Entering the Axis Mundi

Entering The Axis Mundi – Spotted Peccary Music SPM-4303

The Axis Mundi is a musical place of connection between heavenly and the earthly realms, and you can enjoy this phenomenal cosmic experience in the comfort of your headphones with no worries of huge ancient flying lizards, space travel, dreaming owls, navigating the dark oceans over Atlantis, or calculating magic numbers. The feeling is of the connection between Heaven and Earth, this amazing album of electronic music provides access to the particular spot that one occupies standing at “the center of the world”.

1. About the album Entering The Axis Mundi

Entering The Axis Mundi is inspired by the mystical source or center where all things exist at the same time. The “axis mundi” (sometimes also known as the cosmic axis, world axis, world tree, world pillar, columna cerului, etc.) is a point described as the center of the world, the connection between earth and heaven, the gateway to Shambhala. Each of these tracks, in my imagination, are sound theaters or locations that could be going on forever, to exist in any number of locales at once. The listener experiences approaching the phenomenon, with full submersion, and after a good visit, moving along into other realms at the end of the track. A circle begins and ultimately returns to the start, and you have gained all of the experience of the textures, and silence, sparking a spiritual awakening into the power of sound of the journey around the forms.

2. The tracks

The first track is actually the end of a cycle, “A Joyous Return” (8:00), I hear sparkling layers of tiny sounds swirling, I see an interlocking of the heavens with mountain peaks, with currents blending into a rich cloud. Bart speaks of a joyous return as a state of grace from which you never left. All problems are simultaneously solved by a sweet surrender to what cannot be seen with the physical eyes. “To Ride A Pterodactyl” (10:20) is a real thrill. I think one of the instruments sounds like a ringing banjo, but I have been wrong before.

With electronica many traditional old instruments can become something quite new, and new never-before-heard sounds can come from thin air. A Moog Theremin evokes this insane ride pulling up to 5 Gs, hang on tightly to this flying reptile ‘winged finger’ especially while gaining altitude. The rhythm of the wings are formed by a skin and muscle membrane stretching from its elongated fourth finger to its hind limbs, hence the reference to a winged finger. Feel the throbbing as the beast runs, we ride and learn to stay secure through all the surprises.

According to the sagely insight provided by the magi of the Wikipedia, Galaxy Cosmos Redshift 7 contains old Population II (metal-poor) and possibly Population III (stars with extremely poor metallicity), according to astronomers, and is three times brighter than the brightest distant galaxies (redshift, z > 6) detected up to the time of its discovery. Behold the track “Race To Cosmos Redshift 7 Galaxy” (7:24).

Cycles and patterns form and fade after…

…lingering and alternating, upholding the heavens even as its rhythmically repeating segments invite the listener to climb somehow. I hear the strings in electronics, I feel the hall of mirrors, repeating into infinity, “Parisa And Miriam” (6:27). For the track “An Owl’s Dream Of Me” (7:44), Bart and the owl get along very well, the sound is playful and upbeat with a mystical framework.

Now we come to the title track, “Entering The Axis Mundi” (7:13). Outside the boundaries of the microcosm lie foreign realms representing chaos, death, or night, the earthly, heavenly, and the sub-earthly, the underworld, as in the Ancient Greek, Incan, Mayan, and Ancient Egyptian religious systems. The sequencers guide the way.

Now sit right back, and you will hear a tale of the “River Boat To Atlantis” (8:17). Here I hear familiar stringed instruments, plucked or bowed, and transmitted through the water. Looking down at gigantic ancient man-made stepped monoliths, I see huge pyramids, castles, roads, monuments and a stadium, tall platforms, or ziggurats, featuring staircases leading to heaven. We are submerged and reflecting, the way is down, and further down, deeper into the depths. The mood is easy and calm with constantly evolving patterns that emerge, laced with sound samples, a creaking door, seagulls, electronic laughing birds on top of caves or subterranean springs, which are probably openings to the underworld.

Consider the track…

…”The Secret Of 33.3″ (8:49). “Angel numbers are not explicit,” says Bart, “they are guides that can be listened to or ignored. Some introspection is required for you to truly understand the messages. If you don’t put meaning to these numbers, then they are just coincidences. But if you let them mean something to you, then they will guide you to growth in mind, body, and spirit.”

Some numbers make patterns with infinity as the background, I hear shimmering patterns that revolve and open into unexpected territories, a symbolic and mathematical exploration of lots of activity in the higher frequency sounds, tinkling bells and ringing metal.

Psychologist Carl Jung first described the concept of synchronicity as meaning applied to patterns that may at first seem coincidental, defining it as “meaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved.” This final track, “Blessed Under Your Feet” (8:09) takes us through and beyond.

3. Where to buy the album Entering The Axis Mundi?

You can buy the album Entering The Axis Mundi at the store of Spotted Peccary Music and Bandcamp.

Written by Robin James, January 18th, 2023