Martyrs of Sound: Blog

We're so excited! Songs for Loving & Dying, our third CD, releases this fall. It is our best thus far—Indie Tantra Rock that goes both dark and sweet, on a journey of life, the heart, love and the eternal.

In just a few weeks, you'll be able to buy Songs or the CD on this website—so check back!

And again, don't forget you can download "Angels" for free from Sara's website, www.sarawiseman.com

We've had a big year! Sara's book comes out this November (WRITING THE DIVINE, Llewellyn). Order it now on Amazon, or go to www.sarawiseman.com for a quick link.

Download our new song "Angels" for free!

Just visit www.sarawiseman.com

Oregon’s own Martyrs of Sound named Winners for Best New Age Song of the Year, by the 8th Annual INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS. Salem based artists Steve Koc and Sara Wiseman are among the diverse group of artists chosen as winners in the prestigious Independent Music Awards Vox Populi poll. The IMAs are an international program that promotes independent artists to millions of fans & industry insiders

“Catchy, coloring outside the lines” Bill Binkelman, music critic for New Age Retailer Magazine
“Quite remarkable, very intriguing” Terry McBride, founder of Lilith Fair and manager for Sara McLaughlin
“Lush, heady, deep and filled with the sacred” Karan Khalsa, owner - Spirit Voyage Music Distribution

We are happy to announce that UNCOILED, our second CD, will be available 8.8.08. We will be distributed by Spirit Voyage, New Leaf, CD Baby, iTunes, Earbuzz, and others to come. The new music is designed to release us from root to crown, in the bliss that comes when there is no distinction between I and One. Early reviews have been great, lots of tears of joy and heart opening.

There's more back-story on why I chose the images we used on Mantra Chill. When John Lennon went solo he released an album with him and Yoko on the cover, full-frontal naked, Full Monty! Exposed! Nothing to hide. He has always been an inspiration to me. To be free to be who I am, live fearless, take risks, be creative, love, and be true to my art/music/expression. In that spirit I used these pictures for the cover art. The paintings may or may not represent Sara and myself, I really don’t know. I never intended them to be us. They are angels. I won't speak for her but I am no angel! The figures in the paintings are not human. They are meant to be two energies, male and female, on their own journeys and then converging. At the time I painted these works I was editing Sara’s latest novel, a cosmic love story about spiritual convergence, life and the afterlife. The angels in my pictures walk their separate paths and then meet and join and the newly joined path goes on to infinity. Is it us? No...yes...maybe...I guess all art is really about the artist and if done well, it is really about all of us.

And due to the rising cost of gas the price of the originals is now $475,000
; )

We’re excited. Mantra Chill is getting GREAT feedback from music industry folks:

“Dr. Steve's soundscape is as healing and enjoyable as his chiropractic adjustments!” Jai Uttal, Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist

“Crafted with love… and lovely. This music is quite suitable for yoga practice or meditation, long introductions, smooth instrumentation and vocals.” Wah! New Age recording artist

“Beautiful—it rises above most music in this genre. I loved it.” Bette Timm, Grammy Awards - New Age division

“Flawless guitar work, quite entrancing.” John Doan, Emmy-nominated musician and historian

Mantra Chill, the debut release from Martyrs of Sound is scheduled for June 1, 2007.

Some people have wondered about the cover art used for the Mantra Chill album. The angel images are from the diptych (two panel) work called “Convergence.” I painted them this past year with acrylics on ¾ inch furniture-quality birch veneer plywood. Each section is about 2 feet by 3 feet.

I love working with metallic paints and the iridescent fine copper is my favorite these days. The boards looked great just covered in the copper alone and it was tempting to just go “minimalist” and hang them like that. The pattern of the wood grain and the metal finish would morph with the light throughout the day and night. You could “see” all kinds of cool images in the patterns. But, alas, I’m not recognized enough as an artist to pull off a stunt like that, so I continued to add more paint.

I wanted to do the face of a spirit that has been hanging around for a long while, many years. I wondered what it would look like if it took human form. Most of my art is somewhat channeled so this approach was not any great departure from my normal way of doing art. The difference was this time I did it with intention as opposed to laying down abstract colors until something took shape. What eventually became the red wings was meant to be hair. Butwhen I went to fill in facial features nothing came of it. I kept seeing wings of an angel instead of a face. So, then I went to the other board and laid down some more “hair” and of course it just looked like another angel so I gave in and turned them into what you see now, the full diptych on the inside of the CD booklet.

The originals hang in my home but the first $350,000.00 takes them. Ha!