Laraaji

Celebrated New York ambient musician Laraaji is coming to the Miami Beach Bandshell on May 21 to perform a new immersive experience called Aqua Garden Flow. His partner in this presentation is Coral Morphologic, the filmmaking Miami-based art and science collaborative focused on the well-being of the world’s marine ecologies.

It’s the first in a planned series of audiovisual projects uniting the veteran soundscaper with Coral Morphologic’s tandem of musician J.D. McKay and marine biologist Colin Foord. In a telephone interview with PureHoney, Laraaji sounded keen to get this aquatic voyage underway: “I look forward to the idea of sharing live music with video with Coral Morphologic — people who are raising consciousness about the situation of the coral reefs on our planet.”

Consciousness is at the core of Laraaji’s work, which spans more than 40 years of pioneering and prolific creation in a realm variously described as ambient or New Age. With a multi-disciplinary approach that has encompassed music, stand-up, meditation and instruction, Laraaji is known for his joyful and encouraging way with audiences — a healer who creates space through his artistry for listeners to be enveloped, nurtured and held.

“People come up to me and tell me they left their body and they were flying around the planet,” he said. ”Or the music helped them to connect with a lost friend or a lost memory.”

Aqua Garden Flow restores one of our most ancestral memories — of the seas that gave rise to all life on Earth. It also lets us know that we’re paying attention and staying positive at a time of constant assault on our personal bandwidth and growing unease about the health of the planet.

Visuals created by Coral Morphologic — whose signature is a style of “underwater media” that is both contemplative and breathtaking — will be accompanied here by animations from artist and musician Robert Beatty. On stage, Laraaji will be joined by his longtime collaborator, musician and sound healer Arji OceAnanda Cakouros, for an experience that aims to shift bodies and minds from “fixed” to “fluid.”

Laraaji said he’s especially looking forward to spending time in South Florida’s warm ocean waters, noting that we’re 70% water ourselves. Bobbing around in the ocean is one way to tap into our “soft flowing” nature, he said, something we may also do unconsciously when we “get on a swing or we dance or we rock a baby.”

From his music and his references in conversation to the rhythmic properties of human behavior, one thing becomes abundantly clear: Laraaji is comfortable in the space that repetition creates. His affinity for evolutionary repetition and variation is there in his otherworldly, drone-based compositions; in recurring titles and motifs that encompass the real (oceans, suns) and the fantastical (unicorns); and in the stories he shares in interview after interview.

Stories like how his love of music arose in church and by hearing his mother sing along to housework; how a magical voice told him to forgo cash and instead trade his guitar for the zither in the pawn shop window; how the legendary musician Brian Eno dropped his business card into Laraaji’s instrument case; and how, one day at home after a meditative walk, the universe cracked open and revealed itself to him in a chorus of horns.

The process of repetition — in music, dance or even laughter — “allows the consciousness to stop driving out of Present Time and become concentrated in the present moment,” he said. In such moments we can access deep relaxation and a state like savasana. Through the intensity and expansiveness of Laraaji’s music — a product of the centeredness he has worked hard to achieve and maintain — we can center ourselves and calm our overactive minds.

When asked if he has advice for aspiring artists, he shared a method of his: Come up with a three-word, representational “pet name” for the work. “Vibra Space Sound” was one of his. “That name helped me to focus on a direction — music that was spatial and vibrational,” he said. “In other words, it could impact people as a vibrational field more than just a linear performance trying to impress people.”

He said to be open to constructive opinions: “Accepting feedback is a way to become conscious of what people are hearing and feeling or where their imaginations are going.” When he started to make a practice of asking audiences for their input, back when he was busking in New York City, he said it was “sometimes uncomfortable” to hear.

But after a while, “I realized that if I’m going to grow and expand, I’ve got to experiment with suggestions and constructive criticism,” he said.“You find out, either it does apply to me or it doesn’t apply to me.”

Asked what a perfect day would look like to him, Laraaji said, “It’s a 24-hour free flow. When I feel totally prosperous.” And what is prosperity for someone so in touch with the universe? “Being able to do what I want when I want to do it” — “without,” he emphasized, “bringing discomfort to anyone else.” Or, likely, any living thing.

Laraaji and Arji OceAnanda Cakouros perform Aqua Garden Flow with Coral Morphologic and Robert Beatty, 7pm Sunday, May 21 at Miami Beach Bandshell. GET TICKETS laraajimusic.bandcamp.com, coralmorphologic.com ~ Carly Cassano