Purchase Music
Wolf Magic
Release date: August 20, 2021
Berry Bennett – Vocals, Keyboard, Percussion
Joan Forest Mage – Vocals
Life Force Arts Ensemble (LFAE) is a company of literary, visual, and performing artists who commune with soul and spirit to create transformation through the arts. LFAE members Barry Bennett and Joan Forest Mage (featured on this album) have been creating shamanic healing music and dance together since 1999.
This album is dedicated to Nana Shineflug (1935 – 2015) dancer and teacher, with whom Barry and Joan worked for many years. Nana was a force of nature who was “den mother to countless Chicago dancers and dance enthusiasts.” as Jamie Sams Says “Wolf is the pathfinder, the forerunner of new ideas who returns to the clan to teach and share medicine.”
Sounds of Life Force
Release date: April 10, 2015
Tribal drumming, heart-warming ballads, devotional kirtan, avant garde jazz, Celtic invocations, ambient soundscapes, folk rock with a touch of funky blues: “Sounds of Life Force” is a compilation album featuring music by bands and solo artists who have performed at Life Force Arts Center. Since 2008, Life Force Arts Center has hosted over 100 musical artists who embody the spiritual power of music in glorious diversity.
Life Force Arts Center is a sacred space for activating the spiritual power of the visual, literary and performing arts. We focus on the arts as a common ground of human expression, where artists of diverse spiritual traditions present artistically excellent exhibits, events and publications about three meanings of spiritual: The Human Spirit, Universal Energy and Mystical & Religious Experience.
This album was made possible through the generosity of the musical artists, who donated their music to help Life Force Arts Center, a non-profit, tax exempt organization.
Journeys in the Dreamtime
Release date: 2007
“One of the first things I noticed is the depth of emotion that the music called forth. Most music nowadays – even a lot of “new age” music – sounds heavily contrived to me – lacking the natural organicism that allows one to connect with the sacred and mysterious within. “Journeys in the Dreamtime” delivers totally this quality. In fact, upon listening to this, I got the impulse to dance interpretively to this music (which is very rarely inspired by ANY music). The profundity of this music simply calls out to channeled and expressed – whether in your landscapes of your imagination, your body, etc. Thank you, Life Force Ensemble for sharing this with the world! –Rick Sanford
“Some bands call themselves shamanic but you guys are the real thing!” Osiris Stargod
“I have gone to many of Life Force Arts Ensemble’s gigs, and I am transformed every time. Thank you all.” Renee O’Farrell
“I literally feel energy move when I listen to this CD. If you’re at all sensitive to the energies around you, this CD has the mojo. It is a favorite for meditation. Highly recommend it.” Linda Belan
Season Songs
Release date: 2004
A collection of meditative music for the turning of the seasons throughout the year by Joan Forest Mage!
Joan Forest Mage is a shamanic artist, healer and teacher based in Chicago. She founded Life Force Arts Ensemble (LFAE) in 1988, and has curated LFAE’s 39 art exhibits. Joan created the Life Force Arts Method, which uses the arts for spiritual healing, and is the basis for all the work of LFAE. A Certified Movement Analyst (Laban Institute, NYC), Joan has over fifty years of experience as a dancer, vocalist and director, including three music albums and 45 years of teaching dance, yoga and fitness. In 2003, Joan received a Master of Arts Degree from De Paul University’s School for Continuing and Professional Studies, with the focus area “Creating Healing Ritual Through the Arts.” First awakened to energy work through her profound experience of the energy of music and dance, Joan began doing shamanic healing in 1995 and created the extensive Life Force Arts Shamanic Training program. She has studied shamanism and healing ritual with numerous teachers. Joan specializes in “training trainers”: artists, teachers and healers who want to develop the spiritual dimension of their professional work.