Trying to revisit something I wrote about and remember quite vividly, at the time I wrote it, presents two opportunities: the first is to reassess why and how I got into that piece of music. The second opportunity presented by revisiting the past, is whether time has added a fresher perspective since then. When Sifted Sand Records reached out to me a good while ago to let me know they’re going to reissue Ric Kaestner’s Music For Massage II and me to write liner notes for it, I was both surprised and (truth be told) befuddled at where to begin.
The original MFM I (Music For Massage), the only release I had knowledge of, had been a personal favorite of mine, ever since I saw it on ye olde, sadly know defunct “journey to the source of everything” blog. Unlike most Western, or to be precise, American New Age music, MFM I sounded like it moved beyond the faux-Orientalism of other New Age acts and really took a turn towards the contemplative, meditative music being fashioned in Japan (or outside the Western, minimalist school) that took a more personal look at that past. So, to hear that there was in fact a second outing, beyond piqued my interest.
When I originally wrote about MFM I, I could surmise from faint inklings of this record’s past, that there was some deep spiritualism; perhaps some study of musical therapy, and maybe a bit of the solitary, magical exploration one acquires from doing one’s own thing at home (in the hinterlands of the Florida music scene and with a Yamaha DX7 keyboard) through a task that would remain largely unheralded: to create something meant for a specific purpose. “Music for massage” must mean something but what does that exactly mean? With that question in my mind, I asked Sifted Sand Records’ to get me in touch with Ric. As much as I love expanding on things I don’t know much about, his story might be richer than anything I could come up with.
Ric was gracious enough with his time to let me know this: as part owner of a local record shop in a big American college city, he and the rest of Trance Form (his only, other known group) had access to various experimental musics — Prog, ECM Jazz, and Americana — that allowed them to work outside the expected styles of the region. Privately pressing their debut for a while, Trance Form was a local hit but not a lasting one.
For years, after the promise of Trance Form faded away, Ric had explored acoustic music (think John Prince, Dylan, Jerry Garcia, and Ry Cooder) recording sketches of music with no apparent idea of how to put it out. Focusing on his side gigs for a while, every so often Ric would be surprised to find at his record store students referred to by a friend from the Gainesville School of Massage. Those students would ask him to recommend music suitable to play while massaging their client. The task was simple enough: play one side on the face down, flip the cassette, and flip the person getting a massage and continue on the second side.
At first, Ric would create mixes with music that he felt would be beneficial and sympatico to that kind of environ. On those mixes you might find some mellow jazz, in the form of something from ECM or something from Brian Eno — whatever, cool, unusual, thing that might work for them. With time, it occurred to Ric that maybe he should do that music himself.
Spending countless hours researching books on all sorts of therapies — musical, light, healing, etc. al — and venturing outside the literary bases found in America, Ric dug deep through countless “New Age” books to conceive on how to actually create music for massage. Influenced by the heavies of minimalism that looked towards the tantric, melodic, meditative music of the East for guidance, there too Ric went.
The original MFM I would be recorded mostly in a music studio, booking time when available. Ric purposefully used MFM I to experiment with technology and musical methodology he had scant knowledge of before.
Having set himself a 60 minute time limit, to cover both down and flip sides of an hour-long massage, allowed him to explore what he could do within that time frame. Narada Records, German New Age label who also would house Hiroshi Yoshimura’s similar-minded ambient experimentation, signed and released his debut on the hopes of selling it en masse to massage and therapeutic schools.
As with all things, perhaps, too outside of their time, Narada couldn’t find a way to properly promote it and scant, few cassettes made it out of the New Age shops and trade shows they tried to move them through. Ric to the care to design the album musically, and visually, all the way through but what hope had he for reaching a larger audience, if the market simply wasn’t there.
Music For Massage II would be different. MFM II was the product of part happenstance and engenuity. In order to get another chance to flesh out certain ideas Ric was kicking around on demo tapes for a while, Ric had to convince his label that a 90 minute version would be lucrative enough to offer for those schools/teachers/masseuses who wanted to do 90 minute therapeutic sessions. Now, on a much smaller, Narada offshoot, Music For Massage II (whether by choice or budget constraints) was recorded mostly at home and became an even more minimal affair.
That’s where the story picks up if you pick up a copy of Music For Massage II. Here the music is much more personal. The music itself hovers between far more organic melodic arrangements and electro-acoustic impressionism. This time, whether because Ric managed to include all sorts of new influences and experiences gained through the transcurrence of time, or because, purposefully, Ric felt more at ease in what he was doing, the music positively sounded more alive. This was meditative music but you could divorce it from the New Age connections and admire it for its forward-thinking ideas.
For me, on songs like “Raga”, “Talus” and “Nimbus”, memories of the deeply personal ecumenical, egalitarian, spiritual music of Florian Fricke’s Popol Vuh come to my mind, as does the wayfaring “Prog” of Italy’s Pepe Maina, too. On others like “Tan-Den”, “Radius”, and “Sleep Dance” the mind music of Eno, Fumio Miyashita, and Yoshimura isn’t that far off. This was compositionally simple music with deftly, immersive tonal choices, where each sound sourced is just so right. What can you say about a song like “Ramus”? Where Paul Horn’s sacred flute dance music seems like a distinct influence.
Stretching out those ideas espoused by the master Erik Satie, Ric heard the same spirit and principles in the music of Steve Roach, Tangerine Dream, and others then realized why not me too? For 90 minutes, Ric unwinds you to soothing music composed for massage therapy, meditation, and relaxation, by someone who knows what he is doing, to amplify your inner space in that outer space.
For now, I’ll share just a sliver of the insight Ric gave to me about the creation of MFM II, hopefully, this will be enough to win you over, it did for me:
“I would get done, what I needed it done, early in the day, so that I had afternoons and early evenings to record. I remember doing a lot of walking outdoors, observing nature, and get ideas from that. Then, I’d go back into the studio, trying to put down melodies, ideas, or lines, I may have heard. I think the fact that I had the ability to do that without anybody around to influence me, made a difference. Being in a studio with a good engineer, they kind of push you in a direction. Now, it was for the first time, really liberating, to be able to just do whatever I wanted, at the pace I wanted, and not have to think about time. I think it’s great that now just about everybody can do that with a computer. But back then, that was a brand new thing. You couldn’t do that.”
Editor’s note: Neither Sifted Sand Records or Ric Kaestner were responsible for the opinions of your author or this post, nor did they dictate what, whether, or when I should write about this album. A huge thanks go out to them, both for bringing this album out of the tape deck case it was locked to, into our current world, and for furnishing me with time to uncover some of the history behind it. My contribution to this record is besides the point to this great piece of music.