☀ Laraaji on the Sound He Heard in 1974 | Ambient Pioneer

Laraaji's first album was produced by Brian Eno. Fifty years later he's one of 24 artists in the Vatican's Holy See Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. This Solar episode is where all of it started - and it started with a sound he could neither record nor write down.In 1974, around midnight in a quiet New York apartment, he heard what he describes as endless streams of brass improvisation with no beginning and no ending. The next day he went to the music library at Lincoln Center with no language for what had happened, and found it named in Sanskrit: Nada, the inner sound current. A month later a voice - clear, loving, and aware of his situation - spoke to him in a Queens pawn shop and told him not to take the money. He walked out with an autoharp he'd never played and five dollars.What follows is a working life built on acting when that voice speaks. He describes preparing completely - yoga, breathing, five rhythms, self-talk - and then letting all of it go the moment he steps to the mic. He describes the Saturday morning he abandoned a friend at 7:30am to go play in an empty Central Park, what he found there, and what it cost him. And he describes the time he ignored the voice and totalled a car.He talks about his teachers, the honorary swami ceremony that gave him his orange, and the album that hid three silences of random length in the playback. Japan understood. Everywhere else, listeners assumed the record was broken, and it was remixed to take them out.Then laughter. He came to New York to do standup, and quit after realising the comedy he was making got its laughs by polarising the room. Years later he found laughter meditation in Osho's Orange Book, and it became the two-hour play shop he now teaches internationally. He demonstrates it on camera.Next Monday, the Lunar: a studio tour, two tarot cards, and several minutes of unreleased music improvised live on camera. https://youtu.be/Y4wnE2W-s6s—CHAPTERS00:00 "Don't take the money"02:20 A teenage sense of being called to service05:00 The sound that arrived in 197406:00 Finding it named in a library: Nada, the cosmic sound current08:30 The pawn shop in Queens10:22 Park Slope sidewalks and the Aquarian Coffeehouse13:17 Preparing completely, then letting all of it go21:27 "Spontaneity is the doorway to the beyond"23:03 The Saturday morning he walked out on a friend26:20 Ignoring the voice, and the car that got totalled32:00 The honorary swami ceremony, and the orange37:11 Learning to leave space38:09 Three silences hidden in an album — and only Japan understood41:59 The Vatican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale48:10 Trying standup in New York, and why he stopped50:43 Osho's Orange Book and laughter meditation55:32 432Hz, 440Hz, and what he's still waiting to hear59:24 Water, copper, and structuring01:04:50 Next Monday: the Lunar—ABOUT THE GUESTLaraaji is an ambient pioneer, sound healer and laughter meditation teacher based in Harlem, New York. Recording since the 1970s, his work on zither and modified autoharp is foundational to the genre. His debut on Brian Eno's Ambient series introduced him internationally. He performs and teaches worldwide.https://laraajimusic.bandcamp.com/music—The Visionary Roze Gift is open. Funding, a residency place in Spain, astro-tarot mentorship, and a guest slot on Season 5. Applications close October 15 → www.rozeumbra.com/visionaryrozegiftConversations on this channel are personal accounts, not medical advice.#Laraaji #ambientmusic #BrianEno