Shawn Bediako

• Acoustic & Neurological Architecture: Sound is a physical force. From the mathematical ratios of pitch to the neurological synapses that fire when a specific vocal timbre hits the ear, audio literally rewires human biology and alters physical space.
• The Ancestral Frequency: Audio as historical memory. As mapped out in foundational texts like Race Music, the rhythms, shouts, and blues of Black musical forms are not mere aesthetics. They are sophisticated cultural codes, blueprints of survival, and spiritual transcendence passed down through frequency.
• Somatic Execution & Reception: The sacred bridge between the transmitter and the receiver. It studies how a performer dismantles psychological blocks to project uninhibited, authentic truth from the stage or studio, and how a listener actively, somatically internalizes that energy—moving from passive hearing to active witnessing.

There is a question I expect to hear now that Iconoclast is released:

“Why isn’t it on Spotify or Apple Music?”

The answer is simple: I want this music to be experienced differently.

I understand the convenience of streaming platforms. But Iconoclast was not created as background music or as a collection of disconnected songs competing for playlist attention. It is an intentional six-part work. The sequence matters. The lyrics matter. The production choices matter.

I want people to spend time with it.

For most of my life, buying music meant making a small commitment to it. You bought the record, cassette, CD, or download. You read the credits. You listened again. The music became part of your collection.

Streaming gives us access to almost everything, but access is not the same as ownership or attention.

With Iconoclast, I wanted to return to a more direct relationship between artist and listener. When you purchase the album, YOU own it. And your purchase directly supports my ability to keep creating, recording, performing, and developing The Soul Science of Sound.

There is also something fitting about this choice. Iconoclast is a project about questioning assumptions, resisting easy categories, and exercising creative freedom. Automatically following the standard release model simply because artists are expected to do so would feel contrary to the spirit of the project.

So I am trying something different.

I would rather have a smaller community of people who intentionally choose the music than chase a larger number of passive streams. Simply put, I want listeners, not metrics.

I want someone to replay a lyric, notice a horn line, wrestle with an idea, and hear something on the fifth listen that they missed on the first.

So, for now, Iconoclast will be available directly from me rather than through streaming platforms.

It is not a rejection of streaming. It is an invitation to a different kind of relationship with art and with artists.

Choose the record. Own the record. Spend some time with it. And - most importantly - reach out and let me know what lands with you, what it makes you think about, and how it makes you feel.

I first met Sean Williams - known artistically as Look Out World - at Asparagus Media Studios in Silver Spring, Maryland. At the time, he was working as a studio technician, and I was rehearsing with the Uncle Devin Show for a handful of performances around the Washington, D.C., area.

Our creative relationship developed later, when I reached out to ask whether he could mix and master the “Iconoclast” single. We connected quickly. Sean is also from the Deep South, and that shared background gave us an immediate point of recognition. More importantly, he understood what I was trying to create and encouraged me to trust the distinctiveness of my own artistic voice.

Sean did more than polish the recording. He introduced musical elements I had not considered and substantially strengthened the song’s sonic character. “Iconoclast” later earned first place in the Hip-Hop/Rap category of the 2025 International Songwriting Competition.

That first collaboration grew into something much larger. I entrusted Sean with mixing and mastering the complete Iconoclast EP. Along the way, he became a co-writer on three songs and performed on “Down By the River,” my favorite track on the project.

Working with Sean has reinforced the importance of trust, mutual respect, and clear communication. It has also reminded me that creative independence does not require creative isolation. Had I insisted on doing everything alone, I would have missed a significant blessing.

In a culture that often prioritizes competition, collaboration has allowed both of us to enlarge our creative territory and extend our reach as artists. The work became stronger because neither of us had to diminish what we brought to it. We simply made room for each other - and the music expanded.

There is a point in every creative process when the work stops feeling like a project and starts feeling like a new direction.

That is where I am with Iconoclast.

Sojourners introduced many of the ideas that continue to shape my music: reflection, cultural memory, spiritual inquiry, and social commentary. But Iconoclast feels more deliberate, more expansive, and more fully connected to the artist I am becoming. Across six tracks, the project moves through ancestry, critique, self-definition, communal responsibility, and acceptance - using reflective hip-hop, soulful brass, and genre-bending production as its language.

The title single’s first-place recognition in the 2025 International Songwriting Competition was meaningful, but the larger achievement has been completing a body of work that sounds unmistakably like me. It has clarified what I mean by The Soul Science of Sound™: music that thinks, remembers, questions, and moves.

Now the project is entering its next phase. Limited physical editions are available and I'm developing new visual content, while also working with collaborators to explore how this music can live beyond the recording and continue on through performance and conversation.

This feels less like the end of a release process and more like the beginning of a new era.

Listen to the Iconoclast EP and explore the available editions in the Store.

The word Fajr means "dawn" or “daybreak”. During Ramadan, you wake before dawn to eat. The house is dark. The world is silent. Some Muslims don't listen to music.

But somehow, I found Ahmad Jamal's song “After Fajr” and this arrangement by one of my favorite jazz pianists stopped me.

The title alone names that liminal space between your last bite and the first prayer. Most virtuosos play many notes. Jamal plays the silence between them. He once said, "It's not the notes. It's the spaces."

In the Soul Science of Sound, that silence isn't empty. It's where your soul leans in.

During Ramadan, waiting is part of the experience. "After Fajr" didn't break my fast. It held the silence around it.

That's the Soul Science. Not hearing. Resonance.

Pick one song that names a sacred time for you: dawn, dusk, rest. Close your eyes. Count the silences.

If the silence feels full, you just heard what Jamal knew.

Silence isn't absence. It's the container.

Last week's post reminded me of something very important: you don't need a guitar. You don't need a DAW. You don't need a studio.

The most sophisticated instrument in the Soul Science of Sound is sitting in your throat: your vagus nerve.

Here is the science they don't teach in music school: When you hum, sing, or even sigh, the vibrations travel through your larynx and stimulate your vagus nerve. That nerve runs from your brainstem to your gut. When you vibrate it, you literally turn on your body’s “rest and digest” mode.

But here is the soul part.

Your voice holds tension where your challenges live. Notice how your throat closes when you are scared to speak. Notice how your voice cracks when you try to communicate a truth you haven't admitted.

The Beginning Practice (Do this today):

Find a quiet room.

Take a deep breath.

Exhale on a single note…any note. Just a long "Ommm" or "Ahhh."

Put your hand on your chest. Feel the bone vibrate.

That vibration is not just sound. That is your soul shaking loose the dust of the day. Do this for 60 seconds every morning before you check your phone. You will feel grounded in a way that might feel better than what any meditation app can give you.

I'm confident that you have heard of Pythagoras. Right triangles. Math class. Boring.

But some scholars like George G. M. James assert that Pythagoras spent 22 years in what are commonly called the Egyptian Mystery Schools, and that many of the ideas attributed to him were inculcated there.

In ancient Egypt, sound wasn't entertainment. It was technology. Practitioners used specific intervals to heal bodies and shift consciousness. R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz describes how the Egyptians built temples using a human template that aligned with the stars. This suggests a particular harmony between the body, the built environment, and the cosmos.

The Soul Science truth: Harmony is geometry you can feel. Check this out:

• 2:1 ratio (octave) - You feel at home. You can use octaves for grounding with what feels familiar.
• 3:2 ratio (perfect fifth) - You feel open. You can use this interval for calmness and steady breathing.
• 16:15 ratio (minor second) - You feel tension. You can use this interval to process grief or envision transformation.

A melody isn't just notes. It's a map of your inner state.

Quick Practice: Hum a low note. Then hum an octave above it. Feel the shift in your chest. That is the Soul Science of Sound in your throat. Pythagoras traveled 2,000 miles to learn what you just felt in 15 seconds.

You have experienced this a thousand times, but you probably blamed it on just “having a good time.”

You are at a show. The kick drum hits 90 BPM. Within thirty seconds, your breathing has shifted. Or, you are listening to music while taking a stroll. Your walking pace has matched the beat. You are not consciously controlling your body, but the sound is.

This is Entrainment. It is the physical law that states two oscillating bodies in proximity will eventually sync up.

In the Soul Science of Sound, we use entrainment intentionally.

Chaotic rhythm (Jazz, Freeform, Noise): Matches an overthinking, anxious mind. Useful for catharsis, not for sleep.

Steady rhythm (House, 4/4 Techno, Shamanic Drumming): Forces the heart rate to slow down and match the pulse. This is why repetitive music feels trance-like.

The Golden Ratio (Music in 432 Hz or specific classical compositions): Entrains the brain into a state of relaxed focus (Alpha/Theta waves).

Your Takeaway: You are not just “listening” to music. You are handing the keys to your nervous system over to the producer. This is why it is important to choose your beats like you choose your thoughts.

If you feel scattered, don't put on glitch-hop. Put on a single tanpura drone or a heartbeat drum loop. Let the sound organize your chaos.

Most people listen with one thing: their ears.

The Soul Science of Sound teaches that you actually listen with three bodies.

1. The Physical Body (The Ear)
This is the mechanic. Your eardrum vibrates, the ossicles amplify, the cochlea turns vibration into electricity. This is hearing. It’s passive. It happens whether you want it to or not.

2. The Emotional Body (The Heart)
This is the filter. When you hear a major 7th chord, your emotional body might feel nostalgia. When you hear a distorted 808, your emotional body might feel aggression. This is where music moves you. This is the "gut feeling."

3. The Soul Body (The Silent Observer)
This is the deepest layer. It doesn't judge the music as “good” or “bad”. It simply recognizes resonance or dissonance with your true self. When a sound aligns with your soul, you feel what some mystics call “the unstruck sound”. The music that plays even in silence.

The Practice: Next time you put on a track (try something instrumental, like ambient music or jazz), close your eyes. Ask yourself: Is my ear enjoying this? Is my heart reacting to this? Or is my soul recognizing this?

True sonic healing happens when all three bodies agree.

Welcome to the Soul Science of Sound.

When I first started making music, I thought I was just arranging notes. I mostly focused on what I was arranging…what chord comes next, what lyric rhymes, what beat drops. But after years of listening deeper, I realized I had missed the why.

Why does a single minor chord in a dark room make your chest tighten? Why does a kick drum at 60 Hz feel like a heartbeat you never knew you had?

That is the Soul Science of Sound.

Here is the foundational truth: Everything is vibrating. Your voice, your guitar strings, the air in your lungs, the thoughts in your mind. Sound is not just something you hear; it is something you are. When you pluck a string, you are not just making noise; you are introducing a frequency into the universe that interacts with every molecule in the room, including the water in the cells that make up your body.

For these Lab Notes, we won't treat music as mere entertainment; instead, we will treat it as frequency medicine.

Science: We’ll look at cymatics (how sound shapes matter) and binaural beats.

Soul: We’ll explore how different musical traditions use vibrations to inspire and to heal.

Your next listening session isn't just a playlist. It’s a tuning fork for your spirit.

Question for you: Think of a song that made you cry without warning. What frequency was that? Let’s find out together.