East Forest is the project of multidisciplinary artist Krishna-Trevor Oswalt, active since 2008, with more than 30 albums across ambient, neoclassical, electronic and experimental sound. Rolling Stone called the music "lush" and NPR called it "blissful." The catalogue is large and varied, so a clear starting point helps.
Start with Morning Prayers (2025, eight tracks). It is the gentlest door into the catalogue, and it suits daily practice and early-morning listening. At eight tracks it is short enough to finish in one sitting, and it shows the slow, warm, spacious sound that defines his work without asking for a large commitment. Play it start to finish, not on shuffle.
Lovingly - Guided (2025, eight tracks) is the logical second step. It is organized around the same meditation-first intent, with guidance added. If you already use meditation or yoga nidra, this is where the music becomes a practice tool.
Music for The Deck of The Titanic (Deluxe Edition) (January 19, 2024, sixteen tracks) opens the neoclassical side of his writing. Marieme, a Senegalese vocalist, is featured prominently on it.
The Invitation, As We Gathered (July 10, 2026, fifteen tracks) is the most recent full album, built from live recordings of gatherings around the world. If you want to hear how the music behaves in a room with people, start here. The live single Durga Yoga Nidra (Live), released August 27, 2026, is a shorter way to sample the same territory.
Expect slow, spacious, unhurried music. Tracks breathe over long durations, and the texture matters more than the melody. There are no drops and no verse-chorus songs; the pieces are closer to environments than to songs. Titles like Morning Prayers and Durga Yoga Nidra draw on the vocabulary of prayer and yoga nidra, so the framing is contemplative rather than doctrinal. The profile doesn't itemize instrumentation, so check album credits if you want to know who plays what.
The theatrical side also matters. Oswalt studied film at Vassar College, trained at the IATT at Harvard University, and earned his MFA from the Moscow Art Theatre. That background shapes how his concerts and events are structured, so the live work tends to feel built rather than improvised.
"It's background music." Some of it can be, but the catalogue treats function, whether a guided session, a psychedelic practice or a live hall, as a compositional problem. Listen with intention at least once.
"Start with the famous one." Music for Mushrooms (2019) is the defining statement, but it is a five-hour album written to accompany a complete psilocybin session. It is a poor fit for a commute or office. Come to it once you know the longer, sessional form suits you. The shorter Official Documentary Soundtrack - Music For Mushrooms (eleven tracks) is a more accessible version of the score.
"It's all psychedelic." Much of it is not. Lovingly: A Soundtrack For The Psychedelic Practitioner, vol. III is explicitly aimed at that context, but Morning Prayers and the guided releases stand on their own as everyday practice music.
"It's a single tradition." The profile names no lineage teacher or formal school. The work is a set of overlapping threads: contemplative ambient composition, theatrical training, and a collaboration with Ram Dass that connects it to the Western contemplative movement. He also teaches at the Esalen Institute.
"It has dance energy." It doesn't. If you want rhythm-led production, look elsewhere.
It lands hardest when you need a structure for stillness: a morning routine you're trying to build, a stretch of life where you're learning to meditate, or a period of transition when you want music that holds space instead of filling it. It also resonates with people in or near psychedelic practice, whether as practitioners or as people curious about integration, given how much of the catalogue is built for that context. It lands least well when you want something to talk over.
Day 1: Play Morning Prayers in the morning, before your phone, start to finish.
Day 2: Repeat it. The second listen is where the texture opens up.
Day 3: Try Lovingly - Guided as a seated meditation, around the same time as Day 1.
Day 4: Rest day, or repeat Morning Prayers.
Day 5: Listen to Music for The Deck of The Titanic (Deluxe Edition) in the evening, with no other task.
Day 6: Play Durga Yoga Nidra (Live) lying down, ideally before sleep, to test whether the live, ceremonial side suits you.
Day 7: Play The Invitation, As We Gathered in one uninterrupted sitting. Afterward, decide whether you want to set aside a full block for Music for Mushrooms, or follow the work further through the Ten Laws w/East Forest Podcast, an archive of more than 320 conversations, or through his upcoming appearance at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur on April 9, 2027.
For news and releases, the official site is eastforest.org.