Lovingly: A Soundtrack For The Psychedelic Practitioner, vol. III arrived on February 14, 2025, a Valentine's Day release that suits its title. At twenty-one tracks, it is one of the larger collections in a catalogue that now runs past thirty albums. It extends the sessional thread that runs through East Forest's work, the project of multidisciplinary artist Krishna-Trevor Oswalt, from Music for Mushrooms, the five-hour album written to accompany a complete psilocybin session, through to this volume, which is aimed at practitioners rather than casual listeners.
The "vol. III" in the title signals a series, and the album reads as part of an ongoing body of purpose-built work. Oswalt's music has been used in clinical and research settings, including as the primary music for the Set and Setting study led by Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, and this record carries that functional orientation into a long-form collection. It treats use, whether a guided session or a practice, as a compositional question rather than a matter of background mood.
East Forest's work moves between ambient, neoclassical, electronic and experimental sound, and its signature is the quality Rolling Stone called "lush" and NPR called "blissful": layered, sustained textures with warmth that stops short of sentimentality. Pacing is unhurried. Pieces breathe over long durations, and the album rewards a continuous listen more than shuffle play.
A note on specifics: the available information does not itemize instrumentation or vocal credits for this release, so those details are best confirmed in the credits on Spotify or Apple Music rather than assumed. What can be said is that the album is slow, spacious and built as an environment more than a set of songs. Anyone expecting verse-chorus structure or rhythm-led energy will find something closer to a space to inhabit.
The mood is devotional in the broad sense: attentive, tender, and patient. The title's word, "Lovingly," sets the intention, and the long running order gives that intention room to unfold across a full sitting.
I can't responsibly name individual tracks here, because the track list is not part of the verified information available for this guide, and inventing titles would mislead you. Instead, here is how to find the album's high points yourself:
- The opening stretch. On an album built for sessions, the first several pieces set the container. Notice how quickly the music slows your breathing and how much space it leaves.
- The midpoint. In a twenty-one-track sequence, the middle is where long-form ambient records tend to deepen. Listen for where the texture shifts and what it asks of you.
- The closing pieces. Integration-oriented listening often lives at the end. Note where the music resolves, and whether it brings you back gently.
Once you have a favorite, check its credits on your platform of choice for the instruments and any featured voices.
The profile does not name a single lineage teacher or formal school, so it is more honest to describe overlapping threads than one tradition. Musically, the album sits in the contemplative stream of ambient and neoclassical composition that feeds the modern meditation and sound-healing world. East Forest's collaboration with Ram Dass connects the project to the Western contemplative movement that absorbed Hindu and Buddhist practice, and other releases draw on the vocabulary of prayer and yoga nidra. His teaching role at the Esalen Institute places him in the long Big Sur tradition of experiential, body-centered work.
His circle of collaborators includes Krishna Das, a kirtan vocalist, and Trevor Hall, a spiritual reggae-folk musician, which shows the devotional currents around the project. The framing is contemplative rather than doctrinal, and the album is explicitly oriented toward psychedelic practice. Listeners who want a strictly secular lens may find that context hard to set aside.
This record is for the committed listener: someone who guides or sits in psychedelic sessions, someone in an integration phase after one, or someone who simply wants long, purposeful ambient music for contemplative practice. It suits people who care about what music does, not only how it sounds.
It will land less well with listeners who want dance-floor energy, drop-driven electronic music or conventional songwriting. It is also a poor fit for a commute or for background noise at work, since its length and pacing ask for real attention.
If you are new to East Forest altogether, the gentler entry points are Morning Prayers (2025) and Lovingly - Guided (2025), with this album as a deeper step into the sessional side.
Set aside a dedicated block of time, and give the album one uninterrupted pass rather than dipping in and out. Evening works well, when the day's demands have eased. Use good headphones or a quiet room with decent speakers, because the music's value is in its layered, sustained textures and the silence around them.
Listen alone, or within a prepared ritual context if that is your practice, and silence your phone. If you plan to use it alongside psychedelics, give attention to set and setting first. Otherwise, treat it as you would any long meditation: lie down, let the first few pieces settle you, and allow the sequence to carry you. Afterward, sit quietly for a few minutes before returning to ordinary life. The album is designed to be lived in, not merely heard.