Such was the case when Toni, the editor sent me a new album to review.  I slipped the CD into the discman and suddenly saw the sunset:  I smelt the child hood scents I could remember, I heard the laughter of distance; and enjoyed the sound of birdsong and piano note.  "The Sweet Nectar of Silence"  has my vote for relaxation album of the year.  

Five highly recommended tracks to inspire and relax you.  having heard the album constantly over a few hours, I thought it might be of value to contact the artist and find out more about the album and his inspirations.  What follows is a candid conversation with Kip Mazuy.  Enjoy!

Rainbow News: How did you become involved in music?

Kip: Ever since I was a child I loved to create music. I never liked to read music and rebelled heavily when I had to take piano lessons as a kid. Then when the lessons stopped all I wanted to do was to create music. I always saved up my money to buy new electronic music equipment. 

By the age of fifteen I had built my own rustic four track recording studio. I studied how sound can effect the mind and was obsessed with the idea of creating music that could bring people into states of bliss. I made music for modern dance and plays. I went on to major in music at Bennington College in the States.

Rainbow News: Were there any musical influences?

Kip:I feel that I get a lot of musical influence from sounds in nature or just sitting in silence. I went through a period when I was making music for Synchronicity Foundation where every night I would wake up hearing this rushing, roaring sound, like hundreds of symphonies and choirs all playing at once. Those sounds that I heard late at night probably influence my music more than anything.

Rainbow News: How were you involved in New Age/Relaxation Music in the USA?

Kip: In my junior year at Bennington College I met and spent time with a meditation teacher named Master Charles. He invited me to come create music for his organization called Synchronicity Foundation. I composed and recorded music for Synchronicity for five years.

Rainbow News: What made you want to come to New Zealand to continue your music?

Kip: My beautiful partner at the time, Marlena and I wanted to leave Synchronicity and do something new. She is a New Zealand citizen and suggested we move here. So we did. I instantly fell in love with this most amazing country and especially the surf town of Piha where I call home. I have the mountains and the bush where I live and the rugged ocean just five minutes down the road. The air is so pure you can drink it like water. I create music from my home.  If I just want a break, I just stop and look around and see that I live in paradise. I can't imagine a more perfect way to live.

Rainbow News: How would you describe the music you write and perform?

Kip: When one remains fully present and stops all thinking, there is an undeniable sense of "I am." If one remains in this state of pure being, one experiences peace, love and bliss. As one remains solely focused on this feeling of being, the identification of the individual form shifts to the identification of simply being, beyond form. 

Then one discovers that they are peace itself, love itself and bliss itself. That this is their essence. This is where my music comes from and this is the experience I want to share with my listener. The music is a gentle reminder of who we truly are.

Rainbow News: What musical instruments did you use on this new album?

Kip: I use a lot of samples of my own voice and samples of the London choir. I also sample other instruments such as Piano, flutes,  Tibetan singing bowls and tamburas. I take these samples and play with them. I layer them, slow them down, play them backwards and forwards and then sample them again, sculpting them into new sounds. I also add piano and environmental sounds that I record in and around Piha.

Rainbow News: Where do you get your inspirations from?

Kip: From silence of course!

Rainbow News: Where did the natural sounds (birds and water) on your new album THE SWEET NECTAR OF SILENCE come from?

Kip: I wake up before dawn to meditate every morning. The birds on this CD I  recorded right from my window as the sun was coming up. The water is from mountain streams deep in the bush of Piha.

Rainbow News: The third track LOVE IS SURRENDER is my favorite track on your new album -- did you have the Gregorian Chant in mind before you composed  the piece or did you at a later stage feel the piece needed the haunting chant?

Kip: They just fit perfectly in the piece, the decision made itself.

Rainbow News: Where can listeners locate your music?

Kip: The best place is through my website.  I really enjoy the personal contact with my customers and their comments; they have become my extended family. I have a website www.bliss-music.com where people can read more about me and listen to some samples of my music, or they can write me at PO box 121 011 Henderson, Auckland (New Zealand) or call 09 812 8329. Most new age shops also sell my music.

Rainbow News: How did Ocean Euphoric come about?

I have been involved and used many of the meditation sound technologies out there like the binaural beat programs.  As I advanced in my own meditative awareness, I found that the binaural beats were a hinderance to the deep states of bliss I was experiencing, not helpful.  I wanted to create something that would truly convey what these programs could not which is the deep nurturing, pleasurable peace one enjoys in deep meditation.  

If you sit with one who has mastered the deep stages of meditation, they literally radiate such peace and I wanted to create that in sound.  

Then one day, almost by accident I came upon a mix of natural sounds that conveyed such peace.  I made a recording of it and meditated with it finding it more blissful every time I used it.  I then spent 8 months working this and reworking it until it turned into 63 minutes of meditation music that was far more powerful than anything I had ever come across. 

Rainbow News: Did you know Ocean Euphoric would have such an positive impact on others?

I knew what Ocean Euphoric did for me.  I offered it to some friends to use daily and they also found it to be more powerful than anything they had ever used.  So I had a good idea that it would be successful.  

But I'm still amazed even today by the responses I get from my customers who use it daily.  From those who have never meditated before, to people who are advanced in their meditation practice, everyone writes how they have been blown away by the pleasure and the peace they experience with Ocean Euphoric.  I have been told it has cured customer's depression, high blood pressure, chronic insomnia.  

But best of all, many have found it to increase their levels of bliss, peace and clarity to a very high degree.  And as the word is spreading about Ocean Euphoric, I imagine there will be much more to come.  

Rainbow News: What are you working on now?  What is the next release? 

I am presently working on a second volume to Ocean Euphoric.  I have found many ways to deepen the technology.  It will be a two CD set when it is done.   (Since then the second level Shakti Silence , 3 CD set The Calling and the latest 3 CD set The Infinite Sky Spiritual Awakening CDs