Upaya no Kensho

Upaya no Kensho is psytrance producer Andrew Tanner who lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland. Andrew did undergraduate and graduate work at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). It was at MICA that he started to combine music with his abstract paintings. During this time he also began to collaborate with other artists (musicians and visual artists) and he also started to create his own visual and music production software.

In 2012 Andrew started concentrating on creating psytrance tracks and had his first release on Goa Records. The EP “Rain God” is considered a genre-busting, four track gem. For the releases that followed, Andrew focused on various themes ranging from Native American story telling and Gregorian chanting to Tuvan throatsinging and European Opera. However, the common thread throughout all of his tracks is a dedication to music as spiritual practice. Themes of mystical experience and enlightenment pervade Upaya no Kensho’s tracks.

The name “Upaya” comes from the Buddhist religion, roughly translating to “Skills” and “no Kensho” is Japanese for “of Enlightenment”. “Skills of Enlightenment” are songs that call for an awakened life and are a meditative tool for bringing joy and peace. This music is a cultivation of the Buddha Nature, the seed of enlightenment, which resides in all sentient life.