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Solitudes

by the Epichorus

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1.
2.
Purification 04:01
3.
Spring Green 08:06
4.
Brokenness 02:38
5.
6.
Washing Away 03:54
7.
8.
9.
Bitterness 03:44
10.
11.
12.
Afikoman 03:47
13.
Grace 07:52
14.
Praise 04:34
15.
Ouroboros 02:08

about

Solitudes -- 15 Solo Meditations for Spring Regeneration

We took the steps of the Passover Seder and translated them with the particular opening to the universal. Members of the Epichorus and friends chose the theme they felt drawn toward and recorded solo meditations at home the week leading to the full moon of Aries. The tracks are accompanied by little written meditations on the psychic process of spring renewal. A musical meditative seder for one or many.

credits

released March 25, 2021

1) Sanctification - Kane Mathis (Oud)
2) Purification - Philip Mayer (Frame Drum)
3) Spring Green - Max ZT (Hammered Dulcimer)
4) Brokenness - Daniel Ori (Upright Bass)
5) The Great Story - Haggai Cohen Milo (Upright Bass) with DJ Werd
6) Washing Away - Megan Gould (Violin)
7) Bread From Earth - Zach Fredman (Oud)
8) Bread of Healing - Kane Mathis (Kora)
9) Bitterness - Megan Gould (Violin)
10) The World is a Sandwich of Two - Rich Stein (Percussion)
11) Being Together - Priya Darshini (Voice & Whistle)
12) Afikoman - Max ZT (Hammered Dulcimer)
13) Grace - Jen Liu (Piano)
14) Praise - Joey Weisenberg (Mandolin)
15) Ouroboros - Tom Fogel (Voice)

Produced by Zach Fredman

Cover Art - Orpheus surrounded by animals. Ancient Roman floor mosaic, from Palermo, now in the Museo Archeologico Regionale di Palermo. Picture by Giovanni Dall'Orto.

Design - Sam Spetner

Ouroboros - Tom Fogel is chanting the Yemenite version of the well known piyut "Who Knows One"

www.joeyweisenberg.com
www.megangouldmusic.com
www.kanemathis.com
danielori.com
priyadarshini.com
www.maxzt.com
www.zachfredman.com
theepichorus.com
www.philipmayer.net
haggaicohenmilo.com/about/
www.djwerd.com


Sanctification

On special occasions, festivals personal and communal, we distinguish a moment as sacred, that is, potent for transformation, by speaking words of meaning over a cup of wine. A little act of distinction with enormous consequence. A toast to the forces that create the world, that give us life and love and nourishment and freedom. At this season of the rebirth and renewal of spring, take a moment to sanctify your being, breathing the death of winter back to life.

Purification

When we wash our hands before a meal, we do so to protect ourselves from the germs of the world, and to wash away the impurities covering the heart. The water poured over the hands is the tableside version of a naked dip into a ritual bath. To be surrounded, contained by water, symbol of life and fluidity. Like the womb, site of birth, the bath, site of rebirth. Feel the water all around you, washing away the debris on your heart.

Spring Green

Little green shoots rise from the earth to mark the emergence of spring. The first buds and blooms, the fragile beginning of rebirth, the hesitancy to come out of winter hibernation. Our inner life mirrors the movement of nature. But where nature’s transformations recur naturally, ours must be tended. What are your spring greens, the new inside you that is just beginning to emerge from the dark beneath the earth? Bless those leaves as they begin to grow.

Brokenness

We are broken and we are whole. Each of us and the world we share. We tend to minimize our brokenness. Maybe not this year. It’s unpleasant to feel unwhole, wounded, broken. And yet, that place is the site of healing and transformation. What brokenness do you see in the world? How will you tend to it? Where do you feel broken? What words of truth can you speak over the place of the wound?

The Great Story

The movement from darkness to light, from suffering to joy, from slavery to freedom. What happens on the scale of movie screens and epics, the birth of the hero, the self discovery, facing the dragon, happens in us over the course of days and months and years. Where are you in the great story?

Washing Away

A second dive, deeper, ocean inside ocean. The task of uncovering the clarity that shines from inside the depths is repetitive. Breath, center, sacrifice, give, see, repeat. Remember the grandparents and ancestors who’ve been all the way to the bottom, because they never refused the water.

Bread From Earth

A thousand hands helped grow the food we eat. The sower of seeds, the water carrier, the harvester, the thrasher of grain, the baker of bread. And the sun, the rain and dirt that bring bread from the earth. We prostrate before each of them all. Who feeds you?

Bread of Healing

Like the food which is given to a child recovering from sickness, coming back to life, slowly slowly. Matzah is the first food after the narrows, when the traumas of oppression still live in the body. In that gentleness, where faith and healing are acquired, is a wisdom for all expansive processes. What in you needs healing?

Bitterness

Suffering within and around us tastes bitter because we are innately compassionate, the heart holding the hearts of others. But just as bitters aid digestion, the heartache that brings on the cry of injustice and the cry for help, is essential to the trials of freedom. What is bitter to you now?


The World is a Sandwich of Two

The hardships and struggles we face are inseparable from the hidden beauties that grow from them, freedom emerging from difficulty, not complacency. Invisible strands connect the less-than-good to the pieces of our lives we could not live without. What’s inside of your everything sandwich?

Being Together

The communion of table, bodies around a circle or square, feasting together, the festival meal a remnant of the sacrifice we used to lift onto the altar. The food is nourished by the company, by the words spoken over it, filling with meaning. We are consuming the exchange of ideas and energy, we are eating togetherness. When the table can’t convene we meet in the clouds, in the poems traded by little machine couriers, exchanging transparent sustenance.

Afikoman

Greek for dessert, the sweetness of ending, when no piece of the whole is left incomplete. Games and songs with the children after dinner. Even from the earliest days we are instructing in the ways of mystery — hide-and-seek, peek-a-boo — we’re teaching them, there are angels hiding everywhere in your story.

Grace

Most everything good in our lives arrives to us not as a result of our own toil. Grace is the unending pour of love, friendship, food, beauty that touches our lips, eyes, hands, body. Grace is also waiting, for change, for grief’s subsiding, for healing measured by the plump and fade of the moon. Where have you found grace?

Praise

The spontaneous response to the gift of freedom, gratitude in dance and song. Leap over rooftops. Sing in the grass and beside the sea. Praise is the sustenance of life. What gratitudes and praises are you singing?

Ouroboros

The one cosmic substance takes on the shapes and forms of the world, humans, plants and animals, fire, water and earth, the outer form a clothing for the immutable substance within, shared by all. We are bound to each other. Loving and consuming one another, healing birthing worlds anew as the wheel turns.

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