"Free-Life" Shashana & Rolando
Richmond, Virginia, United States | INDIE
Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
bravo!
by MC LOGO 65 Rating: 10
Garden music is great! I am duly impressed! Keep up the great work, Shashana & Rolando! Rating out of possible 10: 10.
- bravo!
Review From Wind and Wire of the GARDEN MUSIC CD
by Dene Bebbington
Shashana and Rolando (aka Free-Life) have created some very pleasing and exquisite music to be appreciated whether or not one is interested in healing issues or the nurturing of plants, flowers, and shrubs. Ostensibly it's a New Age album, yet it exhibits a range of styles also including smooth Jazz, ambient, and adult contemporary.The music on Garden Music is based around keyboards, synths, guitar, and cello. Several tracks are reminiscent of Secret Garden (though with a less Celtic feel) and in the more lively and rhythmic tracks one may notice the use of Pat Metheny style guitar.
Some musicians have a knack of creating music with an organic quality, this is something Free-Life do very well on early tracks like "Black Orchid" and "Le Jardin de Musique". Here the sounds, especially of the cello, easily make one think of the world of plants and flowers, which are life of a totally different kind to people and animals. I was struck how the music is how one might imagine the world of plants to inherently sound if they made a noise growing, extending their root tendrils, or opening their flowers.
As the album progresses the music generally moves away from the organic level to become more rhythmic and upbeat, though we also hear a few ambient synth based pieces—like "Ode to the Flowers and Plants" where a reverbing synth delivers a reverential ode as gentle wave-like sounds lap across the soundscape. Shashana and Rolando have created a very pleasing album that can perk humans up, and may well do the same for plants and flowers! —Dene Bebbington –review of GARDEN MUSIC CD—Wind and Wire, 2004
- Wind and Wire
When you hear 'Free-Life' Shashana & Rolando think Pat Metheny meets Yo Yo Ma meets Secret Garden meets World Music--they're that good.
- Jonathan Whitehead
They are an incredible team of creativity...we encourage you to take/make the opportunity to hear them.
- Thelma Smith, Director
The soul is nourished, the heart expanded, and consciousness is raised by the resonance of their music.
- Chic Katherman
Discography
"GARDEN MUSIC" (2003)
"FENG SHUI MEDITATION MUSIC" (2002)
"ANGELS AMONG THE SWANS" (2002)
"ITALIAN MUSIC WITH A WORLD BEAT" (2002)
"AVALONIA": Music Inspired by the Court of King Arthur(2002)
"SKYWALKER" (EARTH MUSIC) (1999)
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
ROLANDO has been a musician (guitarist and cellist) for over twenty-five years with advanced degrees not only in music but also in psychology, literature, and world religions. He has had experience as a music therapist and as a practitioner of Sacred Sound Healing and has presented healing and participatory workshops and concerts for over fifteen years, beginning in the mid 1980's when he became involved with the then burgeoning Men's Movement. He wrote original songs and poetry that dealt specifically with the themes and concerns of this movement including the emotional, spiritual, and psychological dynamics of inner child issues, father-son relationships, and male creativity and self-expression. He then integrated this material into a concert format followed by a "hands-on" experiential workshop based upon the music, lyrics, and poetry from his musical performance. ROLANDO NOW APPLIES THESE SAME THERAPEUTIC PRINCIPLES AND TECHNIQUES TO THE HEALTHY GROWTH OF PLANTS, FLOWERS, SHRUBS, AND TREES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO CERTAIN TYPES OF MUSIC AND MUSICAL RHYTHMS. He creates his music in ways that continually intersect the organic world of nature and the human dynamics of a higher state of consciousness.
SHASHANA plays keyboards and keyboard synthesizer and began her musical studies on the piano and organ at the age of six. She has studied classical music as well as jazz, and composes most of the music for "Free-Life." She creates original melodies and rhythms inspired by her African-American and Native American heritage and draws upon her shaman-energies to communicate with the plants, flowers, shrubs, and trees to determine the type of music and rhythms they like to hear and respond to. Whether she is writing for the plants, flowers, shrubs, and trees in your garden, or for the interconnectedness of your body, mind, and spirit, her inspiration is always radiantly transcendent and at the same time, grounded in the ever present NOW of our earthly existence.
SHASHANA & ROLANDO formed "Free-Life" a number of years ago when they recognized the need for a musical group specializing in Earth-World Music that could easily and effectively present and translate the complex rhythms and melodies of this music to a western audience. They have consistently sought out new and exciting ways of presenting their music to make it more compatible for western listeners adding some New Age musical ambience--but without compromising the origin, integrity, and authentic style of World Music itself. Through their music and performances, they wish to offer all living creatures--both human and organic--the gift of an "enlivened compassion;" and their desire is for everyone to recognize that we are all on a continuous and heart-felt adventure--a journey toward a planet filled with interdependent wholeness, peace, harmony, wisdom, and love.
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