Ram Dass was a spiritual leader who first got kicked out of the psychology department in Harvard for allegedly giving a student psilocybin. After that he helped popularize eastern philosophy in the west. He's featured on this haunting track by Jon Hopkins, which is one of the most profound songs I've ever listened to. It comes from the album "Music for Psychedelic Therapy," which was my favorite album last year. This is what Jon Hopkins has to say about the track:
I usually don't make single anime amvs, but in this case the themes of the song resonate so much with the themes of the eva rebuilds that it was really a perfect fit. A lot of the memorable scenes from the rebuilds seemed to just slide right into the song."Sit Around The Fire" exists from one of the deep synchronicities that ushered this thing (Music For Psychedelic Therapy) into being. I was contacted by East Forest, who had spent some time with Ram Dass in Hawaii before he passed. He was given access to several lesser-heard talks from the ’70s, and asked to set them to music. He sent me some starting points, including the beautiful choral vocals he recorded which open the piece. I put my headphones on and with Ram Dass’ voice inside my head, I sat at the piano and improvised. What you hear is the first thing that came out — it just appeared in response to the words.
In a lot of ways this feels like a sequel to "Spiritual but not Religious" (one might call it a spiritual successor, harhar). "Spiritual but not Religious" ended up being one of my more popular amvs, which surprised me. I'm not sure Sit Around the Fire is going to match that but maybe it will surprise me too. It seems like the kind of video that most people will just bounce off of. But if a couple people are moved by it, that feels like it would be enough.
