Curating Music for Psilocybin Research (Part III)

Here are the tracks that made up the playlists Swell curated for this research, each assigned to a specific part of the study...

In this final part, we delve into the selection of artists and songs that Brian picked for every phase of the trip.

The Phases

The following is a description of the phases and the timings that we agreed upon. Nine hours were split into six main sections as follows:

• Phase I - Pre-administration

• Phase II - Post-administration

• Phase III - Ascent

• Phase IV - Peak experience

• Phase V - Post-peak descent

• Phase IV - Recovery

The timings were defined below:

• Pre-Administration - between 30mins-60 mins time to allow the patient to be settled

• 0-50 mins phase II - Post administration

• 50-90 mins phase IIIA - Ascent

• 90-100 mins EEG track

• 100-150 mins phase IIIB - Ascent / Peak

• 150-160 mins EEG track

• 160-300 mins phase V - Post peak

• 300-420 mins phase VI - Recovery

The Music

And what about the music? Our selection went deep into the Ambient Flo catalogue, which amounts to thousands of ambient songs, amassed over the past 3 years. We didn’t want to go too electronic; given the demographic information we had been given, we assumed that the patients were unlikely to be clubbers or fans of electronic music. We focussed on acoustic instrumentation and sounds that would be familiar; for the early phases, we had a lot of tracks that incorporated nature sounds lending a grounding feeling to the opening phase.

As one transitions through the phases, more otherworldly sounds are introduced in post-administration, evolving into more rhythmical and cyclical music throughout the Ascent phase. The Peak phase was the most challenging as the initial iterations did not go deep enough.

When in this phase, the intention is to help the patients confront their mental blockages and find ways of dealing with them that might not be possible in ‘real life’. Using lots of melancholic contemporary classical and piano music seemed a good way to go here. The Post-Peak period was interesting in the sense that the patient would not yet be back ‘in their body’ and so the music could be fairly neutral and floaty. We wanted to stray off-grid, so tracks with no discernable tempo with a slightly ‘uncanny’ feel seemed right.

Finally, the End Phase would be important in welcoming patients back to ‘normality’, and be the conclusion of what may prove to be a life-changing experience for most of them. Uplifting, consonant pieces, with more of a traditional song structure and some vocals and voices from around the world would bring them back and leave them in a good place.

The Playlists

Phase I - Pre-administration

Target length: 3 hours
Key descriptors: Ambient, non-dominant, relaxing, safe, grounding, consonant, welcoming, relaxing, melodic
Rationale: This will be playing in the background when we’re talking to patients ahead of their dosing, we’ll need them to be listening to our guidance while also feeling relaxed about what’s about to happen - a ‘safe space’ activating their parasympathetic nervous system. A bit like a holding pattern, we don’t need the playlist to head in any particular direction and should be able to stop and start it.

Brian Eno & Harold Budd - Foreshadowed
Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Old Melody
Laraaji - Trance
Celestial - Movement 1
Fadi Tabbal - Music For Arcs And Diameters
Citizens for Confetti - orange lullaby
Hybrid Palms - Celestial Mirages
Aphex Twin - #3
H Takahashi - Luft
AROVANE - Longt
Green-House - Soft Meadow
Bing & Ruth - The How Of It Sped
Mansur Brown - Mashita
Colleen - Sun Against My Eyes
Kazuya Nagaya - Yoshino

Phase II - Post-administration

Target length: 120 mins
Key descriptors: melodic, purposeful, gently building in anticipation, contemplative, directive
Rationale: We’ll trigger this list at pre-drug administration as soon as the patient is about to take the drug. For this reason, the first two songs would ideally be poignant and meaningful to a lot of people. This phase should build slowly but purposefully over around 30 mins towards the point that they first start to feel the effects of the drug. Patients will be sitting, thinking with eyes open for the first 20 mins, and then we’ll ask them to transfer to headphones when they’ll still be sober but intently listening to the music.

Laraaji - LaraajiCollaji (Carlos Nino EDIT + Additionals featuring Jamael Dean)
Daniel Kobialka - Blue Spirals
John Carroll Kirby - VIII
Green-House - Parlor Palm
Domenique Dumont - Gone for a Wander
Morita Vargas - Bernisa
Pauline Anna Strom - Gossamer Silk
Domenique Dumont - Watching Boats Pass By
Gaussian Curve - Broken Clouds
Felbm - Brunnengasse
Gigi Masin - She Wears Shades
H Takahashi - Crystal
Loscil - Cloister
Hannah Holland - Jolene Sees Tom

Phase III - Ascent (First onset of subjective effects)

Target length: 45mins
Key descriptors: joyful, positive, lifting, elevating, energising, ecstatic, transcendental, rhythmical - all the emotions
Rationale: Would ideally move from subtle to powerful but always positive as people will usually start to feel some nausea as the drug takes effect and then settle in it after about 20mins. It’s that wonderful lifting feeling up through the abdomen into the chest that we want to represent and amplify.

Jon Hopkins - Welcome (With 7Rays)
Steve Reich (Performed By Wiek Hijmans) - Electric Counterpoint Part II
Andrew Wasylyk - Everywhere Something Sublime
Green-House - Bird of Paradise
Jonathan Fitoussi - Soleil de Minuit
Green-House - Perennial Bloom
Jonathan Fitoussi - Corolles
Jonathan Fitoussi - Vents Magnétiques
Bing & Ruth - The Pressure of this Water
Greg Haines - Azure
Caterina Barbieri - Fantas for Electric Guitar
Flore Laurentienne - Petit Piano

Phase IV - Peak of experience

Target length: 60mins
Key descriptors: moving between sad, despair, mournful, cutting, slow, and compassionate to neutral, contemplative, otherworldly, and ethereal
Rationale: This is one of the most important parts of the journey, we need people to come face to face with their deep traumas, this requires very sad and unapologetically mournful music, and simplicity is useful at points. People also need respite from this so would ideally cycle between sad and quite neutral music where they can contemplate this sadness.

Biosphere - Angel's Flight
Patricia Wolf - Funeral
Kara-Lis Coverdale - Ad_Renaline
Paul Haslinger - Cambium
Arvo Part - Spiegel Im Spiegel (For Violin And Piano)
Auntie Flo - For Mihaly (Reprise)
Arvo Part - Fur Alina
Michel Banabila - The Dreamvisitor
Poppy Ackroyd - Pause
Nils Frahm - Ambre
Max Richter - Vladimir's Blues
Max Richter - On The Nature Of Daylight
Pieter Nooten And Michael Brook - These Waves

Phase V - Post-peak decent

Target length: 60-120mins
Key descriptors: Slow, neutral, soothing, floating, re-emerging
Rationale: After the experience is less intense, people might be quite exhausted so we slowly need to guide them back to the surface. We want them to hold onto what they’ve learnt from the last hour and start to integrate and make sense of it. For this reason, it can start to move away from sad music into ambient and contemplative, something that doesn’t draw too much attention.

Dirk Leyers - Daydreamer
Andras Toth - Osidius
Melody As Truth - Talk From Home
Huerco S. - The Sacred Dance
Kara-Lis Coverdale - Moments In Love
Edmondson - Persian Palaces
Huerco S. - Promises Of Fertility
Benoit Pioulard - Leadale
H.Takahashi - Morphine
Bing & Ruth - As Much As Possible
Mary Lattimore - Wawa by the Ocean
Jas Shaw - An uncertain ratio
Shanti Celeste - Slow Wave

Phase VI - Recovery

Target length: 120 mins
Key descriptors: Relaxing, triumphant, heroic, welcoming
Rationale: With the hero’s return, patients will still have an ‘afterglow’ but will be feeling quite raw. Can move back towards a more positive sound.

Green-House - Sansevieria
KOKOROKO - Abusey Junction
Don Cherry - Luna Turca
Andrew Wasylyk - Welter in the Haar
Alice Coltrane - Paramahansa Lake
Mary Lattimore - Pine Trees
Green-House - Sunflower Dance
Oliver Patrice Weder - Margarita
Ben Lukas Boysen & Sebastian Plano - We're Here
Mary Lattimore - Pine Trees (Home Recording)
Poranguí - Iluminar
Oliver Patrice Weder - Lala
Paul Haslinger - Septuagint
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '77 - After Sunrise
Alice Coltrane - Jai Ramachandra

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