The full title of Steven Halpern’s latest release is Deep Alpha: Brainwave Synchronization for Meditation and Healing. One of the original artists in the new age music movement, Halpern has been composing and recording music for healing, stress reduction, improving sleep, and to enhance feelings of well-being and inner peace since 1975. His research in the field established him as the founding father of the modern sound healing field and its leading advocate in the media. Keyboard magazine recognized Halpern as “one of the most influential artists of the past 35 years,” and Halpern’s music is heard in leading health and healing centers, corporate wellness programs, spas, hospitals, and schools, as well as in private homes.

One of the elements that makes Halpern’s music distinctive and unique is his use of the Rhodes electric piano. Halpern says that its tone is ideal for healing and meditation because it “produces almost pure sine waves, like tuning forks played on a keyboard.” He also says: “Listen with headphones, and the tones move inside your head, stimulating aural pleasure points, like sonic acupuncture.” Guest musicians on some of the tracks are Michael Manring on fretless electric bass and Paul McCandless on oboe. Halpern also added the “acoustic entrainment” of the classical Indian tambura as well as the “natural entrainment of the ocean and Mother Earth” at the end of the album.

The fourteen tracks are titled “Deep Alpha 8 Hz (Pt 1-14).” The significance of 8 Hz is that when we are deeply relaxed, our bodies become “a harmonically tuned oscillating system pulsing between 7.83 and 8 cycles per second, characterized by a natural attunement between our brain, heart and the Earth.” The energy coming out of a healer’s hands has been measured at 8 Hz as well. Halpern goes on to say that “when we access and spend time resonating at this precise frequency, it’s naturally relaxing and rejuvenating. Being in this state empowers and supports our innate healing energies.”

I will readily admit that I don’t know much about the science of sound healing or the energy frequencies of our bodies, but listening to this music is very, very relaxing. There are no distinctive melodies or rhythms, yet it is easy to let the music take you to a place of inner comfort, ease, and peace. Warm and gracefully-flowing, this music would be ideal to enhance massage, meditation, yoga, and various spiritual practices. It can also ease the stresses of everyday life and create a soothing atmosphere of peace and calm wherever you listen to music.

Deep Alpha is truly music with a purpose, and that purpose is to make the world a better place. I can’t argue with that! It is available from stevenhalpern.com, Amazon and iTunes.