The Dream Cycles

Hello everyone, I am pleased to share with you a new album of sleeping > dreaming music. This album is eight and half hours long and is a supportive soundtrack for a deep night’s sleep and an extended journey into the realm of dreams. Available as a “pay what you want” release on Bandcamp and coming to streaming platforms soon.
“We sleep, but the loom of life never stops, and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up in the morning.” –Henry Ward Beecher

The Dream Cycles

For almost two decades ambient musician and consciousness explorer Michael Reiley has an interest in creating music for the liminal space between waking, dreaming, and sleep. On the 21st of January, 2021, Michael will release a long-form work called The Dream Cycles. This eight and a half-hour long album contains a carefully crafted mix of musical tones, binaural beats (for headphone listeners) tuned to aid sleep, long periods of silence or barely audible soundscapes to aid in the cycles of deep sleep, an extended session during the third phase of sleep to guide in lucid dreaming, and a gently unfolding piece of music on the piano that emerges slowly from the lucid dream suite like a mirage to welcome you into the Hypnopompic state of shifting towards waking consciousness.
The album is the third in a trilogy of sleep music albums. 2014’s eight-hour sleep album Quiescent was hailed internationally for its soothing, sleep-inducing textures described as “A ‘gateway’ to an ephemeral place and beyond”. Michael also has several years of experience playing sleep/dream concerts in lofts, homes, studios, and even a dream psychologist’s office.
The Dream Cycles evolves from Michael’s 2020 offering Celestial Music Box, an online platform that generates soothing ambient music by using the position of overhead stars in the sky creating an immersive, healing wash of sound conducted by the stars and planets above. Also during the pandemic, Michael offered several overnight steaming sleep concerts in a series called Sleep Stream on his YouTube channel mixing field recordings, looped keyboards, and hand pan improvisations for fans around the world.
The Dream Cycles’ title is adapted from a book by H.P. Lovecraft from his “Dreamlands” series. Michael’s study and practice of Buddhism, Dream Yoga, Lucid Dreaming, and his work and teaching of “Listening in Dreams” practice with Deep Listening co-founded IONE all inform the musical journey through the spectrums of consciousness illuminating the night as we listen, sleep, dream, dissolve, and reemerge reborn and anew every morning.

Sleep Stream, August Edition

Becoming transported to the land of blissful soundscapes. This month live from Croatia I will remix the soundscapes of the summer Mediterranean Coastal Sea with cicada, waves, birds and the subtle sounds of a soothing summer slumber.

Subscribe to support the channel and get notified when the weekly videos post

Also you can help support the creation of this music at my Patreon and receive downloads of the music from the channel and other musical goodies.


Celestial Music Box

Because I received so many requests to give free access to Celestial Music Box (the generative music system that creates ambient music from the location and distance of the stars above you), I’ve opened up the website so it’s free to access and listen to since I realize for many people during this economic hardship, supporting music is not possible. For me the most important thing is to share the sounds and that you might find some peace and well being within.

As mentioned, if you have the means and want to support Ambient and Therapeutic music the link to my Patreon is here.

With love and warmth from Croatia,
Michael

Sleep Stream, July Edition

Hello, I hope this email finds you well. Just a quick note, this weekend I’ll be playing live for my monthly SLEEP STREAM series on the MEDITATIVE SOUNDSCAPES channel.
Saturday July 18, 4pm-midnight ET

SLEEP STREAM

If you haven’t been keeping up I’ve posted about one sound bath piece of music a week on the YouTube Channel MEDITATIVE SOUNDSCAPES. These sounds are for exploring the slower and deeper states and the nexus of listening, attention and awareness. They’re usually 45-120 minutes long. They’re not designed to be “watched”, but more as ambient music while working, doing yoga, meditation, movement, writing, drawing, walking or resting.

Recently, I’ve been posting a series there called COLOR THERPY that pairs specific musical frequencies with simple color gradient videos. Today I posed a video using an orange gradient with the frequency 417 Hz the “RE Frequency” from the ancient Solfeggio Frequency tuning system. The idea is that you put the video on full screen and allow to the color to wash over your room or closed eyes while you listen to its connected frequency from the Solfeggio tuning.

RE 417 Hz on MEDITATIVE SOUNDSCAPES

RE – 417 Hz
This tone produces the energy to trigger changes. This frequency cleans past traumatic experiences. This 417 HZ frequency acts at the cellular level by putting you in contact with an inexhaustible source of energy that allows you to transform your life.

Supporters of my Patreon can download these sounds from the YouTube channel to add to your own music library and to support me and the creation of this work.

Here’s a comment from supporter of the Patreon (and an epic supporter of the arts in general)

“Love the pacing and sense of presence in this.
Really does help to provide relief through trustworthy centering of attention.”
Nicholas Croft, Meditative Soundscapes Patreon Supporter


Be well and please send me a message back if you are receiving and enjoying the sonic connections, I’d love to hear how your summer is going…
Michael

Celestial Music Box Premiere

Join me on MEDITATIVE SOUNDSCAPES for the premiere of CELESTIAL MUSIC BOX. At midnight onJune 20 (The Summer Solstice) EST (NYC Time) I will be playing the entire night sky using the technology behind CELESTIAL MUSIC BOX. From midnight this Friday (EST Time), you can access the sounds of CELESTIAL MUSIC BOX through the exclusive web portal by supporting my PATREON.

Celestial Music Box Premiere

CELESTIAL MUSIC BOX is an ambient music experience that immerses body, mind and spirit in the healing energy of the stars. This suite of gentle tones is generated in real time using the night sky above the listener as musical score, to bring the “harmony of the spheres” down to earth. Specifically tuned to healing frequencies, each note is generated by the position, brightness and distance of the stars, showering the listener with a gentle, deeply relaxing, rain of sounds. Listeners can choose to hear the stars from any place on earth and any time in the past or future—giving your special place or time a new voice.   CELESTIAL MUSIC BOX will be an exclusive listening experience for members of my PATREON. You can support my work for at a minimum of $4.32 per month and receive downloads of my MEDITATIVE SOUNDSCAPE music for meditation, relaxation, sleeping, yoga, listening, being and becoming and of course you will have unlimited access to listen to CELESTIAL MUSIC BOX listening to the night sky as a unique sleeping experience driving by the stars above.

What is Patreon? Here’s a great description and video.

One thousand thank you’s for reading, listening and sharing.

~Michael

Music from the Heavens

Wishing you and all sentient beings safety and peace during these turbulent times.

TL;DR: Check out Celestial Music Box and support by Patreon to get access to the sounds.

I’m announcing an exciting new sleep music listening experience and I would love if you were a part of it.

In 2016 I started doing Sleep Concerts. During these concerts I play soothing ambient music for 6-12 hours while people sleep. They are very fulfilling and often moving experiences for me, but they are also exhausting often requiring several days for me to physically recover. During once such concert in 2017 in Brooklyn, NY I had an idea: what if something natural could trigger the notes while people sleep? Biorhythm sensors? Air temperature? A music box?! What if the stars in the sky could trigger sounds like raised dots on the metal cylinder of a music box? During the wee hours of the morning while emerged the clear meditative state that often arises from playing controlled, gentle music for so many hours, Celestial Music Box was born. It took several years of thinking and research, but it’s finally ready!

Imagine listening to music that uses the coordinates of the overhead sky at night to trigger notes while you sleep. Imagine going back in time and listening to the night sky the day you were born, your child was born, you met you soulmate or someone you loved left this planet? Imagine listening to the night sky over Greenland the night Amelia Earhart flew over the Atlantic ocean?

With Celestial Music Box you can choose the date and location to generate the star map above and listen tot he music that star map generates.

If you are having difficulty sleeping or would like to hear a system of music supported by the sacred geometry of the universe itself, this is for you!

Celestial Music Box will be released on June 20, the Summer Solstice, the longest night of the year.
This music will be exclusively available to my Patreon supporters.

So in addition to the free music from Meditative Soundscapes I post there, you will be able to listen to generative sleep music system that I am sure will resonate deeply with many people.

Be a part of the community of Celestial Deep Listeners.

S L E E P S T R E A M

Happy weekend everyone! Just a reminder I’ll be doing my second 8-hour Sleep Stream live on YouTube on Sunday 5/17. It starts at 4pm EST (22:00 Central Europe Time) and will go until midnight EST. This will be a perfect soundtrack for unwinding, meditation, and of course rest with live hand pan, dreamy sine tones and soothing environmental sounds. Hope to see you there!  

Mikroneisa – S L E E P S T R E A M

LUCID

7th Annual Fall Experimental Music Festival
November 12, 2016 at 9:00 p.m. – November 13, 2016 at 6:00 a.m. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2698662​
Facebook Event

Press Release:

For the second time this year, composer and <fidget> artist-in-residence Michael Reiley McDermott will perform an overnight sleep music concert.

Lucid will be an 8-hour sleep music performance exploring the liminal space between sleeping, dreaming, meditating and listening. As participants sleep and explore their lucid dream space McDermott will create a soothing, supportive, continuous score exploring the themes of death, bardo and rebirth found in “The Tibetan Book of the Dead”.

The concert begins at 10pm Saturday and will go until 6am Sunday morning. Please bring sleeping bags and blankets for your journey. There will be wine and dream tea available. Come early for a pre-show talk by McDermott and <fidget> co-director Peter Price at 9pm.

Tickets for this 10+ hour event are available at different levels of support named for the six stages of Bardo described in “The Tibetan Book of the Dead”:
Kyenay – $6 (online only)
Milam – $12 (student/artist)
Samten – $24
Chikhai – $48
Chönyi – $96
Sidpa – $192

As preparation for this sleep music concert I took part in a Dream Over at the Rubin Museum in NYC last week. It was a magical night sleeping among ancient Buddhist artifacts and artwork and sharing the space with dozens of other dreamers. You can read a review of the event at Artsy


HOH RAINFOREST

In August 2016 I traveled to the Northwest United States to do some field recording for my Echozoo project. The idea was that I would record some ambient sounds from habitats from a biologically unique place in North America for designing the imaginary sound habitats for Echozoo. My travels took me to Glacier National Park and the National Bison Reserve in Montana, Turnbull Wildlife Refuge and Hoh National Forest in Washington.

Of these four locations I found the Hoh Rainforest to be such a unique land and soundscape. I decided to create a sonic portrait in my Sonic Photography series of sounds recorded in the Hoh Rainforest. I spent two nights staying in a tent at Huckleberry Lodge. TV personality Mick Dodge from the National Geographic show The Legend of Mick Dodge lives at this lodge. Mick and I had some nice conversations about the sonic characteristic of the Hoh Rainforest. He told me about the low growl of Hoh River and its connection with the native Hoh tribe which found its way into this piece.

With this Hoh Rainforest piece and many of these Sonic Photographs, I am attempting to create a liminal journey between the real and imagined sound world of an environment. Like a photographer who would use photographic development techniques, I work with collage, saturation, filtering and creative lighting to reframe the beautiful sounds of this rainforest as a surrealistic journey for the ears and mind.

Sleep Concert, Attune and Beep

SLEEP MUSIC CONCERT

Last month I played an all-night sleep music concert during the Spring Equinox at thefidget space. The 12-hour concert was a beautiful night / morning with people doing yoga, dancing, reading, and sleeping throughout the night as I played. The piece was covered in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Here’s a video taken of some of the music and projections that were happening throughout the night:

Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State

Here’s the entire 12-hour concert audio at archive.org.

Finally, I wanted to share this beautiful poem that Glenn Benge, who attended the event, wrote in response:


ATTUNE

ATTUNE
Image by Shaily Shah

As part of my training with Pauline Oliveros to becoming certified as a Deep Listening practitioner, I’m co-leading a sound and movement workshop with Darcy Lyons next week. I’ll be leading some sound meditations, Deep Listening exercises/scores and playing some music for the dance/movement portion.

“In this two hour workshop participants will be guided through improvisational movement structures, gentle bodywork, still/moving meditations, and listening practices that foster compassion, healing, and connection. Everyone is welcome. No experience required.”

Saturday April 16, 11:30-1:30 PM
The Iron Factory

118 Fontain Street, 3rd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19122
Tickets $12 in advance (Sales End April 14)
$20 Cash or Check at the door


NOREMIXES NORESIDENCY

The NOREMIXES monthly at The Art Dept continues in April with sets by Mikronesia, Jeff Zeigler and Oh! Pears

Friday April 22, 7-9 PM
The Art Dept

1638 E. Berks St. Philadelphia, PA 19125
Doors 6:30pm, Show 7-9pm, $10


BEEP COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCY

BEEP class

This semester I am Composer-in-Residence at Temple University’s BEEP (The Boyer Electroacoustic Ensemble Project). For this residency, I’m guest lecturing and developing a piece using my “Sonic Photorgraphy” techiniques for the students that they’ll perform at the end of the semester. More info on this premiere next month. Here’s a photo from my first BEEP class:

Discussing artistry, community, and Deep Listening with composer in residence @mikronesia. @beep_TU @BoyerCollege pic.twitter.com/cZi0ZGDYCE — Adam Vidiksis (@vidikulous) April 1, 2016

Quiescent

image

For much of 2014 I worked on a suite of very still and subtle music. Perhaps this was a merging of my music and meditation practice. Perhaps this was a result of pairing down my once sprawling studio of synthesizers, machines and wires to a much simpler setup. Perhaps it was just music in the universe that needed to be born. Since I started making ambient music over 10 years ago, I’ve always had an interest in music to sleep to. I enjoy the idea of music that is not always listened to with the active mind, music that washes over someone’s subconscious as they sleep.

Release info

Quiescent is journey into a meditative dreamland. Created by composer Michael McDermott, the album in its entirety is an eight hour long soundtrack patterned after the four sleep cycles. The music gently drifts with you as you release into slumber and then brings you back through to the other side of consciousness. This album can be experienced as a companion to a full night’s sleep or in smaller pieces during yoga, meditation, relaxation or being. The album is pay-what-you-wish pricing, so you may download it for free or if you can place a monetary amount on eight hours of original music anything is appreciated.

Download from bandcamp