The extraordinary new CD of healing sound music, "Division by Zero" is now available for your listening and transformation.
Enter a world where sound and music become more than sound and music. Enter a listening experience that touches the part of human Spirit where healing occurs. Enter a space of awareness that transcends music and becomes "A cellular journey into the Cosmos". Enter "Division by Zero"
Since humans first put their hands together and raised their voices, sound and music have been a tool for healing, exploring the inner reaches of mind and Spirit, and of worship. In Division by Zero, Dr. Grossman, Sound Healer, Shaman, and Licensed Acupuncturist, unites instruments from Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America, India, and Africa into a fabric of sound and vibration that is simply extraordinary. As one listener said:
"Dr. Grossman creates a powerful, sacred opportunity to journey within, blending his deeply committed healing presence with a rare gift for creating sound & vibration that expands, deepens, opens, and ultimately heals. I felt completely nourished by the evening ... my body relaxed & soothed, my mind clear & calm, my spirit light & joyful."
soundJourney is made up of Richard Grossman on Gong, Didgeridoo, world percussionist and Flautist Marla Leigh, Evan Fraser on Mbira and Kalimba, and producer of two platinum records Rae DiLeo on electronics.
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BIOGRAPHIES
* * * * * Richard Grossman * * * * *
Dr. Richard Grossman's fascination and commitment to healing started quite early in his life. The son of a pharmacist, he grew up surrounded by doctors; this birthed and fed his interest in medical knowledge.
However, growing up in that environment seriously affected his health, and medical science could not help him recover.
In Central Oregon, Richard met a wonderful 86 year old woman who was trained in Native American healing arts. This proved to be a pivotal point in both his health and in the direction he chose for his life. In his own healing he realized that his destination was to heal others as well.
Richard's path took him to India where, studying meditation on the banks of the Ganges the seeds of understanding the spiritual aspects of healing were planted. Over the course of 10 more years, these seeds continued to germinate and grow into a decision to dedicate his life to helping others on their paths towards healing and health.
In the mid-seventies, Richard studied further aspects of natural healing: massage, macrobiotics, juice fasting, yoga, martial arts, Oriental philosophy, etc., which all led towards his matriculation in 1979 to begin his formal education in Oriental Medicine at the California Acupuncture College. After three years of intensive study, he was fortunate to be one of three students from his school to attend a World Health Organization sponsored acupuncture training in Beijing, PRC.
Over the next years, in addition to growing and maintaining a private practice, he earned a Masters in Acupuncture, a Doctor of Oriental Medicine degree, a Ph.D. in Oriental Medicine, a Diplomat in Acupuncture, a Diplomat of Pain Management, and a Diplomat in Acupuncture Orthopedics.
While treating a patient sometime in the early 1990's, on an impulse he played a Tibetan tingsha over the patient. He noticed a profound shift in the efficacy of the treatment. This began his study of the healing power of sound and music.
He taught himself a number of instruments, including didgeridoo, gong, native flute, etc., and began incorporating these sounds into his healing practice. He also began to incorporate the use of binaural-beat, which culminated in his first CD, "Sound Journey, Volume 1".
Production of "Division by Zero" began in 2001 with the goal of creating a method for people to experience a Shamanic Journey with music. This evolved into soundJourney, a healing sound performance experience.
He currently lives in the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains and continues his private medical practice in addition to his performance and recording schedule.
* * * * * Marla Leigh * * * * *
Performer/composer/educator Marla Leigh specializes in percussion from around the world. Growing up in Rochester, N.Y., Marla started her musical journey at young age, studying piano at age 5 and flute at age 9. A growing interest in improvisation lead her to California Institute of the Arts, where she studied jazz flute. Almost immediately after entering college, Marla was introduced to the incredible world of hand drumming and her musical focus changed.
As a soloist, Marla creates sonically satisfying environments with a variety of ethnic drums and flutes. Marla also performs as the leader of her own group, "Marla Leigh's Percussion Ensemble". She has performed in the Los Angeles area at The Skirball Center, The Knitting Factory and at the Earth Day Festival. Other venues include Luzerne Switzerland Music Festival, Bali Arts Festival, Irish Music Festival, Percussive Arts Convention and at the Hawaii Healing Festival.
Marla has been commissioned to write works for dance ensembles, movies, universities and for short animation films. Marla has also organized two successful Women's Drumming and Yoga Retreats in Hawaii and is often hired to teach drumming at various yoga and holistic retreats around the world.
Marla has studied with some of the finest percussion masters in the world, such as, John Bergamo, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, Glen Velez, Trichy Sankaran, Poovalar Srinivasaan, Kobla and Alfred Ladzekpo, and Randy Gloss. She plays a variety of ethnic drums, such as frame drums, North Indian Tabla, South Indian Kanjira and Solkattu, West African Drums (from the Ewe people of Ghana). She has also studied western and non-western (Bali and Indian) flutes and composition.
Marla received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Music and a Master of Fine Arts in Percussion from CalArts and has also studied at Ali Akbar College in San Rafael and the Bhavan Center in London, England.
* * * * * Rae DiLeo * * * * *
Rae was born in New York City and spent his childhood in New York and Oklahoma.
After high school he attended the University of Vermont, and spent a few years in the music conservatory, studying classical guitar. From there he attended Berklee College of Music, where he was introduced to engineering.
After Berklee he became staff engineer at a local studio in Boston made famous by recording a lot of many early George Thorogood & The Destroyers records. Over the next few years Rae pumped out a lot of the classic 80's Boston punk, like The Fu's and Christmas. From here Rae left to NY where he went on to Lenny Kravitz's first home-based Waterfront studios in Hoboken, New Jersey. Here Rae dove into recording a lot of the Northern New Jersey Speed metal scene, spending several years recording New Renaissance Record's early catalog and some of SST favorites (Das Damen).
At around the same time a lot of early hip hop records were coming through the studio and Rae switched gears and tracked many artists for Profile Records, some of his other highlights include engineering records for T La Rock, Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster Flash.
In early 1988, Rae moved to LA and bounced around studios recording records for some of Capitol's emerging rap artists and some of Ruthless records early catalog. After being introduced to Henry Rollins Rae went on to engineer several Rollins Band records for Texas Hotel and still to this day works on a lot of spoken word records for Henry Rollin's 2/13/61 record label.
In the early 90's, Rae went on to CD re-mastering/restoration. He at this point spent several years working on Rhino Records catalog. At the same time he started a music production company with Steve Rawlings (lead singer from 80s band Danse Society). They spent time scoring music commercials and several independent films and released several Ambient CD's, through the now defunct San Francisco record label Visible Records.
In 1994 Rae got together again with Henry Rollins and recorded "Get In The Van", which won a Grammy for best spoken word book in 1995. At around the same time Rae was introduced to an organization called Share, and was so moved by the work they were doing he decided to put together a benefit featuring many Native American musicians, donating all the money to help Share blanket drive for the Lakota Indians of South Dakota.
In 1996 Rae and several partners began to build Resist Records, which was a LA based Jazz/Trip Hop Label, exploring the darker sides of jazz and trip hop. Rae being staff producer, recorded alot of Resist's catalog, including the now famous Dr. Kevorkian record which was a cd of the famous doctor's original jazz compositions. He remembers spending a week in a hotel room in Detroit recording the Doctor playing flute, and he says to this day one of the most interesting recording sessions he has ever been involved in.
In late 1997 Rae got a call to go to Chicago to work with the band Filter, a relationship that still continues through today. In the last few years he has also worked with artists Radford, Billy Idol and PJ Olsson. In 2003, Rae and Bob Ezrin were developing Chicago band, Escape From Earth, and recorded an EP Three Seconds East.
In 2004, Rae has been at work on a new Filter record, as well as some film cues for the film girl Next Door, and in between developing several new artists.
* * * * * Evan Fraser * * * * *
Evan Fraser is a global percussionist based in the San Francisco Bay area. His styles include:
Brazilian,Indian, African (Ghanaian, Eastern European and Reggae.
Originally from Orcas Island, Washington, Evan recently graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in World Music. His teachers include: John Bergamo, Randy Gloss, Kobla Ladzekpo, Beautrice Lawluvi, Alfred Ladzekpo, Keith Terry, Jim Santi Owen, Sriji, Mark Growden, and Sulley Imoro.
Some of the instruments Evan plays are: jaw harp, kalimba, berimbau, pandeiro, marimbula, mouth bow, overtone flute, frame drum, brekete, bottle singing, harmonica, melodica, keyboards, and various small percussion.
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