Pink Floyd, Dead Can Dance, King Crimson, Amon Tobin, Radiohead, Peter Gabriel, Led Zeppelin, Krishna Das, Jimi Hendrix, Bill Laswell, Tangerine Dream, Spiritualized, Brian Eno, the Beatles, the Doors, the Swans, Primal Scream, Tabla Beat Science, Tool, NIN, Portishead, Debussy, Tricky, Bjork, Sheila Chandra, Zakkir Hussein, Bob Marley, Kraftwerk, the Orb, Orbital, Iron Maiden, Prokofiev, Primus, Frank Zappa, Gong, Rush, Santana, Massive Attack, Aphex Twin, John Cage, Robert Fripp, Ravi Shankar, Dr. Didge, Depeche Mode, Shakti, Sun Ra Arkestra, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Mr. Bungle, My Bloody Valentine, Meat Beat Manifesto, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Skinny Puppy, the Flaming Lips, Syd Barrett, the Verve, Bob Marley, Nina Simone, Karsh Kale, Afro Celt Soundsystem, Robert Johnson, Tom Waits, Acid Mothers Temple, Mars Volta, Sigur Ros, Bartok, Brahms, Ravel, Queen, Goldie, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Love and Rockets, Alex Grey, Salvador Dali, Middle Eastern and African drum music, Tuvan throat singing, superluminal information transfer on the quantum level, Robert Anton Wilson, Lao-tse, Aldous Huxley, William Blake, Henry Miller, Anais Nin, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Gibran, Alan Watts, Bill Hicks, Timothy Leary, Ken Wilber, Terence McKenna, H.P. Lovecraft, the craft of love, the ocean(s), the mountain(s), the Sirius mystery, the synchronicity mesh, solve et coagule (personal dissolution), the number 23, lemurs, etc. ....................
Most recently Telesma headlined the 28th annual "Starwood Festival" in Sherman, NY, sharing the bill with such notable acts as Rusted Root drummer Jim Donovan's "Drum the Ecstatic". Starwood can be loosely described as a more spiritually based Burning Man in the woods. It's a week-long mind blowing, sensory adventure, culminating in the climactic "Big Burn" held on Saturday, the night on which Telesma played.
Telesma has also recently performed at Alex Grey's "Chapel of Sacred Mirrors" or "COSM" in NYC. Alex Grey is best known for his "Sacred Mirrors" collection of paintings as well as the designing of Tool's last several album covers and artwork. In the very beginning Telesma's core founding principles were inspired by Alex Grey's book, "The Mission Of Art", and its creative initiative sparked by the indescribable magic that is the Starwood experience. We hope to collaborate with Alex and Allyson Grey on live performances to help with their new CoSM project in the near future.
In July, we were excited to welcome internationally acclaimed percussionist Abhishek Basu, from India, to collaborate with us on our "Other Worldly Music Night" at the Metro Gallery. This show was a great opportunity to mix our music with Abhishek's blend of classical indian and modern tabla styles, as well as mouth percussion, Handsonic electronics, and darbukka. This collaboration has inspired more shows together, including performances Dallas and New York. And could even lead us to India with Abhishek in the future...!! Be sure to join us on Nov. 8th as we welcome Abhishek back to the Metro Gallery for our next local "Other Worldy" Collaboration.
It has been an amazing year of coming full circle. A year to engage creatively with some of the very sources of Telesma's initial inception and inspiration. We would like to humbly thank all our fans, old and new, for supporting us and making every step possible along the way.
We're excited to be continuing to work on new show ideas with the Indra Lazul bellydancers, our VJ Adam Weinberg, and graffic designer Jeremy Opio, to create an ever evolving Telesma experience for the future shows! So we hope to see you all soon.
~ namaste ~
Telesma
We invite you to join our new profile the TELESMA: Collective where we'll be adding more music, unreleased tracks, and live performances...plus video and more!!
Blending ancient and modern instrumentation and spirit, the Baltimore-based group Telesma bridges the gap between primal and futuristic. Setting themselves apart with their intoxicating sound and extraordinary live performances, they take the audience on a soul inspiring journey that transcends this world, tantalizes the senses, and moves the body with waves of pulsating rhythm. "To experience Telesma live is to become part of the show. More than just music, it's a swirling, whirling, twirling event...it's extremely hard not to become involved in the swaying, hypnotic rhythms that pour forth from the stage.” Michael Macey of the Chesapeake Music Guide.
Telesma's unique sound, oft labeled "electro-acoustic psychedelic world dance music", is driven by the ancient sound of the didgeridoo, the kubing (bamboo mouth harp), tribal drums and percussion, and the human voice. These elements are fused with modern instruments and technology to create a diverse sound ranging from intense polyrhythmic rock-n-roll, to ambient melodic meanderings, to trance-like pulses found in modern electronic dance/groove music.
Themes of higher consciousness, philosophy, connectivity, peace, and universal archetypes merge with influences from folklore, various mythologies and religion, nature, fantasy, art, and other mystical elements to create the root of Telesma’s inspirational message. This sound can be heard on the group’s first full length album “O(h)M” released in 2007, on their independent label “sTRANGELY cOMPELLING mUSIC”.
Besides the visual spectacle of the band itself, their performances often include elaborate multimedia projections, belly dancing by local and nationally known dancers, fire spinning, and performance art/interpretive dance by various artists. A Telesma performance creates a mystical atmosphere, taps into the energy of music, and evokes a primal celebration of mind, body, and spirit with their audience.
Stylistic elements that the band draws from include Middle Eastern and African drumming, Indian raga and kirtan, electronica (house, drum & bass, techno), psychedelic and hard rock, jazz, improvisational and dance music, as well as many fusions of those styles.
Artist comparisons range from Dead Can Dance, Pink Floyd, Tabla Beat Science, Amon Tobin, King Crimson, Ravi Shankar, Krishna Das, Afro-Celt Soundsystem, Bob Marley, Sun Ra Arkestra, Thievery Corporation, Tool, Mickey Hart's Planet Drum, and Peter Gabriel, to name a few.
The diversity of the group appeals to a wide variety of people, and has opened doors for the band to perform at many different kinds of festivals, club shows, and performance situations, such as radio and television.
Telesma has performed in the mid-Atlantic region at such events as Starwood Pagan Gathering (NY), Culturefest (W.VA), Spoutwood Fairie Festival (PA), Maryland Faerie Festival (MD), Nelsons Ledges Quarry Park (OH), Alex Grey's Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (NYC), Free Spirit Gathering (MD), the Baltimore PowWow (MD), Phanphest (NY/NJ), SoWeBo Festival (MD), 98Rock’s Summer Concert Series, and many great venues including the 8x10 Club, Recher Theatre, Metro Gallery, The Creative Alliance at the Patterson, and The Whiskey to name a few.
Telesma was formed in 2002 by Ian Hesford (didgeridoo, kubing, dumbek, percussion) and Jason Sage (keyboards, percussion, programmer, lyrics). The two then added musicians
Joanne Juskus (vocals, percussion, karatalas), Chris Mandra (guitar, analog guitar synth, his unique manDrum, and vocals), Bryan Jones "Jonesy" (6 string MIDI & upright basses, theremin, percussion), and Rob Houck (drum kit, percussion, electronic drums) to complete the lineup.
The group also participates in other performance opportunities, including visual arts. In 2005 the group was featured in a video for their song Immanence, filmed by V3 Imaging to demonstrate their cutting edge lense technology at the NAB show. In spring of 2006, Telesma was featured on 2 episodes of Maryland Public TVs "Art Works" program, including a slot on their Best of ArtWorks segment. Both videos are posted below. Other performances include providing music for several belly dance troupes. And the group has also worked on composing film scores, Telesma was commissioned by the Creative Alliance at the Patterson Theater to compose and perform a live score for the 1927 silent screen epic "Ben Hur". The show was such a success that Telesma was subsequently invited to compose and perform a score for the 1925 silent film of Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan" at Baltimore's prestigious Center Stage Theater.
Says George Figgs, founder of the famed Orpheum Film Series in Baltimore, "Telesma is one of the most unusual and eclectic -- yet musically knowledgable -- bands that I have ever heard. A band with a sense of humor, yet serious in its approach -- a truly ancient modern theatrical sound, while being very interesting visually."
Robbie Whelan of the Baltimore City Paper wrote: "Dozens of acts, from David Byrne to Angelique Kidjo to Paul Simon, have treaded the same waters, but what sets Telesma apart is that the dialogue between its members disparate influences doesnt feel forced. Their approach is based on a feeling, an optimistic hunch, that everyone in the world is somehow connected, and that we can all benefit from that connection. ... Its based on the idea that indigenous tribal culturesfrom Aborigines to Masai tribesmen to Arabian emirscan be forced into an intelligent dialogue that goes deeper than the fact that such musics can sound good when played together."
Megan Hamilton, program director of the Patterson in Baltimore, calls Telesma, "A serious, talented young band that can create fresh, innovative music merging of stone age and cyber age technology with timeless spectacle -- you just don't see so many of those!
Telesma's main graffic designer is Jeremy Opio be sure to checkout his other work on his profile.
Our live video projections are manipulated by Adam Weinberg
We're honored to feature the Indra Lazul Bellydancers at our shows!!
Also, checkout these solo album releases from Telesma members:
OCTOBER 2008 eye man serve & everybody can be great.
..These are some Primal Primitivistikals of finger paint to paper infused with Cacao , Cacao & Pure Spring Water...Eye hope they muse you in some way...pleased to be able to share some of my positive energy with you...lots of 125's come alive Zeeshan...a fellow hakim of Life & Death...**
Develop the mind of equilibrium. You will always be getting praise and blame, but do not let either affect the poise of the mind: follow the calmness, the absence of pride. Take Care & EnJoy
LOVED you folks at Culture Fest 2008!! Thanks for having my friends join your dancers, they were honored! We're still talking about it. What a great time I had. You folks rock!
