Given the chance to do anything, what would you choose to do? This question, at once simple, daunting, and empowering, is a central theme of Entangled Mind’s most recent album Lucid Living, a dynamic blend of experimental downtempo and collaborative instrumentation, released by The Rust Music on May 21st.
For anyone who has ever experienced a lucid dream, this question is no stranger. Suddenly, a dreamer awakens to a realm of possibility beyond their imagination. Often, this realization can be so exciting, so invigorating, it’s difficult to actually stay within the dreamscape to choose one’s next move.
Album Artwork by Vibrational Perspectives
Waking from a lucid dream of their own one morning, Entangled Mind reflected on the wonder caused by this phenomenon and realized that this same world of potential awaits us each day on waking up. Every time we open our eyes, we are presented with the opportunity to make choices that embody our deepest aspirations, to live and act with lucid awareness of the limitless nature of being.
Lucid Living is a euphonic exploration of these thoughts and showcases another clear advance in Entangled Mind’s distinct production style.
Embracing entropy and a limitless nature, the album serves as a testament to the boundless creativity and expressive potential, and embodies what it means to live more lucidly in this ever-evolving world that we’re all entangled in.-Entangled Mind
The Entangled Experience
Described as “an audible expression of an entangled experience,” Entangled Mind is the alias of Marissa Barbato, a Boston-based producer distinguished for their wide-ranging use of organic instrumentation with intricate textures of electronic sound design. The result is a unique sound, both primeval and futuristic. Innovative in their approach to bass music, Entangled Mind utilizes neuro, glitch, psy, and dub in fresh ways while producing an effect that is also meditative and ancestrally familiar.
For Entangled Mind, 2023 proved a jam-packed year of show dates and festival slots around the country, and also saw the release of a number of formidable singles. We’re happy to say, this year, their magnetic musical presence only seems to be growing stronger and stronger.
Thus far in 2024, Entangled Mind has already taken the stage at a number of notable shows: headlining The Black Box, Hypnotic Theatre in Asheville, a pairing with Steven Haman at The Fox, an album release party with Living Light, and a sunrise set at The Astral Project, just to name a few.
Lucid Living, Entangled Mind’s second full-length album, marks a significant shift from 2021’s Eternal Motion. While Eternal Motion was more “introspective and melancholic,” Lucid Living gives the feeling of an intrepid explorer in a post-civilized world, where nature has regained dominion. In this jungle, one is just as likely to stumble across a cyborg on the riverside as they are to meet the sleek face of a jaguar in the night.
Also notable on this album is the use of collaborative instrumentation. Entangled Mind themself plays guitar, synths, handpan, bass, djembe, and shakers on the album, not to mention a lively list of field recordings, but eight out of ten tracks, plus a remix, also feature the work of fellow musicians.
Speaking with Entangled Mind, it’s clear that each collaboration came about in a unique and meaningful way, many tracks blossoming out of improvised, in-person jams. The synergy discovered throughout this creative process was integral to the album’s artistic vision.
The Initiation
The ten tracks that make up Lucid Living, each as powerful on their own as they are in cohesion, seem to take listeners through the sonic narrative of an initiation ritual. Though primarily downtempo, the tracks are woven throughout with artful build-ups and exhilarating launch points.
From the first notes of “Ossicle,” a soothing yet edgy track that features Mattie Rosi on flute, listeners can feel themselves walking away from the safety of tribal flames into perilous twilit foliage. Particles of Tipper-y textures flit about the steady drums and wandering flute like fireflies at the onset of night. A feeling of preparation and wonder pervades.
“Orbit,” released in April as the album’s first single, features Amy Naylor on handpan and R!llo on didgeridoo. Building out of the previous track with long vibrations of didgeridoo and electronic tweaks and twitters, the handpan sets a clear rhythm. Birds sing the fallen sun and the initiate is now striding into night awash with hidden life, each confident movement a swing and warp of distorted bass.
With “Tree of Life,” there is a feeling of ascension and weightlessness. A comforting build-up of strings from violinist Matthew Rennick leads into a flight-like beat. Right when you’re getting comfortable in its sway, the bass grows slurpy and reptilian, peeling back the night. The strings take on a gypsy swing, and suddenly we’re balancing back into the wind-wafted wingspan of the track’s beginning on high.
“Seventh Sister” has the initiate scrambling over the uninhibited canopy of the rainforest with an interweave of laser-like synths. The bass line is buoyant and bright, swirling over an Amazonian circus of glitchy glossolalia. One wrong step and we’re falling full speed back to the forest floor, a psytrance plummet through a disorienting mass of ancestral spirits chanting and babbling for attention.
Hit the dirt running with “Feral Noodle,” a seeming peak of the anthropomorphic energy latent in this album. Merging psybient carnival bass with scaley neuro, “Feral Noodle” features work (including a spicy solo) from British guitarist and Shpongle-collaborator Pete Callard, as well as the first appearance on the album of Janeth Gonda’s timeless vocals.
The sixth track is a remix of “Eastern Lasers” by fellow Boston producer BioKoi. While this track is the oldest on the album, a staple of Entangled Mind’s live performances for some time now, its deep earthy dub, low-end manipulations, and ancient pizzicato blend into the middle of the album with seamless ferocity.
“Ghost Pipe” is a collaboration with Denver-based producer Xenolinguist. A complex cradle of gloopy bass twists, echoic synths, and noncommittal flute, “Ghost Pipe” has the drift and chaos of an insect dodging leaves on the wind before evolving into a chunky psytrance breakdown that fades away with smooth sonic ripples.
“Breakthrough” is a crisp, powerful example of lyrical psy-dub. Elegant handpan teeter-totters under thick warped bass. Co-written with Janeth Gonda, who also plays Native American flute on the track, Gonda’s mesmerizing vocals carry us through the full spectrum of a transformative experience—fear, identity loss, ecstasy, rebirth—to the light and balance waiting on the other side.
As we approach the end, we emerge into “Creation,” another striking lyrical track many fans will recognize from recent live sets. Co-written with producer/songwriter Delgira, “Creation” features a calming guitar riff, gentle drums, and hypnotic bansuri flute from Eric Fraser.
Lyrics by Delgira
The lyrics, which Delgira sings with a potent delicacy, hit straight to the heart, a mantric call to the present moment that seems to embody with perfect clarity the greater vision of the album as a whole.
“A Sunny Spot,” the final track, is a breath of pure happiness. The sun is up. Ripples of light-sound wash over balmy bansuri from Eric Fraser and tranquil tabla from R!llo. You can literally hear the warmth on your face, feel the light coursing through your veins. We’ve made it through the long night, and the world appears alive and bright before us, beckoning us to the lucid living of the album’s namesake.
Stream Lucid Living on your favorite service today. You can also order a limited-edition vinyl of this momentous work here.
For long-time fans, this album is the masterful culmination of Entangled Mind’s evolution as a producer these last few years. A delivery from the depths of creation. But if this is your first dive into the Entangled experience, don’t fret: you’ll have plenty of opportunities to catch the magic live this year.
Find Entangled Mind this June at Infrasound Festival, Denver Shroom Fest, and Summer Sequence, and be sure to follow the links below to keep up to date with all future announcements. With festival season upon us, and shows scheduled into autumn, the year has only just begun.
Given the chance to do anything, what would you choose to do? This question, at once simple, daunting, and empowering, is a central theme of Entangled Mind’s most recent album Lucid Living, a dynamic blend of experimental downtempo and collaborative instrumentation, released by The Rust Music on May 21st.
For anyone who has ever experienced a lucid dream, this question is no stranger. Suddenly, a dreamer awakens to a realm of possibility beyond their imagination. Often, this realization can be so exciting, so invigorating, it’s difficult to actually stay within the dreamscape to choose one’s next move.
Waking from a lucid dream of their own one morning, Entangled Mind reflected on the wonder caused by this phenomenon and realized that this same world of potential awaits us each day on waking up. Every time we open our eyes, we are presented with the opportunity to make choices that embody our deepest aspirations, to live and act with lucid awareness of the limitless nature of being.
Lucid Living is a euphonic exploration of these thoughts and showcases another clear advance in Entangled Mind’s distinct production style.
The Entangled Experience
Described as “an audible expression of an entangled experience,” Entangled Mind is the alias of Marissa Barbato, a Boston-based producer distinguished for their wide-ranging use of organic instrumentation with intricate textures of electronic sound design. The result is a unique sound, both primeval and futuristic. Innovative in their approach to bass music, Entangled Mind utilizes neuro, glitch, psy, and dub in fresh ways while producing an effect that is also meditative and ancestrally familiar.
For Entangled Mind, 2023 proved a jam-packed year of show dates and festival slots around the country, and also saw the release of a number of formidable singles. We’re happy to say, this year, their magnetic musical presence only seems to be growing stronger and stronger.
Thus far in 2024, Entangled Mind has already taken the stage at a number of notable shows: headlining The Black Box, Hypnotic Theatre in Asheville, a pairing with Steven Haman at The Fox, an album release party with Living Light, and a sunrise set at The Astral Project, just to name a few.
Lucid Living
Lucid Living, Entangled Mind’s second full-length album, marks a significant shift from 2021’s Eternal Motion. While Eternal Motion was more “introspective and melancholic,” Lucid Living gives the feeling of an intrepid explorer in a post-civilized world, where nature has regained dominion. In this jungle, one is just as likely to stumble across a cyborg on the riverside as they are to meet the sleek face of a jaguar in the night.
Also notable on this album is the use of collaborative instrumentation. Entangled Mind themself plays guitar, synths, handpan, bass, djembe, and shakers on the album, not to mention a lively list of field recordings, but eight out of ten tracks, plus a remix, also feature the work of fellow musicians.
Speaking with Entangled Mind, it’s clear that each collaboration came about in a unique and meaningful way, many tracks blossoming out of improvised, in-person jams. The synergy discovered throughout this creative process was integral to the album’s artistic vision.
The Initiation
The ten tracks that make up Lucid Living, each as powerful on their own as they are in cohesion, seem to take listeners through the sonic narrative of an initiation ritual. Though primarily downtempo, the tracks are woven throughout with artful build-ups and exhilarating launch points.
From the first notes of “Ossicle,” a soothing yet edgy track that features Mattie Rosi on flute, listeners can feel themselves walking away from the safety of tribal flames into perilous twilit foliage. Particles of Tipper-y textures flit about the steady drums and wandering flute like fireflies at the onset of night. A feeling of preparation and wonder pervades.
“Orbit,” released in April as the album’s first single, features Amy Naylor on handpan and R!llo on didgeridoo. Building out of the previous track with long vibrations of didgeridoo and electronic tweaks and twitters, the handpan sets a clear rhythm. Birds sing the fallen sun and the initiate is now striding into night awash with hidden life, each confident movement a swing and warp of distorted bass.
With “Tree of Life,” there is a feeling of ascension and weightlessness. A comforting build-up of strings from violinist Matthew Rennick leads into a flight-like beat. Right when you’re getting comfortable in its sway, the bass grows slurpy and reptilian, peeling back the night. The strings take on a gypsy swing, and suddenly we’re balancing back into the wind-wafted wingspan of the track’s beginning on high.
“Seventh Sister” has the initiate scrambling over the uninhibited canopy of the rainforest with an interweave of laser-like synths. The bass line is buoyant and bright, swirling over an Amazonian circus of glitchy glossolalia. One wrong step and we’re falling full speed back to the forest floor, a psytrance plummet through a disorienting mass of ancestral spirits chanting and babbling for attention.
Hit the dirt running with “Feral Noodle,” a seeming peak of the anthropomorphic energy latent in this album. Merging psybient carnival bass with scaley neuro, “Feral Noodle” features work (including a spicy solo) from British guitarist and Shpongle-collaborator Pete Callard, as well as the first appearance on the album of Janeth Gonda’s timeless vocals.
The sixth track is a remix of “Eastern Lasers” by fellow Boston producer BioKoi. While this track is the oldest on the album, a staple of Entangled Mind’s live performances for some time now, its deep earthy dub, low-end manipulations, and ancient pizzicato blend into the middle of the album with seamless ferocity.
“Ghost Pipe” is a collaboration with Denver-based producer Xenolinguist. A complex cradle of gloopy bass twists, echoic synths, and noncommittal flute, “Ghost Pipe” has the drift and chaos of an insect dodging leaves on the wind before evolving into a chunky psytrance breakdown that fades away with smooth sonic ripples.
“Breakthrough” is a crisp, powerful example of lyrical psy-dub. Elegant handpan teeter-totters under thick warped bass. Co-written with Janeth Gonda, who also plays Native American flute on the track, Gonda’s mesmerizing vocals carry us through the full spectrum of a transformative experience—fear, identity loss, ecstasy, rebirth—to the light and balance waiting on the other side.
As we approach the end, we emerge into “Creation,” another striking lyrical track many fans will recognize from recent live sets. Co-written with producer/songwriter Delgira, “Creation” features a calming guitar riff, gentle drums, and hypnotic bansuri flute from Eric Fraser.
The lyrics, which Delgira sings with a potent delicacy, hit straight to the heart, a mantric call to the present moment that seems to embody with perfect clarity the greater vision of the album as a whole.
“A Sunny Spot,” the final track, is a breath of pure happiness. The sun is up. Ripples of light-sound wash over balmy bansuri from Eric Fraser and tranquil tabla from R!llo. You can literally hear the warmth on your face, feel the light coursing through your veins. We’ve made it through the long night, and the world appears alive and bright before us, beckoning us to the lucid living of the album’s namesake.
Stream Lucid Living on your favorite service today. You can also order a limited-edition vinyl of this momentous work here.
For long-time fans, this album is the masterful culmination of Entangled Mind’s evolution as a producer these last few years. A delivery from the depths of creation. But if this is your first dive into the Entangled experience, don’t fret: you’ll have plenty of opportunities to catch the magic live this year.
Find Entangled Mind this June at Infrasound Festival, Denver Shroom Fest, and Summer Sequence, and be sure to follow the links below to keep up to date with all future announcements. With festival season upon us, and shows scheduled into autumn, the year has only just begun.
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