Desert Dwellers News ::.

SUMMER 2010

Desert Dwellers will be playing at the Wanderlust Music Festival, and at the Shambala Music Festival this summer.

A new yoga inspired album called ASUDHA is out now on Yogitunes. New Original music by Desert Dwellers & Shaman's Dream. Also check out the JALA continuous yoga flow mix. Watch for more to come outon yogitunes over the summer.

The Laya Project remixes have been released on the Earthsync website. lots of amazing remixes to download.

SPRING 2010

Desert Dwellers Remixed Part 2 is out now. This time our good friend Drumspyder has remixed two of the middle eastern tunes from DownTemple Dub ROOTS, resulting in a collaboration perfect for both the bellydance and ecstatic dance scenes.

A new project by Amani of Desert Dwellers and Alex DeYoung called Variant Field on Desert Trax ... Mindscapes is the first EP, and Step Deep is the 2nd .... it was just featured on the front page of BLEEP.com

We just released Desert Dwellers Remixed Part 1 : two uptempo dance remixes from ROOTS by Alex Kenji and Saeed Younan.

Flow Records released Chilling Cuts vol. 4 with the Desert Dwellers tune Dubsicle.

We are still enjoying our latest full length album DownTemple Dub ROOTS on White Swan Records.

Some new remixes are available:

Minimoon Remixes
on Undergroove Music

Analock EP
on Younan Music

Featured Releases ::.
ITUNES		ASUDHA - Various Artists Yoga Dub Grooves by Yogitunes Translated as Bliss, this blissful yogic journey will ease your mind while giving your body a sublime soundtrack upon which to expand and contract into a state of cosmic joy.  Temple rhythms, trip hop and downtempo beats, angelic melodies and open, trance-based arrangements provide an excellent bed for yoga and other wellness practices, or for just simply chilling out to as a soundtrack to your daily existence.   In Asudha, music producer Amani Friend has woven together a yantric tapestry of pranic elements, along with fellow Yogitunes collaborators Craig Kohland and Rara Avis. Many of these tracks have been pulled from a series of instructional videos that featured renowned teacher Desiree Rumbaugh.  Her fluent style and grace brought an uplifting and soulful energy to this project which has thus far only been released on DVD.
ITUNES		JALA - Various Artists Yoga Flow Mix by Yogitunes A magical cross-cultural journey that embodies the essence of flow.  Jala, which is sanskrit for water, explores the elemental quality of this sacred life giving fluid.  It’s ability to embrace, contain, heal, nourish and move with ease provide amazing inspiration from which to draw upon when creating a sonic yoga journey. Yogitunes creators Shaman’s Dream, Desert Dwellers, Rara Avis & Liquid Bloom have picked their favorite fluid songs from a plentiful library of previous releases, mixed together into a continuous flow by Amani Friend. A perfect partner for your yoga practice, massage journey, meditation or any other holistic lifestyle practice.
EARTHSYNC		A New Day - Laya Project Remixed 5 years after the Laya Project journey began, urban music embraces diverse traditions and cultures in Laya Project’s musical celebration of life.   Laya Project documents regional folk music traditions in remote villages that lay in the 2004 Asian tsunami's path. Laya Project's musicians are the people of Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar and India. Performances of unknown local musicians were filmed and recorded on-location, arranged and mixed to create a composition that embarks on a musical journey crossing borders, while still preserving the music of the people. Five years later, bridging the distance, urban music embraces diverse traditions and cultures in Laya Project's musical celebration of life... A New Day.
ITUNES		DD Remixed Part 2 - Desert Trax Presenting a second set of remixes to follow up the Yoga Beat/Dub Fusion albums on White Swan Records, the DownTemple Dub series. For these two remixes our good friend Drumspyder adds his production and percussion skills to two traditional Middle Eastern tracks from ROOTS (Taking Flight & Trail of Nomads), resulting in a seamless collaboration perfect for both the bellydance and ecstatic dance scenes.
ITUNES | BEATPORT		DD Remixed Part 1 - Desert Trax As a follow up project to the Yoga Beat/Dub Fusion albums on White Swan Records, the DownTemple Dub series, we have brought in some of dance music’s top artists to remix various tracks from these 3 albums. These will be released as EP's on Desert Dwellers self owned label "Desert Trax". The first of these EP's features remixes by Alex Kenji (Hotfingers, Starter Records) and Saeed Younan (Younan Music). Both artists are recognized as top producers in Tech House and House Music with countless chart topping releases. Both remixes utilize the tribal ethno samples from DDS and fuse them into DJ friendly tribal house tracks that are sure to rock any dance floor anywhere in the world.
Purchase all three Desert Dwellers’ DownTemple Dub albums and recieve 25% off the total purchase price. Buy Special Offer Now		Amani & Rara Avis present ... DownTemple Dub: Roots Tracing the routes of the ancient Silk Road, Desert Dwellers lead an electro-mystic exploration of nomadic music—and the timeless concept of groove. A caravan of sound drawing from East Asia to the Mediterranean moves through a sensual psy-chill soundscape, bridging the millennia and connecting cultural past to musical future. Amani Friend and Rara Avis again join forces with Craig Kohland (founder of Shaman’s Dream), Treavor Moontribe and a diverse cast of talented musicians from the deserts of Santa Fe for the third installment in the DownTemple Dub series: ROOTS.
PURCHASE CD | or BEATPORT DOWNLOAD		Set 9: Desert Selections - Iboga Compiled by Treavor Moontribe Iboga Records presents another smashing release in the set series. “Set:9 Desert Selections” is compiled by Iboga label DJ Treavor Moontribe from Los Angeles, USA. 1. Desert Dwellers : Stratosphere (Ecliptic Remix) 2. Sun Control Species : Snake Shake 3. Nyquist : Tilt 4. Ace Ventura : The Spark 5. C-Jay : Miko (BBE Remix) 6. Saikopod : Electroid Sheep 7. FM Radio Gods : Musak Attack 8. Erphun : Double Shift 9. Perfect Stranger : Clear Vision07 (Fiord Remix)
iTUNES | CD ALBUM		DownTemple Dub: Flames White Swan Records by Desert Dwellers Desert Dwellers continue their yoga dub odyssey into the soul of the global heartbeat. Rara and Amani's trademark deep bass, earthy percussion, etheric voices and culture-crossing instrumentation meet Treavor Moontribe’s insistent rhythms in this invigorating psy-chill soundscape. Like sonic incense, this spellbinding hybrid of studio and field recordings burns with a boldly modern sound reverberating with echoes of our tribal past -- and future. [Read Review]
iTUNES | CD ALBUM		DownTemple Dub: Waves White Swan Records by Desert Dwellers On their first full album release, Desert Dwellers meld elements of downtempo and psy-chill with sinewy basslines, otherworldly guitar and an exotic mix of organic instruments into an Indo-ambient mystical fusion. Created and composed by Amani Friend and Rara Avis, and produced by Craig Kohland, founder of the Shaman’s Dream Ensemble, DOWNTEMPLE DUB: WAVES pulses with lush rhythms and serene harmonies, guiding a sonic odyssey into the soul of the global heartbeat. [Read Review]

FEATURED REMIXES ::.
MINIMOON REMIXES by Lunar Sound Undergroove Music BEATPORT	ANALOCK EP by Saeed Younan Younan Music iTUNES | BEATPORT	SWEET LULLABY by Deep Forest Existence Records iTUNES | BEATPORT

>> View complete Desert Dwellers catalog

Amani Friend, Rara Avis, Treavor Moontribe & Craig Kohland have been making music in various combinations under the name Desert Dwellers for some time now. Whether the tracks are trancey dance floor killers or beautiful ambient pieces, you can be sure that anything released under the Desert Dwellers name is going to be well worth checking out. These talented producers (together and separately) all have a wonderful feel for combining world music, electronics and a heightened sense of "ambience" that is always lush and beautiful without succumbing to the pitfalls of much of the overly, pretty and uninteresting stuff that falls under the banner of "Yoga Grooves" or "New Age". It's often a fine balance between atmospheric world electronica and mushy wallpaper music and these guys always hit that elusive "sweet spot" that makes it work for me.

The collective's newest release, DownTemple Dub: Roots could be their best yet. Drawing from influences from East Asia to the Mediterranean, this hypnotic music actually earns the label's description of "sensual psy-chill soundscapes".

-- Bob Duskis - Founder Six Degrees Records
(From Global Noize - Six Degrees Records Blog)

The Desert Dwellers are a collective of music producers spanning throughout the Southwest deserts from New Mexico to California; all sharing a passion for outdoor sonic explorations and the re-discovery of ritual beneath the vast desert skies. There they have spent many a full moon opening their inner ears to the sounds of the deep night sky, soft sandy dance floor, and the wide-open spaces that these magical realms have to offer.

Amani Friend, Treavor Moontribe, and Rara Avis all bring a lifetime of compositional and performance experience to their current collaboration together. Their music blends elements of ambient, downtempo, dub, breaks, tek-house, progressive, electro, and trance; while also incorporating traditional world music in a way that shows a deep respect for that which has come before us, and our understanding of where we are now.

These three musicians have trained in a diverse number of musical modalities from all over the globe, and are acutely aware of the great healing potential that music has to offer. It is their wish that you join them on a journey of self-discovery, and enter into a world of sound that comes from the vast expanses of inner space.

Look for Desert Dwellers music on White Swan Records, Yogitunes, Iboga Records, Flow Records, Native State Records, Ritual Sounds, System Recordings, Six Degrees, Sounds True, and their own label Desert Trax; they have remixed tracks for Karsh Kale, Deep Forest, & Jai Uttal.

Desert Dwellers producers:
Amani Friend
Treavor Moontribe
Rara Avis
Jonathan Grossman
Craig Kohland
Michael Stearns
Brian Seed


iTunes Portal ::.

>> Desert Dwellers
>> Amani vs Teapot
>> Rara Avis
>> Cerebral Dub
>> Liquid Bloom
>> Shaman's Dream

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