Category: ambient music

Natalie Howarth

Natalie Howarth picks her ten favourite songs in the jazz rap genre for Impact’s Music Essentials. 

Jazz rap is the fusion of hip-hop and jazz music. Jazz rap takes a variety of elements and features from both genres and modernises them. Artists like Gil Scott-Heron were catalysts for modernising music. His choice of using spoken word over instrumental jazz backing tracks and lyrics often built on a political consciousness and inspired the coalescence of jazz and hip-hop in the late 1980s.

As hip-hop music popularised, jazz artists shifted their sound to fit the public zeitgeist of the time; the most famous example of this overt shift is in the album Doo-Bop released posthumously in 1992 by jazz legend, Miles Davis. The rising popularity of hip-hop led to a rejection of classical jazz, with its known conventions becoming less sustained in its production, with increased sampling and improvisation. This is a ten-song introduction to the genre of jazz rap, along with some other songs that have multi-genre elements that were inspired by jazz movements, including the likes of funk and soul.

MF DOOM – Doomsday

A must-have in this list! Included on his debut album titled ‘Operation: Doomsday’, Daniel Dumile, known as MF DOOM, had an unbelievably vast impact on modern hip-hop, often known and referred to as your favourite rapper’s favourite rapper. I chose this song predominantly for the multi-genre essence combining jazz loops, percussion and samples of elevator music and cartoons: he often sampled from the 1967 Fantastic Four Television Series.

A Tribe Called Quest – Jazz (We’ve Got)

A Tribe Called Quest are considered the peak of this subgenre, enabling the proliferation of jazz rap. It would be unfair to exclude them from this list. I chose this song not only for the aptness of the song title, but for the saxophone sample, piano loops and lyrics that are fused to produce a wholly catchy song.

J Dilla – Won’t Do

Founder of the notorious Slum Village, producer of A Tribe Called A Quest, The Pharcyde, Madlb, Common and many more influential hip hop artists of the 1990s and early 2000s, J Dilla’s music is amongst some of my favourite of all time. He takes an experimental and deliberately imperfect perspective to making music, purposely playing drumbeats patterns off to achieve something known as ‘Drunk Funk’, something modern jazz artists try to replicate today. This song includes his well-loved sounds from his MPC and jazz synth, just like many tracks on this album, ‘The Shining’. His legacy will live on and continue to inspire others!

De La Soul – Me Myself and I

This hip hop trio, popular during the late 1980s, were known for contributing to the progression and prominence of jazz rap. They sample the legendary, pioneering funk group Funkadelic and their track (Not Just) Knee Deep, a psychedelic funk track. De La Soul, however, take this sample and reconstruct it into their fashion rap Me, Myself and I. It is a quintessential 1990s jazz rap song. 

Nujabes – Beat laments the world

Jun Seba, well known as Nujabes, is famous for tracks that amalgamate genres more commonly sampled in western hip-hop production, such as breakbeats and boom-bap drums, with samples of modal jazz. In his album ‘Metaphorical Music’, he combines features of lo-fi, ambient, soul, and jazz rap into his songs. More specific to this song, the sample Make Love 2 by Kip Hanrahan is primarily used and converted to the requisite style of Nujabes’s music.

Your Old Droog – Train Love

Your Old Droog samples Delegation’s Oh Honey, this is a perfect example of jazz rap using a timeless soul song that accompanies the rap. Your Old Droog’s album ‘Transportation’ was released in 2019, within the album, there are so many elements of jazz and instrumentation along with many cultural references to New York. It almost feels like a homage to his city and perhaps to the jazz scene.

Anti Lilly & Phoniks – Blue In Green

This song is a masterpiece in multi-genre jazz rap. It takes inspiration from jazz and lo-fi and the main beat is sampled from an indistinguishable Miles Davis song. It is almost homage-like in the transformative nature of modern music.

King Geedorah – Next Levels

One of MF DOOM’s alter egos, DOOM uses his instrumental Arrow Root from Metal Fingers Presents: Special Herbs Volume 1. This song fuses a commercial-sounding kind of jazz with some intricate rap lyricism, the sound of the saxophone and double bass complement each other.

Rejjee Snow (featuring Aminé and Dana Williams, produced by KAYTRANADA) – Egyptian Luvr

Moving to a more contemporary song categorised as jazz rap, in Egyptian Luvr the juxtaposition of the contemplative and melancholic lyrics and sanguine rhythm is intriguing. The producer of this track KAYTRANADA, takes a dance approach to counter the lyrics, an experimental method to a song about heartbreak and loneliness.

Freddie Gibbs (featuring The Alchemist and Tyler, The Creator) – Something to Rap About

A track that brings some of the most famous names in the modern hip hop and rap scene, produced by The Alchemist, who uses a sample from soul artist David T. Walker’s On Love. He takes a snippet of the chorus and loops it for the entirety of the song. Freddie Gibbs and Tyler, The Creator collaborate on this song, despite their overtly different rapping styles (although they aren’t comparable), and it works to achieve an experimental track on Gibbs’s 2020 album ‘Alfredo’.

Natalie Howarth

Featured image courtesy of Florencia Viadana via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image. 

In-article video 1 courtesy of MF DOOM via YouTube.com. No changes were made to this video.

In-article video 2 courtesy of Real Hip Hop via YouTube.com. No changes were made to this video.

In-article video 3 courtesy of bbemusic via YouTube.com. No changes were made to this video.

In-article video 4 courtesy of WeAreDeLaSoul via YouTube.com. No changes were made to this video.

In-article video 5 courtesy of Nujabes via YouTube.com. No changes were made to this video.

In-article video 6 courtesy of YOD via YouTube.com. No changes were made to this video.

In-article video 7 courtesy of Anti-Lilly – Topic via YouTube.com. No changes were made to this video.

In-article video 8 courtesy of Kza via YouTube.com. No changes were made to this video.

In-article video 9 courtesy of REJJIE SNOW via YouTube.com. No changes were made to this video.

In article video 10 courtesy of Freddie Gibbs via YouTube.com. No changes were made to this video.

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I’ve never been one to put stock in positive affirmations. Nothing against them, I just don’t feel benefits from stating things I either at least subconsciously know or don’t fully believe. I don’t speak goodness into the universe, nor do I pray. Inversely, I also don’t believe in ‘borrowing trouble’ because I said something remotely negative or considered a potential unideal outcome. That said, I do have hope. I have dreams. I wish for things to get better, but know that wishes alone won’t deliver us a better world. I’m just here to do what I can to help those in my life, just as they help me. Positivity in general doesn’t factor in much.

This is the philosophy by which Devin Townsend has been working into a new level of appreciation for me, despite my personal opinions and thoughts. For years, even if Devy’s music retained a heavy nature, he’s had a very sunny, positive spin on his lyrics and themes, reflective of the better outlook he’d gained from working on himself as a person, shedding his demons, and acknowledging mental illness he had long suffered from. It came to a head with Empath, which I enthusiastically reviewed a few years ago. Lightwork is the official follow-up to that album despite releasing a couple other projects between then and now, including a number of live albums (including the phenomenal Deconstruction Series #2 – Galactic Quarantine, which shows exactly why he’s one of the best performers our generation has seen).

In a very rare moment, I’m actually talking about a deluxe edition of an album, which pairs Lightwork with a companion of B-sides and demos worthy of not only talking about to begin with, but outright praise. It’s called Nightwork and shines a light (ha?) on the creative process that Devy had with producer/pal Garth Richardson to craft an album so amazing, even its leftovers were worth sharing. Throughout each one, you’ll hear some familiar faces/voices – Ché Aimee Dorval of Casualties of Cool fame, Steve Vai, The Elektra Women’s Choir from Empath, and of course Anneke van Giersbergen, who is a frequent collaborator. Both albums as a result are a journey of life in the last few years, informed by the pandemic and its effects on us, focusing on what’s important, and finding – and maintaining – your center to persevere through it all.

Each and every song on Lightwork, while not made equal, does have a place in the tracklist. Ten songs and just shy of 56 minutes, they take what made Empath (and other works) so enthralling and, generally speaking, strips them back a bit more than you’re probably used to if you’re a fan of Townsend. Yes, grand orchestrations are still abound, a massive soundscape for them to occupy along with more traditional rock fare, and Devy’s own voice, which would fill all of that space itself if it wanted to. It’s arena-ready, manufactured to reach beyond the nosebleeds, outside the ZIP code it’s broadcasting from, on high into the stars like a transmission to other life out there. Lightwork feels like it could be echoing in the craggy hills of Mars.

Take a song like the almost title track “Lightworker” and you see exactly the kind of thing Townsend is going for. It’s a song about love, peace, and unity – not wanting for your needs and coming together. “Call of the Void” is a slow charmer, gentle and grounded in its approach to valuing your own view on things and not give into panic. It also has one of the most charming videos – using footage of trains driving through snowy wilderness, a fixation that Townsend developed while working over the pandemic as escapism – and best hooks on the album:

‘‘Cause when you see the world’s insane reaction
To follow your heart, the worst reaction is to freak out
So don’t you freak out‘

This is what I’m trying to achieve as I type this on election night.

The darker moments are enchanting as well. “Dimensions” is more heavy and aggressive, but still shimmers in the light with its synthy foundation and how it builds up in a way that reminds me of a Pendulum track. A couple tracks employ more of a chanting and repetitive element to lyrics and motions like “Dimensions” or “Heavy Burden” to drive a point home in a mantra-like fashion, but also acknowledge and calm, much like positive affirmations can. In case it wasn’t obvious, Devy was a little less concerned with being cleanly progressive and/or metal with Lightwork (stay tuned for Nightwork, though), instead electing more of a contemporary, ambient, and indie feel at times. It makes sense and is good.

© Sensory Night at Dazzling Nights
Sensory Night at Dazzling Nights

AdventHealth is partnering with Harry P. Leu Gardens to offer a sensory-friendly night at Dazzling Nights. It is scheduled for Monday, Dec.5.

Click here to get tickets.

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Tickets are sold out for the 5:30 p.m. time slot, but there are still a few available for 5:15 p.m.

They are $25 for adults and $22 for children 3 to 13.

Leu Gardens transformed into a winter wonderland featuring a million dazzling lights, shining forests, magical displays, music, and beautiful sculptures.

Guests who attend the sensory-friendly night will get pamphlets with a map. It will detail light and sound sensitive information for each experience. This allows families to choose and customize their own holiday experience.

“There are quiet spaces. There’s a map that kind of explains how the whole event is going to be set up. So, families who know what their children’s triggers are, can avoid them. The lights will be turned on in some locations, the music will be turned down globally across the whole event to allow those children, who are a little neurodiverse, to be able to enjoy it just as much as their neurotypical peers,” said Crystal Stephens an Occupational Therapist at AdventHealth.

The three-quarter mile, interactive holiday experience at Leu Gardens ends Jan. 1.

AdventHealth lists areas of the experience that may lead to triggers:

• 1. Entry Area
  • Sound: Ambient, fun holiday music playing from speakers
  • Lights: A “Happy Holidays” sign with flashing/chasing lights and a tree with static light emanating from within
• 2. Wondrous Woods
  • Sound: Quiet, ambient background music
  • Lights: Thousands of slowly rotating laser lights
• 3. Glowing Garden
  • Sound: Quiet, ambient background music
  • Lights: 8’ tall neon flowers with a static glow
• 4. Joyful Journey
  • Sound: Medium volume background music
  • Light: Tens of thousands of small, white lights hanging from trees overhead, some twinkle. Large neon snowflakes.
• 5. Down the Chimney
  • Sound: Loud holiday music playing from speakers. 8 blowers for a large inflatables
  • Lights: Static illumination of the inflatable
  • Experience: An inflatable play area that requires climbing up an angled stairway to access slides
• 6. Brilliance
  • Sound: Loud music with live vocals
  • Light: Lots of flashing lights and lasers
• 7. Path of Peace
  • Sound: Quiet, ambient background music
  • Light: Static lights wrapped around tree trunks
• 8. The Crystal Kingdom
  • Sound: Medium volume background music
  • Light: Slowly fading beams of white light, glowing ice crystals
  • Experience : 3 characters available for meet and greet. Two speak without amplification. One is non-verbal.
• 9. Sparkling Stars
  • Sound: Quiet, ambient background music
  • Light: 200 static light lightbulbs on top of steel poles
• 10. Snow & Glow
  • Sound: Loud holiday music playing from speakers. Large snow machines with fan noise.
  • Light: Static light
  • Effects: Falling snow: small particles of nontoxic, skin-safe foam
• 11. Peppermint Pass
  • Sound: Loud holiday music playing from speakers
  • Lights: 100, 70-foot neon strips, twisted along a 70-foot enclosed tunnel. Static lighting.
• 12. Fabulous Flurries
  • Structure: An enclosed dome, 40 feet in diameter
  • Sound: Music playing from speakers. 10 loud fans
  • Light : Bright, static light
  • Effects : Swirling confetti fills this room, blown by the fans
• 13. Ring of Radiance
  • Sound : Loud holiday music playing from speakers
  • Light : 200 flashing LED nodes
  • Effects : Fog effects emitted in plumes from fog machines. A hissing noise is made when fog output is active.

READ THE FULL STORY:Leu Gardens offers sensory-friendly time slot for ‘Dazzling Nights’

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With IP68 rating, excellent sound quality, impressive touch controls, and a great feature set, the JBL Reflect Aero headphones are an excellent value. Oh, and they are extremely affordable.

Overview of the JBL Reflect Aero

Despite appearing similar to ordinary sports headphones, the JBL Reflect Aero has more to offer than meets the eye. Its circular frame has wing tips to help keep it securely in place even when exercising.

One obvious feature that makes these wireless earbuds stand out is their waterproofing. They have an IP68 rating, which means they aren’t just water-resistant. They’ll keep on blasting the tunes for 30 minutes down 1.5 meters in salt or fresh water (although Bluetooth signals do not travel well in water, so keep that in mind).

There’s more, too. In addition to active noise cancellation, touch controls, in-ear detection, and a 12-hour battery life (24 hours total with charging case), JBL packs in other premium features as well. This is already a lot, even if you don’t consider the great sound quality and the fact that you can actually customize their touch gestures for volume control, for that sub-£150 price.

With IP68 rating, excellent sound quality, impressive touch controls, and a great feature set, these headphones are an excellent value. Oh, and they are extremely affordable.

Available prices and specifications for JBL Reflect Aero

This true wireless earbud will cost you / £119, which is particularly affordable for what it offers. 0.5 oz (13 grams) per earbud, Bluetooth 5.2 interface, earbud battery life is 8 hours, case’s battery life is 24 hours. Noise cancellation: Active Noise Cancellation.

Despite the fact that the price tag isn’t in the budget range, these earphones still fall into the midrange range, so they’re more affordable than Sony’s WF-1000XM4, Apple’s AirPods Pro 2, or even Beats Fit Pro. It’s fair to say that all three models offer better sound and ANC. But, none of them are submersible, and none of them have 10 bands of equalizer, so your sound can be tailored.

Compared to other headphones, the JBL Reflect Aero have the best value out of the bunch. They’re a great choice for swimmers and active users alike, while also being a great option for budget-conscious consumers who want more premium features.

JBL Reflect Aero-Amazon.com

Pros of the JBL Reflect Aero

Sound quality is excellent
Waterproofing and IP68 are both effective
Controls and audio prompts are both helpful and easy to use
Improved ear detection

Cons of the JBL Reflect Aero

There are no major issues with ANC
Call quality isn’t great
The bass could be better

JBL Reflect Aero-Amazon.com

Overview of the JBL Reflect Aero

Despite appearing similar to ordinary sports headphones, the JBL Reflect Aero has more to offer than meets the eye. Its circular frame has wing tips to help keep it securely in place even when exercising.

One obvious feature that makes these wireless earbuds stand out is their waterproofing. They have an IP68 rating, which means they aren’t just water-resistant. They’ll keep on blasting the tunes for 30 minutes down 1.5 meters in salt or fresh water (although Bluetooth signals do not travel well in water, so keep that in mind).

There’s more, too. In addition to active noise cancellation, touch controls, in-ear detection, and a 12-hour battery life (24 hours total with charging case), JBL packs in other premium features as well. This is already a lot, even if you don’t consider the great sound quality and the fact that you can actually customize their touch gestures for volume control, for that sub-£150 price.

With IP68 rating, excellent sound quality, impressive touch controls, and a great feature set, these headphones are an excellent value. Oh, and they are extremely affordable

Available prices and specifications for JBL Reflect Aero
This true wireless earbud will cost you / £119, which is particularly affordable for what it offers. 0.5 oz (13 grams) per earbud, Bluetooth 5.2 interface, earbud battery life is 8 hours, case’s battery life is 24 hours. Noise cancellation: Active Noise Cancellation.

Despite the fact that the price tag isn’t in the budget range, these earphones still fall into the midrange range, so they’re more affordable than Sony’s WF-1000XM4, Apple’s AirPods Pro 2, or even Beats Fit Pro. It’s fair to say that all three models offer better sound and ANC. But, none of them are submersible, and none of them have 10 bands of equalizer, so your sound can be tailored.

Compared to other headphones, the JBL Reflect Aero have the best value out of the bunch. They’re a great choice for swimmers and active users alike, while also being a great option for budget-conscious consumers who want more premium features.

It’s all about design with JBL Reflect Aero

Generally speaking, the JBL Reflect Aero earphones don’t differ much from other sports earphones when it comes to design. The JBL Reflect Aero have that nice honeycomb pattern on the side that faces your ears, so they’re very similar to Bang & Olufsen’s Beoplay E8 Sport earphones except they’re just a little bigger.

The JBL Reflect Aero’s best feature is its touch controls, which are responsive and customizable, along with helpful sound prompts, which we have to praise. In fact, AirPods Pro were not available until months after they hit the market with the second generation, where you could program two of those touch gestures to control volume.

It is possible for these earphones to be a little too big for users with small ears (or ear canal openings) due to the fact that they come with silicone tips in three sizes and three wing tip pairs. Those ear tips could probably be a little smaller, even at their smallest size.

JBL Reflect Aeros come with app support, which is the JBL Headphones app. Certainly you don’t have to download the app in order to use the earphones, but it is well worth it. Its 10-band EQ lets you customize their sound significantly, so you can not only expand their functionality but also personalize their sound.

Aerodynamic performance of JBL Reflect Aero

With JBL’s Ambient Aware feature (transparency mode), you can hear enough of your surroundings to have a conversation with another person while the music is still playing at approximately half volume.

If you want to switch between your phone and your laptop at the same time, you can pair both devices at the same time. For instance, if you’re getting a phone call while watching a movie on your laptop. Additionally, the in-ear detection is very good at detecting when an earbud has been taken off or put back on when it’s very reactive. Furthermore, the microphone sounds great when you’re on the phone – so you know you’re being heard clearly. The high end sounds crystal clear and detailed.

While the device can connect to two devices at once, you can only listen to one input at a time. Additionally, you have to play or pause one source, wait a few seconds, then play the other one, which can be annoying when you’re in a hurry. Lastly, the mic’s frequency range is limited, so there’s less low-end, and it’s not 100% noise-repellent.

These headphones will sound terrible if you don’t fit them properly in your ears with those silicone ear tips. There isn’t going to be much depth to the overall sound, with the mid-range sounding recessed, the bass being very restrained, and the high end lacking detail as well. Before watching videos or playing music, make sure your ear tips completely plug into your ears.

It’s important to point out these shortcomings so that you understand that JBL Reflect Aeros aren’t on the high-end audiophile level, however, despite a few quirks, JBL Reflect Aero earbuds make great workout companions, especially if you’re working out in water. It is possible to fully submerge these devices for up to 30 minutes without any deterioration in the device performance thanks to their IP68 rating. The devices survive submersion in water and still play music, which has been user-confirmed. You can swim laps while wearing these as long as you have your phone nearby, and you don’t do deep dives.

If you’re thinking of buying JBL Reflect Aero headphones…

You need feature-filled buds to work out with. With all the best features you need to keep you focused, the JBL Reflect Aero earbuds deliver them with wing tips to keep them secured and in-ear detection and sensitive touch controls.

It’s difficult to find waterproof earbuds that can withstand complete immersion, but the JBL Reflect Aero can. It has a rating of IP68, which is higher than most other earbuds.

They perform almost as well as ones that cost £250, but cost a lot less. If you want good sound quality at a reasonable price, this is definitely a smart choice.

JBL Reflect Aero may not be best for you if…

There are plenty of other earbuds out there with better active noise cancellation than the JBL Reflect Aero. The low end is a bit inconsistent with these earbuds, so you can never be sure how that bass sounds from one track to the next.

Think about this as well

Using an FM radio transmitter as a workaround for water’s Bluetooth-blocking properties, Zygo Solo bone conduction headphones work around Bluetooth’s limitations.

In Conclusion

Compared to other headphones, the JBL Reflect Aero have the best value out of the bunch. They’re a great choice for swimmers and active users alike, while also being a great option for budget-conscious consumers who want more premium features.

George Dunning showcased a love for classic rock when he directed the 1968 animated jukebox comedy Yellow Submarine. The Beatles‘ music and iconography inspired his now-iconic musical adventure film. The story follows a fictionalised version of the Fab Four as they are recruited to save a music-loving town from some music-hating creatures. Although initial press conferences claimed Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon would voice themselves in Dunning’s film, the members eventually appeared in the film’s conclusion instead. Following Yellow Submarine’s success, Dunning continued animating and writing, following the film with Moon Rock.

During a 1980 interview with John Canemaker for Animiafilm, Dunning expressed how he perceived Yellow Submarine to be a time capsule for the colourful and influential decade that is the 1960s. “It is that. That’s the contribution of many people,” the animator shared. “The film would have had a life because of the Beatles’ music.” He also revealed how the film came about following a meeting with Twin magazine graphic designer Heinz Edelmann, stating: “I remember this brown envelope arrived with four drawings in it, one of each Beatle. It was really marvellous cause it had that solved, attended-to quality. You could see it wasn’t Mickey Mouse, and it wasn’t this, it wasn’t that—it was just there!” 

Dunning then shared: “Yellow Submarine is very much a phenomenon.”

His following film, Moon Rock, is an 11-minute short film about a spaceman who visits the moon. Dunning welcomes audiences with a quick countdown from ten, followed by a blast off of a live-action rocket. The faceless astronaut then lands on the moon and is immediately met by a gang of psychedelic creatures who inhabit the moon. As he explores the environment, the animation is juxtaposed with real-life footage, such as Olympic sprinters playing between animated shots of the astronaut shooting chocolate out at an insect-like creature. 

The nameless spaceman faces many complications when exploring, such as a colossal crate and more imposing alien-like creatures running towards him in a stampede. The visuals are complemented by trippy ambient music created by Ron Geesin, who you may know as the co-composer of the ‘Atom Heart Mother’ suite with Pink Floyd.

Dunning’s short is designed to challenge the perception of time and accentuate an exhilarating experience for the viewer. Its animation is sharp and unattractive yet satisfying in the grand scheme of the short, especially when the bright colours stand out against the white background. The director allegedly constructed Moon Rock around lateral thinking ideas, meaning solving a problem through an indirect yet creative approach with inconspicuous reasoning. Dunning exemplifies this approach through that of the astronaut, who combats against the inhabited threats on the moon with a device that shoots out treats such as jelly and chocolate. The substances are selected from a slot machine visual where bold colours and dark font occupy the screen. 

Moon Rock reads as fittingly on brand for the psychedelic hysteria that the 1960s and 1970s immersed itself in. The short is a trip, intended for a niche audience who are down for some whacky animation and bizarre events. 

Watch Dunning’s bizarre short film below.

Scape Service at St. Mary Magdalene and St. Martin Episcopal Church

By Agrippina Fadel 

A multi-sensory worship service at St. Mary Magdalene and St. Martin Episcopal Church in Coral Springs invites people into a unique spiritual experience – an exploration into the landscape of the soul through ancient prayers, live music, projected images, and a walking meditation in the candlelight. 

The service is called SCAPE and is offered on Sundays night at 7 p.m.  

SCAPE is a collaboration between the church and Mishkhah, a retreat and worship experience created by Kate Eaton. Founded to “reveal the mystery of Christ by stirring the senses and opening the heart,” Mishkhah creates multi-sensory services that integrate music, images, textures, light and movement, and prayer across the US and abroad.

Since founding Mishkhah in 2010, Eaton has partnered with churches, conventions, conferences, and seminaries to share her experience in creating worship environments. 

Eaton said Father Lee Davis, Rector at St. Mary Magdalene and St. Martin Episcopal Church, invited her to partner with them to create SCAPE as an offering to the community for people seeking places of beauty, peace, and transformation. 

“SCAPE fosters worship and prayer environments that enable us to fall into the embrace of our Creator. New rhythms in our breathing open us to ancient truths. We sense the possibility of healing and move out into the world again, restored and hopeful,” she explained. 

Eaton added that Mishkhah’s mission is to reveal the mystery of Christ through the arts, music, movement, and interaction.

She said that with the first night of Advent this past Sunday, the congregation starts the four-week season before Christmas, marked by waiting, pondering, and allowing the Christ child to form in Mary’s womb.

“It is a time for all to consider what they are waiting for in life. When God speaks, sometimes it’s hard for us to listen because of all the push-pull we experience in our everyday lives,” she said, adding that the service changes to honor the occasion.

“The church is bathed in candlelight and live music that crosses centuries and continents, weaving instruments from all over the world into the unfolding of the prayers,” said Eaton, adding that residents are welcome to attend the worship service, regardless of affiliation. 

“All are invited to explore the landscape of their souls every week through a walking meditation where stations around the church are created with questions, found objects, and icons where people can stop, ponder and pray,” she said. 

A recent visitor of the service, Katelyn, said that while it had been many years since she stepped inside a church, which can often be intimidating, her experience with SCAPE was quite the opposite.

“I felt incredibly welcomed, and the atmosphere created invites your spirit to open and connect with God with such ease. The ambient candlelight, ancient sounds, and experiential stations touched all senses and united the mind, body, and spirit. It was almost as though I stepped into another space and time and felt true peace,” she added.

The Episcopal Church of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Martin is a member of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida and a descendant of the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church.

St. Mary Magdalene and St. Martin Episcopal Church is located at 1400 Riverside Drive in Coral Springs. 

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Author Profile

Agrippina Fadel

Agrippina Fadel grew up in Siberia and received her master’s in journalism from Tyumen State University. Agrippina is also a writer and editor at Draftsy.net. She has been a US resident for over ten years and speaks English and Russian.

The dominating music trends of 2022 could only be summed up by one word: unexpected.

In a year where generational pop divas made long overdue returns to the fray, some outdid expectations (Beyoncé, Bad Bunny, Harry Styles) and others floundered (Rihanna, Drake, Blackpink). The overdue return of Kendrick Lamar was a perplexing affair, just as how no one could have predicted a nearly four-decade-old Kate Bush song to have the year’s most heartwarming reverse-charting narrative. 

BTS went on hiatus. Lizzo proved she could outmaneuver the algorithm. One of the year’s biggest chart-toppers was called “Unholy,” etching a non-binary singer and a trans-pop icon in the record books.

The self-produced lo-fi guitar funk of Steve Lacy went supernova. Everyone has finally stopped talking about Bruno. Taylor Swift proved that she’s more popular than ever. Yet not even Taylor dominated the cultural space like Bad Bunny, unleashing an album that became one of the top-10 most-streamed albums of all time on Spotify only five months after its release.

Underneath the Grammy nominations and platinum certifications was the beating heart of our playlists, featuring great new releases from indie rock strongholds, R&B svengalis, ambient techno gearheads, defining punk bands, and contemporary bossa nova revisionists. 

There’s rarely been an album roundup as sprawling and diverse as this, but we can all agree that this was a year like no other. Presented in no specific order, here are the 50 best albums of 2022.

It’s a good time to be a fan of survival horror games. The genre has seen a resurgence in popularity for the last few years but with a slew of hotly anticipated titles just around the corner, a gory renaissance of terror is upon us. Leading that charge is The Callisto Protocol, a third-person survival horror game set hundreds of years in the future on Jupiter’s moon, Callisto. Although technically a brand-new IP, the game’s pedigree has built layers of hype since its reveal. Developed by Striking Distance Studios and directed by industry veteran Glen Schofield, the game is a spiritual successor to the Dead Space series – a franchise co-created by Schofield himself and due for its own revival with a remake of the first game coming out in January of 2023.

Ahead of the game’s imminent release, composing duo Finishing Move appeared on our Twitch daily show to break down their approach to creating the skin crawling score and ambient sounds that imbue the game’s world with looming dread. The team, Brian Trifon and Brian Lee White, spoke with host Jon Weigell about the innovative methodology behind the compositions, which utilized aleatoric effects and custom sounds created by the Apprehension Engine, an increasingly popular tool for musicians working in the horror space. As part of the discussion, the duo unveiled two exclusive tracks from the game’s OST. Listen to both below.

The first track is titled “Europa,” and in a note provided to Rolling Stone is described by Finishing Move as, “representative of the game because it explores interplay between horror and humanity. It opens with an extremely dissonant, near cacophony of sound, and transitions into something with lush harmony consonance — thematic even — while maintaining an undercurrent of tension and anxiety.”

The second track is “Infection,” and it utilizes multiple layers of unique instrumentation to create its sound. “This piece is an excellent example of our explorations in using organic textures and ‘infecting’ them. Metal sculpture performance, wooden instruments, a blade of grass being blown, wind, dry ice, field recordings of frozen lakes shifting, the fame apprehension engine, et cetera. Ripping the sounds apart and rebuilding with granular synthesis, degrading with distortion, mangling and manipulation with Eurorack modules, stretching and slowing down into vast reverbs and FX chains until only a fragment of the original sound remains.”

For the full interview with Finishing Duo, check out the video below.

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The Callisto Protocol releases on Dec. 2 for PS5/PS4, Xbox One & Series X|S, and PC.