East Forest is the project of Krishna-Trevor Oswalt, a multidisciplinary artist who has been releasing music under that name since 2008. The facts of his early life, including where he grew up, are not part of the public record this profile draws on, so the story starts instead with his training. Oswalt studied film at Vassar College, trained at the IATT at Harvard University, and earned an MFA from the Moscow Art Theatre. It is an unusual résumé for someone known primarily as a musician, and it explains a good deal. The theatrical and cinematic grounding shows in how he builds concerts and events: as arcs with a beginning, a middle and a release, rather than as strings of songs.
Rolling Stone called his music "lush," and NPR called it "blissful." Both words fit. Since 2008 he has moved between ambient, neoclassical, electronic and experimental sound, releasing more than 30 albums on labels including Domino, Ghostly and Mercury KX. The records are slow, spacious and unhurried by design. Listeners expecting verse-chorus songwriting or dance-floor momentum will find something closer to an environment than a song.
What distinguishes the work is its relationship to function. Many ambient artists make pleasant background music. Oswalt treats the purpose of a piece, whether a guided session, a contemplative practice or a live hall, as a compositional problem in its own right. The music is meant to do something, and it is built with that in mind.
The clearest expression of that approach is Music for Mushrooms, released in 2019. It is a five-hour album written to accompany a complete psilocybin session, structured around the architecture of the experience rather than around a listening mood. It is a rare commercial record in that sense, and it demands a dedicated sitting. It is not music for a commute or a workday.
The project grew from there. In 2024 Oswalt directed and scored a feature documentary of the same name, which played theatrically in over 100 markets in the US and internationally. An official documentary soundtrack, at eleven tracks, offers the score in a shorter and more approachable form.
His music has traveled into clinical and research settings, which is unusual for a working recording artist. He wrote the primary music for the Set and Setting study led by Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, and his compositions are used in active studies at UCSF.
The collaborator list is wide. Ram Dass, the psychologist, spiritual teacher and psychedelic pioneer, worked with him in 2018 and 2019, and that collaboration ties East Forest to the Western contemplative movement. Krishna Das, the Grammy-nominated kirtan vocalist, provided vocals on the Ram Dass album, and Laraaji, the ambient zither player, contributed reworks. Peter Broderick, the Portland-based composer, collaborated on the Ram Dass reworks and the Burren album between 2019 and 2023. Trevor Hall, the singer-songwriter, has toured with him and appeared on his tracks since 2017. The Senegalese vocalist Marieme is featured prominently on Music for the Deck of the Titanic. Beyond these, he has worked with Jon Hopkins, Kishi Bashi and Max Cooper, which places him alongside electronic and experimental producers as well as inside the meditation world.
Music for the Deck of the Titanic, in a deluxe edition released January 19, 2024, runs sixteen tracks and shows the neoclassical side of his writing. Lovingly: A Soundtrack for the Psychedelic Practitioner, vol. III (2025, twenty-one tracks) extends the sessional thread into a longer collection for practitioners. Also from 2025 are Morning Prayers, an eight-track album suited to daily practice and early hours, and Lovingly - Guided, also eight tracks, organized around meditation-first intent.
The live recordings matter too. Seedling (Live at Columbus Museum of Art), Dark Thoughts - Live (New Earth Ceremony) and Durga Yoga Nidra (Live) document how the studio pieces change in a room with an audience. Beyond music, he hosts the Ten Laws w/East Forest Podcast, an archive of more than 320 conversations that offers a way to follow his thinking between releases.
His latest album, The Invitation, As We Gathered, released July 10, 2026, runs fifteen tracks and draws on live recordings from his global gatherings. It reflects a project increasingly oriented toward shared rooms rather than solitary listening. The live single Durga Yoga Nidra (Live) followed on August 27, 2026.
Oswalt teaches on the faculty of the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and performs worldwide, in venues ranging from Red Rocks Amphitheatre to Grace Cathedral. An Esalen appearance is listed for April 9, 2027. As with any scheduled event, it is worth confirming details at eastforest.org closer to the date.
East Forest's Spotify following, around 7,900 followers, is modest, and that fits the nature of the audience. This is not music engineered for mainstream streaming reach. It serves meditators, yoga and sound practitioners, people working with psychedelic practice, researchers, and concertgoers who want long-form, patient sets. No formal awards are documented, and it would be a mistake to invent any. The recognition is institutional and critical: the research studies, the theatrical release of the documentary, the halls, and the words of Rolling Stone and NPR.
There is no single named lineage or formal school behind the work. It draws instead on overlapping threads: Oswalt's theatrical and film training, the contemplative stream of ambient and neoclassical composition, his collaboration with Ram Dass, and the experiential tradition of Esalen. The framing is contemplative rather than doctrinal, though listeners who prefer a strictly secular lens may find the ceremonial and psychedelic orientation of many releases hard to set aside.
For newcomers, Morning Prayers is the gentlest entry, with Music for Mushrooms as the defining statement once a listener knows whether the longer form suits them. What East Forest offers, at its best, is music that takes seriously what it is for, and that seriousness is what makes the work worth a long look.