It’s Downtime, our regular series asking artists to share their cultural recommendations.

The music of Kelly Lee Owens exists in that sweetest of spots where techno and pop overlap. It’s not an easy trick to pull off, but the Welsh producer makes it feel effortless. Not that we’re surprised – Owens has form when it comes to crossing boundaries: originally a paid-up indie kid (she was a member of The History of Apple Pie), a stint at London record store Pure Groove working alongside Daniel Avery and a cabal of other DJs lured her on to the dancefloor. Owens’ new album, Inner Song, fleshes out the world first glimpsed on her critically beloved debut, blending propulsive rhythms and finely-wrought songwriting to craft music that is ethereal, transportive and, yes, utterly boundaryless. It’s telling, then, that Owens’ relaxation methods tend towards her inner world.

The Artist's Way
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The Artist’s Way

By Julia Cameron

I find free writing a beautiful way to offload my thoughts first thing in the morning. All of the mental noise, anxieties and worries can be expressed and released instantly. Doing this helps to declutter your mind in a way that allows for more creative and positive thoughts to flow, and it’s sometimes surprising as to what comes up. I’d recommend the book The Artist’s Way as a good place to start – it encourages free writing and is a guide to help generally rev up your creativity if you haven’t been able to connect to it or express it.

02

New Paradigm Astrology

YouTube channel by Kaypacha

Astrology has personally helped me to navigate my way through life. There have been so many times that it’s been scarily representative of what’s happening for me – in relation to my natal and progressive chart – and collectively, also. For example, delving deeper beyond the traditional sun sign, and investigating my moon, rising, venus and their relation to other planets – it’s mind blowing. The detailed accuracy is sometimes terrifying, but I’d highly recommend this as one way to explore the energy in your life. I think I’d like to properly study it at some point, already my friends come to me for astrological forecasts! A way of exploring this is via Kaypatcha’s weekly Pele Reports. You can find out so much about your birth chart here and explore the energetic blueprint of your soul. Deeeeeep!

The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga- Notes of the Seminar Given in 1932
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The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1932

By C.G. Yung

Kundalini yoga is seen as a science of energy and a spiritual philosophy. It has been used as a way for people to connect to their body, spirit and psyche for a long time. I find when I practise Kundalini it shifts so much for me emotionally – which at first was unexpected – as well as it being a great way to keep my body strong and healthy. I believe we store a lot of trauma in the body in a somatic sense, so this is a beautiful way of releasing it in a controlled environment, to be able to come back into a calmer state of being. I’d highly recommend Annabelle Stapleton-Crittenden as a teacher. Her way of teaching is grounded and strong – she also teaches for free via her Instagram currently, which is a great way to see if it’s something you connect with or not. A great book to start with is The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1932 by C.G. Yung.

The Untethered Soul
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The Untethered Soul

By Michael A Singer

Between this book and Women Who Run With the Wolves, I was able to overcome a lot of personal loss in the last few years, which ultimately I ended up writing about on my new album. This book in particular explores the depths of your psyche, asking you to look at new ways of experiencing the world via a retraining and exploration of your thought patterns, unravelling the gems we already possess within ourselves to start living in a way that is less centred around negative ways of thinking. Having the tools to regain control of my mind (which at times is so noisy) has been invaluable.

Inner Song is out via Smalltown Supersound on 28 August

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