Ocean Waves - Relaxing new age music set to the sounds of Newport Beach

Mental Sauna V: Maternity

Today marks the release of my newest album and fifth in the Mental Sauna series.

This album is geared toward pre-delivery through birth and after to help create a serene environment for parents and child. Try it on your birthing playlist!

Photo by Kelly Kincart
Model: Melissa Robin
Lettering: Rebecca Poole

Although it has a maternity focus, this music can also be used as all Mental Sauna music - relaxation, sleep, yoga, meditation and more.

Listen to samples on my Facebook Player:

1) What Do Babies Dream About?
2) It's All New
3) Toy Piano
4) Everything's A Pillow
5) The Long Slumber
6) Warm Glow in My Room
7) Play Mobile
8) Filled With Love
9) The Gentle Rattle
10) Fuzzy Blanket
11) Mother's Heartbeat
12) Music Box

Amazon

iTunes

Google Play

Please remember to leave reviews and ratings - so vital to artists these days!  Thank you and enjoy!!!

Sacred Space?

A few days ago, I was searching for something on YouTube.  For those of you that don’t know, I have a channel there with some videos for Mental Sauna music, some videos about my app and some of the short films I composed the music for.  Anyway, I am digging through videos and I stumble across a beautiful picture of a waterfall and the caption told me it was a video about the sound of the water accompanied with gentle music.  Since this is my field, I was curious and clicked on it.

The music, while not quite my style, was enjoyable, though not particularly relaxing to me but the waterfall was stunning and I was curious as to where this was.  Checking the description, I saw it was not listed so I thought that perhaps the answer may be in the comments.  I never got far enough to find out.

I couldn’t even tell you exactly how it happened but it went from a few polite comments supporting the video to a hateful political rant that went on and on with several people bashing each other about who even knows what.  There was name calling, arguing and opinions dramatically stated but, as usual, no one seemed to be listening to what anyone else was saying.  They were too busy shouting to get their point across.

Is there nothing sacred anymore?  Are there no forums safe from people’s hatred and having to show everyone how they know better than everyone else?  The whole point of posting a video such as the one I stumbled across was to be able to escape, reset and recharge.  How can anyone do that with all the noise in the world?

It isn’t a matter if whether we can do better than this or should do better than this.  We HAVE to start doing better than this.  This is something I address in my forthcoming novel The Universal Court.  Hopefully, we can start turning the tide and be able to find more sacred places where we can go to escape all the hatred and anger that is solving nothing at all.

My old blog used to get hit with all kinds of spam so I moved it here to BlogSpot and it has been much better.  However, be it here, my website, YouTube page, Soundcloud, etc., anytime I see something negative (not talking about constructive feedback but anger, hatred, etc.), I immediately delete it and block the user.  I will always do what I can to keep my world as peaceful as possible unless using it as an example, as I have done here.  Hopefully, together, we can all make a difference and drown out all the noise with joy, respect, consideration, peace and love.

What about you?  What is a sacred place that you go to, physical, internet, music, meditation or somewhere else?

Let’s make the world better!

For those that are interested, here is my YouTube page:

https://www.youtube.com/user/ScottHaskinMusic

Cheers,

Scott

Mental Sauna Relaxation is the newest creation for creating a soothing surrounding.  Designed for iOS, this app has several things I am really excited to tell you about.  It works on both iPhone and iPad.

We are scheduled for release on November 2nd in the Apple store.  We already have Apple approval and are really excited to get this out there for you to experience.


Features:
There is over an hour and a half of brand new Mental Sauna music to enjoy – 17 songs. That is more than a full album! The music here is a little more laid back than previous releases and designed more toward sleep but could easily be used for meditation and even as a background for writing or just unwinding.

Next up is the timer. You can set the timer to stop the music from playing for a long period of time while keeping your battery charged. If you want to have the app play for 5 minutes, you can. 30 minutes? No problem and all the way to the full length of the music. But, if you want to have it as a background while you work for say 1 hour, simply set the timer and the music will stop at that point. Even better if you are using it to fall asleep. Drift away comfortably, knowing you aren’t wearing your battery down too much and possibly missing your morning alarm.

Another thing that we were able to do is imbed the music into the app itself. That means you do not have to worry about streaming or Wi-Fi. Before I moved to Las Vegas, I found that the hotel Wi-Fi reception was terrible at times but wouldn’t that be somewhere you would want to use this app? Of course! So, we just put the music inside it and you can listen anytime, anywhere and without using up any of your data plan or having to stand perfectly in the spot in your room where you get a signal.

Since the song list is too long to fit on the screen, a scrolling list has been provided with an indicator as to which song is being played. You can also start and stop any song at any time.

My favorite feature, and one I think you are really going to love, is the selector. You have the option of listening to the music straight forward or adding the sound of rain or a stream. Not only that but YOU control the volume. If you want to listen with a little bit of light rain, simply move the slider until the desired sound is reached. Would you prefer the stream? No problem – just hit the button for stream and it changes instantly. Too loud? Too soft? YOU control the level. Of course you control the level of the music with your iPhone or iPad as you would anything else so you can get the perfect mix.

That’s it in a nutshell.  I will be posting a demo video to my YouTube channel so keep an eye out for that.
https://www.youtube.com/user/ScottHaskinMusic

If all goes well, I am considering rolling this out for Android as well early next year.  I can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks about it and I hope this new direction will bring even more happiness around the globe.
Scott

Mental Sauna III: Christmas Inflections

Hi everyone,

I know it has been a while since my last blog, but I’ve had my head down, focused on completing a couple projects.  One of which, is the new Mental Sauna album.  The other I am hoping to announce in a week or so.  I’m just in the process of finalizing a few things before I do.

Mental Sauna III: Christmas Inflections is complete and being uploaded to the pressing company.  Disc Makers provided me a very generous pressing package.  CDBaby will be handling digital distribution.  Both of these companies have been fantastic to work with.  The artwork was done by Kelly at OutsideTheBox.Photo and I love the design and stunning color combination.  I can’t wait to see it all put together in the final package.

For years, I had considered doing a holiday themed album but I hadn’t connected it with Mental Sauna until a very dear friend of mine suggested it.  From that point on, I made list after list of all the songs I would want to work with and finally narrowed it to the list below.  The next challenge was to create the write feel and bridge the gap between these classic songs and Mental Sauna.  Once I had the right blend of tone, it was a matter of deciding how the arrangements would go, which took a bit of experimentation.  It was an intense couple months but I am very pleased with the final versions, after mixing and mastering.  One of the biggest challenges was creating the holiday feel when it was 113 degrees outside.

What I hadn’t considered, throughout the process, was how nostalgic I would get.  Growing up in Michigan, where I had a close extended family, Christmas Eve was always the same:  trying to pass the time, waiting for my dad to get off work so we could head to Grandma and Grandpa’s house (on my mother’s side), hoping we wouldn’t get stuck in the snow (and that also happened).  I would exercise, do stretches or just sit and listen to records.

My grandmother always put on an amazing spread for dinner.  Of all things, my favorite was the bowl of mixed nuts.  It was the only time of year I had them and I got to crack them myself, so double score!  After dinner, we would sit around singing Christmas Carols while my aunt played piano.  The really funny thing is that I couldn’t wait to finish singing so we could open presents.  Hey, in all fairness, I was a kid!  Once we returned home, we would all open one present and head to bed so we would get up early on Christmas morning. 

My brother and I would open the gifts on the stockings that hung on out bedroom doors while our parents woke up.  Then we would all sit in front of the tree and open gifts.  Sometimes we would head to my other Grandma and Grandpa’s house and my uncle would join us.  Then it was a matter of organizing all the new things I had gotten and integrate them into my world.

It was freezing cold every Christmas and the snow was always piled in the yard.  I was usually the one that kept the driveway clean.  I loved playing in the snow.  It was so quiet outside that time of year on our street.  I think that was my favorite part of it all.  That is probably the thing I miss most, living in the desert.  But, as time marches on and life evolves, old traditions become memories and new things are started.  This will be my first Christmas living in Las Vegas.  I’ve been here for Christmas before and the hotels do such a beautiful job decorating.  One of my favorite walks down the Strip is 4am on Christmas morning with a white chocolate mocha in hand from Starbucks, all bundled up against the cold December wind.  Then some phone calls and a relaxing night working in the studio.  Perfect!  Of course, there is Halloween first.  J

Here is the plan:  On October 10^th, there will be a pre-order available on iTunes.  If you purchase during the pre-order dates, one song should become immediately available to you.  The full release will be on October 20^th on iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon Music, CDBaby and a host of other places.  Physical CD’s will most likely be available on my website.

The album is a compilation of some of my favorite holiday melodies, arranged and recorded specifically for the Mental Sauna world.  This was quite an experiment and a challenge but I had a great time doing it.  There were two songs that didn’t make the cut. Perhaps I will finish those and release them one day.  Fourteen songs did make it on to the album.  There are samples of each on my website and they will remain there until the launch, when you’ll be able to preview them on iTunes.
http://www.scotthaskin.com/?page_id=660

Track List:

1  Deck the Halls

2  Away In A Manger

3  Jingle Bells

4  O, Come All Ye Faithful

5  Joy to the World

6  O, Little Town of Bethlehem

7  Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

8  O, Holy Night

9  God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

10  The First Noel

11  Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

12  It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

13  We Three Kings

14  Silent Night

I am very excited to get this album out.  The last couple months have been filled with arranging and recording.  I also played bass guitar on this album, which is a first, and had guest Duduk player Eva Bukovinszky on Silent Night.  She played beautifully and her sound adds a great deal to this song.

I certainly hope you enjoy listening to the album as much as I did creating it.  Thanks to Deane, Eva, Kelly, Disc Makers, CDBaby and all my beta listeners.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it!

I will ask one thing:  When you listen to it, please rate the album on iTunes.  So much is affected even by the 5 star rating system these days. If you are on the album page, click on the tab for Ratings and Reviews and click how many start you honestly feel the album deserves.  If you would like to leave a review that would be fantastic but, please at least make sure you rate it.  Thank you in advance!  I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate that!

Also, if there is anyone you think would enjoy this album, or any of the Mental Sauna or other albums I have available, please pass along the information.  So far, Mental Sauna has helped many people relax and get sleep, even with insomnia or over-active brains. It has helped calm children and it has been used as a background for writing novels and screenplays.  I want to help as many people as possible to enjoy life more, even just one note at a time.

Enjoy the holiday and make beautiful memories that you’ll carry in your heart until the end of time.

Scott

Mental Sauna Audio Blog

That's right!  My first ever blog in audio format!  Here, I answer some questions I have received on my Mental Sauna CD's.

https://soundcloud.com/#scotthaskin/audio-blog-1-mental-sauna

Thanks for listening!

Scott