IndiePulse Reviews: Vestiges – New Music by Healing Spells

“I never learnt or made music the traditional way. I learnt guitar very late, when I was in my late teens to set – up my first band with a friend at the Uni. We were a duo and made garage – folk rock tunes.

Review by Joseph Timmons: IndiePulse Music Magazine

Hailing from Tokyo, Japan, Healing Spells is the solo vehicle of electronica music producer Past Lives. His exploratory approach appeals to fans of IDM/experimental Four Tet, Gold Panda and OneOhtrix Point Never. His EP ‘Past Lives’ is a small, fun voyage, with colorful and immediate, uplifting songs, complete with imperfect sounds and strange beats.

“Vestiges is my biggest project yet, spanning 10 tracks for about 45 minutes playtime. I spent the last 12 months collecting sounds, drawing inspiration from travels and exploring the music styles that I love to create an immersive journey referencing various musical cultures.”

In Review: Vestiges by Healing Spells is an audible ecstasy of vibrant soundscapes, seemingly unconnected sounds mixed and blended in a logical matrix that come at you in waves. With a subtitle hint of techno and house beat foundations, Vestiges takes you into a world where the language spoken is sound, all words are now universal with an awareness of unique understanding.

Past Lives gives us this thought on his work-“After a while, I looked into Electronic Music and the art of sampling to explore soundscapes reflecting my experience travelling. I have been living for 6 years and counting in Japan, but the decisive experience came from 3 months I spent in India, where I was overwhelmed mentally and physically by the harshness and spirituality of the country. It has become my main source of inspiration since then. I am also inspired by quiet walks in the nature, Buddhist temples in the mountains, and sci-fi books.

My life outside of music is simply not that interesting, and I wish the music I make would speak for itself.”

For those familiar with artists that are from the Asian regions, there is a unwritten code they all seem to follow, to me, I feel that the music that is created in that part of the world all have a connection to nature, in truth, the culture of Japan has had a symbiotic relationship with the music, taking rhythmic cues from the world itself and sometimes crossing over to the spiritual realm. Vestiges by Healing Spells makes that connection, there is an other worldly sound, and though electronically synth sounds and ambient textures prevail you sense it as a living and breathing being, in a world where all things are connected and everything has a life essence to it, and the digital may yet become flesh, the ghost in the machine has a pulse in an ethereal body in which a blood flows and warms the senses.

Visit Healing Spells on Soundcloud, experience the magic for yourself.

 

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