East Forest & Ram Dass Release Collaborative Album Today

#1 charting electronic artist East Forest (aka Trevor Oswalt) has released his four chapter collaborative album with legendary spiritual teacher Ram Dass, today via Aquilo Records. Ram Dass features East Forest's music accompanied by new teachings from the author of Be Here Now. In advance of the release, The Grammy's has accepted the album for consideration in the New Age category. Listen to and order Ram Dass here and stream on Spotify here.

"As we face so much polarization and change as a culture today, it's more important than ever that we lean into the wisdom of our elders like Ram Dass. At 88 years old he speaks from the apex of his personal history and I'm so honored to help him spread the important messages contained in this album." - EAST FOREST

The album track "I Am Loving Awareness" is featured in the end credits for the new theatrical film "Becoming Nobody," a documentary on the life of Ram Dass directed by Jamie Catto. The film will be released on September 9 and East Forest will be performing and participating in a Q&A with the director at the premier at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Additionally, East Forest has announced a three part video for his song "Home," directed by David Altobelli (Zhu, Tame Impala, Sia). "I discovered Ram Dass' "Be Here Now" five years ago by chance," says Altobelli. "Since then I've gifted the book to four people. When I was offered the chance to direct this project for East Forest and Ram Dass, it was I who was receiving the gift."

In June 2018, East Forest was invited to Ram Dass' home in Maui to join in conversation and record brand new teachings from the legendary teacher. After capturing these words of wisdom, East Forest returned to his studio in the high desert of Southern Utah to compose the soundtrack to beautifully support each song's subject. In these new recordings, Ram Dass' words speak masterfully to the modern challenges that so many face with technology, dark thoughts, the nature of soul and so much more. The new East Forest record also features guest appearances from the likes of Trevor Hall, Hammock, and Grammy nominated artist, Krishna Das, all framing Ram Dass' teachings with contemporary voices and cementing the 87 year old spiritual teacher into an echelon of relevancy and immediacy - offering a direct antidote for a highly polarized nation that is deeply in need of a universal voice of wisdom, connection and unconditional love.

East Forest has been the leader of underground 'sound healing' ceremonies around the world since 2008. Using music as a tool, he has trailblazed the field of organic tech, building bridges between the digital and natural world. Being fully independent and playing in the private shadows allowed the sound of East Forest to emerge: an emotional and spacious musical lexicon with a sound that took shape out of a practical need to play solo for five to six hours while guiding a room full of listeners in deep meditation. Live looping and layered keyboard melodies filled the musical space while angelic vocals and original field recordings floated above.

Word organically spread and a devoted community shared East Forest's early albums, many of which were live recordings captured directly from his sound healing performances.

Moving into festivals, theaters, and clubs, electronic beats and diverse live instrumentation eventually joined in, from strings and analogue synthesizers to African kora. East Forest's electro-acoustic ethereal sound continued to evolve and he found himself performing in a diverse range of settings from SXSW, Google, Mysteryland, to Grace Cathedral, Summit at Sea, as well as his own TEDx talk.

More than a dozen albums later, East Forest continues to explore a path of emotionally driven music that pulls from ambient, classical, electronic and indie-pop genres.

Ram Dass made his mark on the world by teaching the path of the heart and promoting service in the areas of social consciousness and care for the dying. When Ram Dass first went to India in 1967, he was still Dr. Richard Alpert, an eminent Harvard psychologist and psychedelic pioneer with Dr. Timothy Leary. In India, he met his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, affectionately known as 'Maharajji', who gave Ram Dass his name, which means "servant of God."

On his return from India Ram Dass became a pivotal influence in our culture with the publication of "Be Here Now". In fact, those words have become a catch phrase in people's lives for the last 40 years. With the publication in 2011 of "Be Love Now" Ram Dass completed his trilogy that began with "Be Here Now" in 1970 and continued with "Still Here" in 2004. He released "Polishing The Mirror: How to Live From Your Spiritual Heart" in 2013 and released his most recent book, "Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Love and Dying" with co-author Mirabai Bush in 2018.

Ram Dass now makes his home in Maui and teaches world wide through his website RamDass.org and continues the work of Neem Karoli Baba through the Love Serve Remember Foundation.

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