Six months ago, back in December 2020, I tried to develop a project aimed at helping out our burners community from a specific standpoint, the mental health unbalance that has impacted pretty much all of us as an outcome of almost one year and a half of pandemic crisis and social isolation from covid19 pandemic lockdowns.
Depression, anxiety, loneliness, but also fear, sometimes panic or rage, and loss and grief. This is just the tip of the iceberg of a humanity being broken by the terrible experience we all collectively shared.
I wanted to help, at least within the (not so) small circle of our community, by offering something that would have brought some sort of emotional support to my brothers and sisters in dust.
What I envisioned wasn’t certainly the next Zoom event with DJs and virtual kinky workshops. We already did many of those, including the DomusBurn virtual event we organized exactly one year ago. But that was one year ago, when we were still hoping the virus would have “gone away” by summer. Now we are way deeply broken, and we don’t need that shit anymore – our community needs something more meaningful than another Zoom DJ set.
I thought to re-purpose the DomusBurn website into a community-focused platform designed to offer emotional support through peer-to-peer group counseling. No DJs and virtual parties, this time a simple 5-6 hours event on a Saturday afternoon, with a simple gathering space and two tracks, one for the group counseling, the other with holistic seminars on how to get out of a deep hole in pursuit of wellness, would have probably been more useful to an emotionally broken community than another Zoom party. But things didn’t go as expected.
I tried to get the attention and the support of the Burning Man community, specifically the Italian Burners association first, and Nowhere Norg / Malfare later, but… as usual, better do things on your own then relying on the support of such over-complicated, bureaucracy-filled (dis)organizations. If you want to know more about the usual drama my request for a joint project generated, see the memo below “never trust a burner”. I advice to screw it, go ahead, and aim for the Music Therapies instead.
NEVER TRUST A BURNER
I thought to re-purpose the DomusBurn website into a community-focused platform designed to offer emotional support through peer-to-peer group counseling. No DJs and virtual parties, this time a simple 5-6 hours event on a Saturday afternoon, with a simple gathering space and two tracks, one for the group counseling, the other with holistic seminars on how to get out of a deep hole in pursuit of wellness, would have probably been more useful to an emotionally broken community than another Zoom party.
So I (tried to) pitch the project idea to the Italian Burners, the association that has been created more than one year ago and has done nothing since then, and to to Nowhere Norg / Malfare. The response? Beside the self declared “passionate feedback” from Malfare, that led to nothing at all, the classic response has been…. nothing. And a big NO from the Italian Burners.
Simply said, nobody fucking cared about the emotional and mental health state of the members of our community. Malfare and the Italian Burners (association, not the community) have to solve their internal conflicts first, and they need to refocus on those principles that made Larry Harvey’s philosophical dream come true: a collaborative creative community. A transformational experience built on a number of key principles, without which we are nothing more than just another summer festival: radical inclusion and immediacy, creative participation and co-creation, communal effort and civic responsibility. People tend to forget all that, and some are just happy building a fence, screaming “moooooop!” or showcasing fabulous outfits, and they “are good” with the burner experience.
I wanted to give back something meaningful – and useful – to the community. So I put my self-reliant hat on and decided to do something on my own, with no help from those who don’t care to lend a hand to my dusty brothers and sisters. I failed, obviously, because we are all so broken inside (myself included) that we don’t need another fucking DJ set, certainly not from that fucking Burningmax dude.
I really wanted to be able to offer a totally different level of emotional and mental health support to the burner community, but there are things that cannot be done individually, such as setting up a community emotional support center.
This is all I can afford to gift, from my heart and from my autonomous skills and resources. I hope it will help, even if just one single soul for a few minutes.
Music heals, and dancing too. Ask Osho who made dance an indispensable part of any of his active / dynamic meditation routines. Music can absorb you and your active mind, and can transport you to other dimensions where you can let go of your troubles, even if just for a moment, or for the time of a song – your consciousness travels with sound even while you chill, and even more when you commit to letting it all go on the dance floor.
Welcome to Burningmax’s Music Therapy, a set of music tools and sound journeys that hopefully can be of some help with your post pandemic mental health unbalances.
MUSIC THERAPY ONE:
Loneliness, depression, grief
Standard dosage: one 60 minutes play.
Suggested dosage: repeat as many times as necessary, and as many times you want or need.
Servings per play: 13 killer tracks, with a proprietary blend of chilled beats, deep bass, blissed soundscapes and occasional soulful lyrics.
Are you feeling depressed, lonely, are you grieving for the loss of a loved one? Put your headphones on, press play and heal to the sound of the soothing blissful melodies of Therapy One. Chill with it, dance to it, dance it off and let it go.
MUSIC THERAPY ONE :: PLAYLIST
:: Hansi – Damh
:: Mushroom Abolitionist – Vegyn
:: Version 1 – Jay Haze + M.A.L.A.
:: Blush – Facta
:: Reflections – Two Lanes
:: Cazenove – Bicep
:: Shizumu (Extended Mix) – Lycoriscoris
:: Ignorance – Renga Weh
:: Celeste (Robag Wruhme´s Boschkord Lom NB) – Nicky Elisabeth
:: From Me (feat. Bernache) [CRi Remix] – CRi
:: Upstream (2021 Version) – Harry Wolfman
:: Howler (ANNA Remix) – Martin Gore
:: Strawberry – Doss
MUSIC THERAPY TWO:
Stress, anxiety, frustration
Standard dosage: one 120 minutes play.
Suggested dosage: repeat if necessary, but remember to take breaks and stay hydrated.
Servings per play: 22 killer tracks, with a proprietary blend of uplifting beats, groovy bass, happy dance floor mood and signature progressive melodies.
The pandemic brought you stress, anxiety, frustration, social isolation and an overall bad mood? Then your therapy of choice is Therapy Two, with its happy dance floor mood. Close your eyes, go with the beat (or the bass), and the music will immediately take you to a very happy place where you’ll rediscover the pleasure of shaking your bootie and casting your sickest dance floor moves.
MUSIC THERAPY TWO :: PLAYLIST
:: Came for the Low – ZHU + partywithray
:: Keep Moving (Riton Remix) – Bronson
:: From Me (feat. Bernache) [Icarus Extended Mix] – CRi
:: Afters – Because of Art
:: Blossom – Juno Mamba
:: Solar System – Ada
:: Better Perspective – Tom Frankel
:: Track 1 – X-Coast
:: I Want Out – Antss
:: Companionship – Eversines
:: Separation Anxiety – Debasser
:: Aranath (feat. Riad Abji) – Hobbes + Leonidas
:: Begin Again – Mat Zo
:: Rainbow Eucalyptus – Etari
:: O Pato – Destino + Yuksek
:: No Hay Ritmo (2021 Version) – Capablanca + T. Keeler
:: This is your Life – Ishi Vu
:: Supermercado De Madre (Ada Remix) – Popnoname + Ada
:: Love in Space – Fulltone
:: Garden of Peace (Yotto Renaissance Remix) – Power Circle
:: Leipzig Push – Schmutz
:: Toujours Toujours (CRi Remix) – Bernhari
MUSIC THERAPY THREE:
Fear, anger, paranoia, OCD, ADD
Standard dosage: one 60 minutes play.
Suggested dosage: it is advised to dive into Therapy Three only after a cycle of Therapy Two, just to get your locked-down body ready with the adrenaline needed to face the crash course. Stay hydrated. Rave on.
Servings per play: 13 killer tracks, with a proprietary blend of massive beats, pounding bass, industrial noises and grime, and the occasional psychedelic vibes.
Are you bursting with anger? In a black hole of fear and paranoia? Experiencing behavioural unbalance with obsessive or attention deficit disorders? Then you need the hard core therapy provided by Therapy Three.
This is a crash therapy: kick the sound in, let yourself go, and kick all the troubles out. One hour of intense rave workout really works better than the average one hour workout at the gym, or one hour run in the park. Promised.
MUSIC THERAPY THREE :: PLAYLIST
:: Dance It Out (Extended Mix) – Genix
:: Do Not Touch – Marco Piangiamore
:: Dissonant Realms – Ad Nauseam + Jack Wax
:: Be Calm – Skin on Skin + Willaris. K
:: Dystopian Future – Deas
:: Hello Planet Earth (Lady Starlight Remix) – Ellen Allien
:: Shortcut – James Ruskin
:: Organus – Kristian Heikkila
:: Muster – Jonathan Kaspar
:: Combat – Uncertain
:: Hyd (3) – Truncate + Dotdat
:: Rave Dreams (Octavio Remix) – Amanda Mussi
:: FMG – Mall Grab + Effy
Can’t sleep? Altered sleep patterns? Can’t dream anymore? Experiencing unbalance and mental health disorders? This is music therapy: headphones on, close your eyes, be in the dream, be the dream.
These beautiful, soothing ambient sounds explore my collection of the 21 years of ambient music produced by the artists of the iconic Koln-based label Kompakt and their Pop Ambient series that goes on since 2001, merged with other classic ambient tracks from Compost Recording, and sparkled with many beautiful ambient remixes from my own electronica collection. It is just a collection of the most relaxing sounds i ever put together in a mix. Relax and enjoy.
MUSIC THERAPY FOUR :: PLAYLIST
Need a deep cleansing through Music Therapy? Then go for the full cycle of prophylaxis – the full cycle takes 4 hours, and half an hour break it’s advised between therapies, so you can go through a progressively releasing state in just 5 hours.
Dedicate a morning to the routine, a full afternoon, or even your evening time if you prefer, and enjoy the full therapy. Just stay hydrated, and use part of the half hour breaks to stretch for a few minutes before diving into Therapy Two and Therapy Three. I promise this will be a “transformational experience” too. If you do it properly, with the right motivation, it will bring you emotional relief.
I hope everybody is well and nobody needs any post pandemic mental health unbalance therapy. In that case, just go ahead and enjoy the music anyway. These music therapies might be not EMA of FDA approved, and even if you don’t have a case of mental health unbalance they will certainly work well as mood enhancers, and no negative effects have resulted by our intensive laboratory testing that also included heavy rotation at full volume while driving a car, dancing it off in a park with headphones on, and chilling while enjoying a sunset on a hammock.
Download the audio files, enjoy it, and share the wellness of the Music Therapy with your friends. See you soon on a dusty dance floor where we have to wear masks and goggles only because of the incumbent white out from an incoming dust storm.
In the mean time, stay well, take care of yourself and others, if you can, and be free to indulge in the music therapies also provided by other very talented “music doctors”. Music is the Therapy.
Keep burning, but don’t burn out.
Dusty love,
Burningmax
Usual disclaimer: these mixes are just for fun and not for commercial use. Copyright for each tune is owned by their respective artists and/or publishers. For more info on fair use and copyright see this page.