Apstara Craft a Gentle and Restorative Sonic Journey on One Minute Mantras I: Awakening

"I didn't want to create something that asked more of people," says Juliet Lyons about her debut album, One Minute Mantras I: Awakening. "I wanted to create something that gives something back - no matter how little time you have."

As the brains behind Apstara, singer/songwriter and composer Juliet has a knack for crafting immersive and calming soundscapes. Aiming to provide a moment of peace for her listeners, she's an artist who understands the power of restraint, beautifully displayed on her heavenly record.

A collection of eight one-minute mantras, sandwiched between two longer "threshold" pieces that act as gentle guides, Awakening is a highly delicate and meditative offering. As the name suggests, the compositions are fleeting by nature, yet together they form one of the most impactful sonic journeys I've heard in ages.

Written, performed, and produced entirely by Juliet, Awakening is the first of a four-part series that the musician is building towards. A stunning fusion of ambient textures and ethereal vocals, it's an album that invites listeners to breathe and reset - infused with affirming language and the simple understanding that sometimes all it takes is one minute to shift one's perspective.

Quietly powerful and utterly absorbing, Awakening has very much whetted my appetite for whatever Apstara has in store next!

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