Windmill Wormhole

Guitar / Lyrics / Main Vocals by Alice Hacker
Piano / Drum / Backup Vocals / Recorded / Produced by Jenstar 

out in the forest the buck offered me
his antler so that i could see that 
they dont hold on to what they dont need
in the west is where the sun it sets
and that is where you will find me
raven wings outstretched 
guide me into the darkness
raven wings outstretched
guide me
light up a fire and burn
burn that which does not serve
let the flames transform your fear my dear
in the west is where the sun it sets
and that is where you will find me
raven wings outstretched 
guide me into the darkness
raven wings outstretched
guide me
the aspen and the pine
they remind me of my roots
i may lose my leaves this fall
but i will not be unearthed
oh i thank you wise beings 
for surrounding me
oh in the west is where the sun it sets 
and that is where you will find me
raven wings outstretched
guide me into the darkness
raven wings outstretched 
guide me

Outstretched by Alice Hacker

I wanted to share this today, because I don't know that we ever made it public.  When Gerard was still with us, he composed, wrote, and arranged like a madman.  There was hardly a player in Brooklyn that he didn't drag by the neck into one studio session or another. He would say that this isn't perfect yet.  He was an unbelievable perfectionist.

He worked on this particular piece endlessly.  I can't tell you how many times it was recorded and re-recorded.  Seeing as how Gerry tended to throw things away (for their glaring imperfections), I count myself lucky to have any of our work.

I will never stop missing my friend.  I will never stop wishing we could have 'finished' our work. That however, is not why I'm sharing this today.

This piece was all abut friction, on every level.  Gerard wasn't particularly political, to the untrained eye… but he lived the experience of a man in black skin everyday.  We used to count the times that I was compared to Ani DiFranco (for being a queer white girl with a guitar) and the times that he was compared to Bob Marley (for being a black man with dreadlocks). Our music didn't compare…. we had our own language…. but people don't always hear you, once they see your face.  We would laugh and rage and fuss and then get back to the business of making art; because that was the only thing that mattered.

This song… it is the product of a friendship. Of years of sweat and tears.  I sat down to retrack the vocals today, because I can't move on with my life without some of these songs in the world. I have tried, and failed, for years.  I cry when I sing.  I am six miles past brokenhearted.

I think Gerry would understand why I wanted this in the world today.  He would laugh and poke me in the ribs and call me 'too passionate'.  But when I sat down today and listened to my own words again, and to the voice of those violins….  I heard the protestors in Ferguson setting their feet to the earth.  I heard a people screaming for more people to scream.  

I can't begin to offer more that this.  I can't begin to pretend to know how we heal. But I can sing.  I can scream.  I can start to move forward from a grief that took me right out of the fight.  Im coming back to life.  I will stand up. I will scream.  Gerry is here with me.  He is laughing.  He keeps telling me to cut a better take.

-Essy Hart 12/06/2014



Ranting and Chanting - Composed by Gerard Smith (TV on the Radio), Lyrics and Vocals by Essy Hart

Each month on the Full Moon I send out the JAHA MOONSLETTER which includes a visionary image by Sarah Faith Gottesdiener combined with a mantra, or MOONTRA (sacred moon mantra) intuited by me to focus and work with in your Full Moon magical workings. 

This month I felt inspired to record the moontra into a song, so you can listen and absorb the intention via the healing power of song. Sing along with me or chant it. Either way, enjoy and thank you for listening. 

Stay tuned for more jaha priestess moontra tracks! 

I DO THE WORK

Whistler waves as heard by the EMFISIS instrument aboard NASA’s Van Allen Probes as it passed around Earth.

Credits: NASA/University of Iowa

Whistler Waves

Multispecies

Schonberg/Labverde: Multispecies

Composed by Ryan Rosen and recorded by ETHEL, an NYC-based string quartet.

My Ambition

Recorded at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema on May 21, 2019 on a beautiful dreamy Steinway. 

Composed, performed, and mixed by me.

MIRROR MIRROR

The seedling for this piece came to me in the year 2005...the term imbibition refers to the moment a seed sucks up the water it needs in order to germinate. For me, the writing of this piece for orchestra, my first time EVER orchestrating original music that I wrote, represents this time that I am in where the seeds for my music dreams are finally in the proper growing conditions in order to experience IMBIBITION and finally grow forth.

Recorded with a Zoom H6 in the Tow Buchland Theater at Brooklyn College by the Brooklyn College Orchestra, conducted by George Rothman on Thursday, May 16, 2019. 

Mixed by Jenstar Hacker.

IMBIBITION

Thank you to all our frontline workers during this COVID-19 epidemic!

Hero

Check out JAHA MEDITATE at http://jenstarandheraura.bandcamp.com/album/jaha-meditate