely how I had to go about the whole business. The Summer of 2003 may have been a prerequisite….I’m not sure.”
The Vanilla World View Cd has been out for some years, but it can be found all over the Web. See if you can pick up on the channeling.
A time to pick out a point on the horizon and say, "That is where I want my Life to go...."
Sunset....a time to consider where we are now, and where we are going....
By now you may have heard that my next project will be called "The Exorcism Song"...a song that does to a house or room what sage did for the Native Americans. And I know just how to proceed.....an initial display of power followed by a musical "stairway".......
Music and Power
“You know,” Sassure said to me one evening, “Music is all about Power…..”
“Of course,” I answered. You can really feel that power at concerts. I remember when --- “
“Not that kind of Power,” he cut in. “You are talking about the loudness of music. For years we have been fascinated by huge amplifiers, pyrotechnics, and a wall-of-sound approach. We threw away the shovel and replaced it with a bulldozer. Yes, it is entertaining, and it gets the blood circulating.”
“It can bring back memories,” I said. “It can make people get up and dance.”
“Music can do much more than that,” he said. “It can be used as a key, a combination, to direct natural forces, to affect sequences in time, to alter the lines of destiny itself……”
“You sound like a character out of an Edgar Allan Poe story,” I commented.
“Yes,” he admitted, laughing. “Or something out of science fiction. But it’s something I have been investigating for the past 11 years. Until 2003, had you suggested such a thing, I would have asked you to cut back on the apple brandy…seriously. But after the summer of 2003, I stopped laughing…… Music was once relegated to sacred rituals, and there was a very good reason for this, but the ancient texts and stories explaining music’s true power were lost, misplaced, hidden, then forgotten.”
“But music is still a part of the church,” I said.
“Yes,” he answered. “and the salon, and the concert hall, and the pub. I have been a seeker all my life, but until recently I didn’t know what I was seeking. But now I know……..now I know.”
Love Potions 101: The Story of “Illumination”
“Tell me,” I asked Sassure yesterday afternoon, “the story of how ‘Illumination’ came about.”
He looked up at me, pursing his lips. “It’s something I have told often,” he said, “but it’s something that can bear repeating.”
“I’ve heard that it is based on an old Druidic chant.”
“Yes,” he said, smiling, “but this is based on the vision I had, not on historical research. I just happen to believe that what I saw was something that had validity.”
“The song stands out on La Gata Park,” I said. “It has a sound totally unlike anything you have ever done. And it’s the 13th track.”
“The 13 bit was to energize the thing even more,” he said. “What happened was that, after coming back from the seashore back in 2008, I felt a heaviness in my head, similar to what had happened in 2003. I then, after five or ten minutes,
suddenly found myself sitting atop a hill, and below me were a group of hooded figures around a roaring fire, chanting. And as they chanted, I could see the stars of the Ursa major constellation glow, one by one, as the notes of the chant rang out.”
“Why Druids?” I asked.
“Part of it,” he said, “may be that my own ancestry goes back to ancient Celtic times, and when I saw these figures I just knew who they were and why they were there.”
“Why was that?”
“They were there performing some sort of fertility ritual…at least that’s what I felt at the time. Either way, I wrote down the note progression I heard, and when I finally came out of the trance I wrote the notes down.”
“OK,” I said. “But how is this a Love Potion? I believe there are specific instructions as well.”
“Yes,” he said. “There’s a piano bit at the beginning and in the middle, meant as a sort of introduction, but not an essential part of the thing. The idea is that you listen to my words during the first part, as I speak from my heart, so you get a sense of what you yourself must do. Then after the piano interlude, you do the singing…but the words must be what you really feel, what you really want. Don’t try to create poetry, and don’t audition. Let your feelings pour out so you resonate with the music and give the enchantment more boost.”
“I understand you are working on an Exorcism song,” I said.
Sassure frowned. “It’s not really true,” he said. “I have asked for it, but I can’t work on anything unless it comes to me, unless it is given to me the way ‘Illumination’ was given to me. Sadly, I can’t do stuff like this at will. But I’m ready when the moment arrives……if it arrives……”
The Witch House album FAQ
“So,” I asked Sassure as we sat in his studio one day, “did that project of yours finally see the light of day?”
“Yes,” he replied, “the Witch House album. It’s been 4 years.”
“Are the songs about magic or witchcraft?”
“Oh yes,” he answered. “You could almost say this is a paranormal album. Most of it was channeled; some of the songs seem rather ordinary at first listen, but you have to dig deeper to find the paranormal/pagan/wiccan roots.”
“I understand that you continue your Songs of the Tarot cycle here.”
“That’s true. The final track, ‘The High Priestess’, continues the process….this one is appropriate for the theme.”
“How much has been done of this project?” I asked.
He frowned. “Not as much as I would like,” he said, “but then again, these tracks happen only if the spirits are willing. ‘The Fool’ appeared on the Cinnamon World View CD, but that project was taken offline last year. My next project, which will be called Secret Journeys, will have ‘The Chariot’. That one has been around, unreleased, for nearly two years, but I think I will find a place for it at last.”
“Have you done ‘Death’ yet?” I asked.
He smiled. “Channeling that one will be rough,” he admitted. “I expect some real trouble here, as with ‘The Tower’, but it will be a bit yet before those bridges need to be crossed.”
“Do any of your tracks contain spells?”
“Yes…..that’s the point of what I have been doing. If you could visualize the past, present, and future as a timeline, you would see your fate, my fate, as weaving threads with sub-threads branching off. These fate threads are actually frequencies; in fact, your soul is a frequency, a sound, even a song. If I could produce the right notes, the right tones, the right music, I could alter the composition of those threads, possibly even affect the frequencies of a soul. I know much of this seems like so much blather right now, but I believe we can affect our future by resonating to the right song. ‘Illumination’, from La Gata Park, was a healing/love potion concoction that, to date, has produced the best results. But there will be more….there will be more.”
I shifted slightly. “What,” I asked him, “are you working on now….besides the Secret Journeys project?”
“Something big,” he replied. “I am calling it ‘The Exorcism Song’, but I will most likely change the title, as the thing will not contain the liturgical stuff that Linda Blair had
to endure. Still, the title sounds somewhat catchy. What do you think?”
“It beats ‘Demon Repellent’,” I replied, laughing.
Channeling, The Studio, and the Source
"Have you ever seen a medium in action?" Sassure asked me early this week.
"Only in movies," I answered."It was a seance....and a spirit spoke through a woman seated at the end of a long table."
"What did she say?" he asked.
I thought a minute. "She was stammering," I said, "but in essence she said 'This house is filled with Death. You are not wanted here.' Then her head slumped forward."
He shifted in his chair. "Her head slumped forward?" he asked.
"Yes," I replied. "And the seance was over."
"Well," he said, "Such an event could happen. But one doesn't have to be quite so dramatic about it."
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
Sassure looked past me, as if he was looking at something....or someone. "When I am in the studio," he said, "I am possessed. I channel energies, forces, spirits. You could say I am a musical medium. But unless you are looking into my eyes, you wouldn't know when the channeling has begun or when the channeling has ended."
"Where does the music and words come from?" I asked. "Spirits?"
"Mostly from the Source," he replied.
"You mentioned the Source in the Vanilla World View back in 2003-2004," I said. "It's a center of energy, right?"
He smiled. "It's much more than that," he answered. "It's what the Nine Muses were called back in the days of epic poetry. It's what gives you Writers Block when you lose connection with it. It's a concentrated energy that had taken on aspects of....intelligence. It's the Akashic records of what we call Inspiration."
"Can I connect to it?" I asked him.
"It depends on your level," he replied. "It's like a vortex, perhaps a fount of energy that fuels other spiritual manifestations. But to try to explain this in words makes me look delusional. It's really more logical than that."
"Could it be something built up over time?"
"Quite possibly," he said. "But that is a matter of speculation."
The Source is a Muse, you could say....a Vortex.....of inspiration. Sassure has been connected since 2003.....he claims that if this connection ever fails, he will retire from writing and music the next day......
The Quest, Music, and Immortality
Sassure and I were talking about WITCH HOUSE, his latest project which is now on iTunes, and about what he is working toward.
"It sounds," I told him, "like some great change is being foretold here. It's all pretty mysterious...like there is something we are supposed to be doing."
He nodded. "There is so much to be done, and the stakes are high here. If you've read some of my articles or even the original Vanilla World View book, you will see that music, once elevated to playing a major role in sacred rituals, has now been brought down to entertainer status."
"There is much talk of music's now being devalued," I said.
"Yes," he said. "And it has spurred me on to what I must do. Music, or controlled sounds/frequencies, are capable of healing -- that's pretty much a given now."
"Pretty much," I said.
He looked forward, as if seeing something a great distance away. "But I know that it can play an even greater role," he said. "I know it can change the future, the future pathways that stretch before us like strings on a guitar. The song "Illumination" that appears at the end of the LA GATA PARK project is an experiment in touching those chords. The second half of the song is where the listener sings what he or she wants in the immediate future -- in relationships, in opportunities, in self-development. The basic melodic line, which I heard in a vision of hooded figures chanting around a fire, perhaps Druidic figures, had a resonance that seemed to reach out and make the stars above me glow. I have asked listeners to let me know what results they have gotten from following the steps I provided in an earlier blog. Based on what I have heard, I think we are on to something big here."
"I think listeners can feel the power of music that resonates within them," I said.
"Yes, and this is just a starting point. Can music change an event's outcome? Yes, I believe it can. Can music enable us to channel our personal forces within and direct them outward? Yes, I think so. Can music alter the lines of destiny? Of fate? Yes, I think so. Is there a price for being able to do this? There may be, but the consequences all depend on one;s intention.....something I mention in the song "Intention is the Point of Love".
"Are others doing what you are doing?" I asked.
Sassure gazed downward. "If they are," he said, "they are underground for now. Maybe soon they will come forward. There's much to be gained from this work. I have written about what I call practical immortality.....as a rational procedure, not some product of a magic mushroom fantasy. But too many are too busy being entertainers and making a go of being in the business of music."
"Maybe the change mentioned in the songs is what you have just spoken of."
He looked up. "There will be change," he said, 'change that will shake the earth. I just have to do what I am bidden to do....."
A Fata Morgana.....a land that doesn't exist, but that is there over the ocean for all to see. It's a place one can go to, but from which one can never return.....
Channeling the forces of nature is a natural process, in the end. Sassure's music on Witch House wasn't composed....it was channeled. The Power is growing in intensity. The next project, SECRET JOURNEYS, will culminate in "The Stairway", a song/chant/spell......
Pagan pop....pagan rock.....no rules....just right.....
Witch House is released tomorrow......and will bring pagan/wiccan/pop music into a more public view.