Anthony Thogmartin's side project EarthCry has a new album!

EarthCry’s “Hear the Earth, Heal Yourself ∞ Heal the Earth, Hear Yourself”

Interview by Kaylee Zielinski

Photographs courtesy of Anthony Thogmartin

On Tuesday August 27th, Anthony Thogmartin’s album “Heal the Earth, Heal Yourself ∞ Heal the Earth, Hear Yourself” was officially launched. The album consists of 6 quite lengthy tracks, each dedicated and meticulously tuned to a frequency in the ancient solfeggio scale. These frequencies are known to heal and aid the human condition. The album is electronic in nature, yet utilizes found sounds and tribal percussion, as well as recorded tuning fork tones and chanting. The end result is an auditory journey that is engaging and fun to experience and experiment with. Appalachian Jamwich was fortunate enought to talk to Thogmartin about his new album, the frequencies used and his personal relationship with them.

Official Album

What frequency is your favorite and why?

I don’t have a favorite, but I definitely had quite a time with 741. I even wrote a second song called “Assemblage” dedicated to it. I have been using 396 whenever stressed out, and more recently I really like what 639 sounds like.

Where did you first learn about solfeggio?

A friend of mine showed me a couple meditation CDs. You see, this whole concept of making a dance album dedicated to these frequencies was born out of my hopes to reach young people with something they could connect with. Moreover something that just might get them into a more present state. My debut “Heal the Earth, Heal Yourself ∞ Heal the Earth, Hear Yourself.” is something you can clean your house to or sit and go inward. I wanted to create something everyone could get into.

Where will the proceeds from this album go to?

In order to keep EarthCry fans involved the act of giving, I plan on switching up the recipient of the project periodically. For now I am focusing on natural conservation initiatives. Right now the focus of 50% of the album sales and touring revenue are going to CI (conservation international).

How did you like recording as opposed to performing the tracks live since this is your first album with this project?

It was totally amazing. Each song had to be tuned down or up slightly in order to achieve proper intonation with the instruments i used. This required hours and hours of listening to these tones and matching frequencies and I think that the amount of entrainment my ears had been exposed to really made some odd and cool things happen. It might not seem really remarkable to your readers, but I was working on some of these tracks for 8 hours at a time without stopping for longer than it took to eat a banana or take a leak. My ears never really fatigued. And that is really rare. I usually can’t listen to my studio speakers for longer than a couple hours before I need a break.

How do you think this record will create positive change in our community and the world?

While meditation / entrainment / mind training doesn’t rely on anything external, getting into this realm can be a little daunting. My hopes are that this album will allow for people to journey inward. To find that peaceful place within them. Also, I think people really do like to give and since 50% of the album is beneficial, they can feel good knowing they have contributed to something great. Perhaps that can act as the beginning of a charitable lifestyle for them.

Where can we buy the album?

You can get it here: http://earthcry.bandcamp.com/. In order to lessen the impact on the earth I decided to only print 1000 of the physical CDs and you can only get those if you come to the Papadosio/EarthCry tour this fall. I am not selling physical CDs online.

Are there any upcoming shows and events where we can see Earthcry?

All of Papadosio’s Fall tour, I am opening up.