Music for Mushrooms: A Soundtrack For Healing
The experimental musician invites audiences to uncover the connection between music, healing, and psychedelics.
Directed by East Forest
by Joe Mastromatteo
- Published on
“Once I started writing music for mushrooms, everything changed,” says East Forest early in his directorial debut Music for Mushrooms. “The mushrooms have been my muse.”
Forest, an experimental musician whose work surrounds ambient and electronic styles, is on tour both performing and promoting his documentary. Music for Mushrooms acts as a memoir, inviting the audience into Forest’s unique “ceremony” concerts, which foster healing and introspection through music and, usually, psychedelics.
As highlighted by various testimonials in the film, the combination of a psychedelic like mushrooms and Forest’s lowkey, improvisational musical performances allow audience members to come to terms with various hardships in their life. In the film, we hear stories of grief, depression, and anxiety all aided through Forest’s unique concerts.
The film is incredibly personal in these moments, often allowing concertgoers to describe the experience in their own words. Forest presents himself candidly as well, walking the viewer through childhood journals and video clips from his home.
As the documentary’s host, Forest offers a refreshing sense of humility when discussing his craft. “Honestly, if it saves one person’s life, it’s worth it,” he says. “And if it (saves) mine, maybe that’s worth it too.”
Forest also gives credit to many of his predecessors, like spiritual leader Ram Dass. Having inspired people like George Harrison, Dass’ voice is heard throughout the film, echoing Forest’s 2019 album featuring the late teacher.
Traveling around the world to areas in Mexico, the United Kingdom, and around the United States, Forest attempts to uncover the connection between music, healing, and psychedelics. Interspersed with subtle critiques on climate change, Music for Mushrooms suggests that alternative methods of healing, like Forest’s, may offer a path forward amid today’s stress-laden world.
“Making music has been my way of dealing with the world. A world that feels like it’s gone crazy.”
Music for Mushrooms is screening at the Rio Theatre (Vancouver) on Sunday, Dec. 1.
