In July 2009, JOLLY’s first trial, entitled Forty-Six Minutes, Twelve Seconds of Music (Galileo/ProgRock Records), received critical praise for its original sound, unique progressions, and finely crafted production. The cult popularity of this release led to a European tour with Polish progressive rock veterans Riverside, and a record deal with InsideOut Music/Century Media Records. Along with impressive musicianship and refreshing writing styles, JOLLY’s first album contained a binaural brain wave phenomenon previously unheard of in rock music. Embedded throughout the album are binaural tones, which result from the combination of slightly offset frequencies, played simultaneously, thereby altering the brain’s natural frequency. Scientific research suggests that such tones can enrich feelings of relaxation, focus, creativity, and happiness when experienced in headphones.
The Audio Guide to Happiness allows the listener to venture deep within his/her emotional core. The brain’s emotional perception and response evolved long before the emergence of logic and reasoning, traits that distinguish the human race. Because of this evolutionary disconnect, the ability to fully understand emotion lies beyond reasoning’s limitations. With this combination of musical, lyrical, and binaural stimulation, we are able to directly target the brain’s limbic and autonomic nervous systems, almost completely bypassing the frontal lobe. In short, the emotions are directly addressed without being filtered through the brain’s logic center. The listener can therefore see his/her emotion in its true form without being forced to oversimplify it with labels and categorizations. The result is an emotionally limber and self-aware brain completely accepting of its unique place in the world.
