Blue Hour Podcast

Are UFOs, fairies, angels and ghosts one phenomenon that every era explains in its own language? Brooklyn artist, curator and "Witch, Yes!" co-host Terra Keck joins Alex Coma for the Solar half of her Blue Hour diptych.

We get into Jacques Vallée's Passport to Magonia and why spirit, angel, fairy and UFO encounters share the same "symptoms"; the haunted Park Slope brownstone where a voice came through her co-host's mic; trading Wicca for being "a very magical girl"; Blavatsky and Theosophy; Alex on Vedic astrology, the Atmakaraka and the 27 Nakshatras; why we're all kids performing adulthood; how therapy and letting emotions move are bringing color into her once-monochrome work; curating a malevolent fairy garden party at Field Projects; and why Terra thinks the art market's collapse is necessary.

Next Monday, the Lunar episode goes up to Terra's studio and into how she makes drawings by erasing.

Visionary Roze Gift: applications close October 15. Seven gifts, including $1,750 CAD and a two-week residency in Spain for first place. www.rozeumbra.com/visionaryrozegift

Chapters

(00:00) Intro

(02:18) From witchcraft to "magical girl"

(08:58) Theosophy & Helena Blavatsky

(11:47) Vedic astrology: the Moon, Atmakaraka & Nakshatras

(15:49) Passport to Magonia: UFOs, fairies & angels

(21:55) A haunted brownstone & a voice on the mic

(26:53) How the research changed her art

(28:56) We're all children performing adulthood

(36:35) Why a monochrome artist is turning to color

(38:15) Unlearning a lifetime of emotional control

(45:43) Curating at Field Projects & the Cottingley Fairies

(53:13) What it means to be an artist right now

(01:00:28) Is the art market collapse necessary?

(01:02:00) Outro & the Visionary Roze Gift

Terra Keck: terrakeck.com · Instagram @herlovelyface

Witch, Yes!: linktr.ee/witchyes

Roze Umbra: www.rozeumbra.com · Instagram @rozeumbra

Alex Coma: Instagram @alexcoma.world

Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@rozeumbra

Ambient pioneer Laraaji draws two tarot cards at the start of this Lunar segment — the Devil and the Prince of Discs — and we leave them face up for forty minutes before coming back to them. Filmed in his studio in Harlem.

He walks through how a collaboration actually works: a track arrives, he layers zither, kalimba, voice and synthesizer over it, sends experimental mixes back, and eventually hands the artist to his publisher. Then, mid-conversation and entirely unplanned, he puts on headphones and improvises. That improvisation runs uncut from 06:36.

On the Devil, he gets specific: a capricious rascal who ignores rules, the augmented fourth that music theory once called the devil's tone, and the devilish energy he sees running through the way scripture has been rewritten. On the Prince of Discs, he traces a lifetime in recorded sound back to his aunt's tape recorder — cassettes, LPs, compact discs, and now streaming, which he describes as a realm of service rather than a format.

Then a run of word prompts: liminal, orange, vision, New York, nature, film, romance, Aquarius. Orange turns out to be how he languaged a transformation he had no words for. Romance turns out to be meditation.

The second half is his Vedic chart. He entered a Saturn cycle in May 2022 — Saturn in the twelfth house, the placement of the monk — and he describes the withdrawal from social life that followed without ever having named it: "That's the sunset on that old social need. Sunrise on a new inner appreciation." Before that came sixteen years of Jupiter, the guru planet. We read him the myth of Rohini, the moon's favourite wife, and the curse that gave the moon its waxing and waning.

Then back to the two cards.

The Solar episode — the 1974 sound-hearing experience, the pawn shop, the silences Japan understood →

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CHAPTERS
00:00 "The devil has gotten a hold of that"
00:28 Two cards, left face up until the end
01:02 How a Laraaji collaboration actually works
04:44 "Like a $20 bill on the sidewalks of New York"
06:36 An unplanned improvisation
11:25 The Devil, and the devil's tone in music theory
12:15 The Prince of Discs, from LPs to streaming
16:18 Why this card now: the Nicene Council and inner authority
18:34 His aunt's tape recorder
20:21 Word prompts: liminal, orange, vision
24:06 New York, and being reborn in Virginia at seven
27:56 "The highest romance is meditation"
32:20 The chart: a new cycle since May 2022
34:19 Saturn in the twelfth house, the monk's placement
36:29 Rohini and the moon's 27 wives
40:11 "Sunset on that old social need"
43:36 Back to the two cards
46:38 Visionary Roze Gift — applications close October 15

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ABOUT THE GUEST
Laraaji is an ambient pioneer, sound healer and laughter meditation teacher based in Harlem, New York. He has been performing and recording since the 1970s, and his work with the zither and open-tuned autoharp helped define the genre. He leads laughter workshops and sound baths internationally.
https://laraajimusic.bandcamp.com/music

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The Visionary Roze Gift is open. Funding, a residency place in Spain, astro-tarot mentorship, and a guest slot on Season 5. Applications close October 15 → [GIFT LINK]

#Laraaji #ambientmusic #tarot

Laraaji's first album was produced by Brian Eno. Fifty years later he's one of 24 artists in the Vatican's Holy See Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. This Solar episode is where all of it started - and it started with a sound he could neither record nor write down.In 1974, around midnight in a quiet New York apartment, he heard what he describes as endless streams of brass improvisation with no beginning and no ending. The next day he went to the music library at Lincoln Center with no language for what had happened, and found it named in Sanskrit: Nada, the inner sound current. A month later a voice - clear, loving, and aware of his situation - spoke to him in a Queens pawn shop and told him not to take the money. He walked out with an autoharp he'd never played and five dollars.What follows is a working life built on acting when that voice speaks. He describes preparing completely - yoga, breathing, five rhythms, self-talk - and then letting all of it go the moment he steps to the mic. He describes the Saturday morning he abandoned a friend at 7:30am to go play in an empty Central Park, what he found there, and what it cost him. And he describes the time he ignored the voice and totalled a car.He talks about his teachers, the honorary swami ceremony that gave him his orange, and the album that hid three silences of random length in the playback. Japan understood. Everywhere else, listeners assumed the record was broken, and it was remixed to take them out.Then laughter. He came to New York to do standup, and quit after realising the comedy he was making got its laughs by polarising the room. Years later he found laughter meditation in Osho's Orange Book, and it became the two-hour play shop he now teaches internationally. He demonstrates it on camera.Next Monday, the Lunar: a studio tour, two tarot cards, and several minutes of unreleased music improvised live on camera. https://youtu.be/Y4wnE2W-s6s—CHAPTERS00:00 "Don't take the money"02:20 A teenage sense of being called to service05:00 The sound that arrived in 197406:00 Finding it named in a library: Nada, the cosmic sound current08:30 The pawn shop in Queens10:22 Park Slope sidewalks and the Aquarian Coffeehouse13:17 Preparing completely, then letting all of it go21:27 "Spontaneity is the doorway to the beyond"23:03 The Saturday morning he walked out on a friend26:20 Ignoring the voice, and the car that got totalled32:00 The honorary swami ceremony, and the orange37:11 Learning to leave space38:09 Three silences hidden in an album — and only Japan understood41:59 The Vatican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale48:10 Trying standup in New York, and why he stopped50:43 Osho's Orange Book and laughter meditation55:32 432Hz, 440Hz, and what he's still waiting to hear59:24 Water, copper, and structuring01:04:50 Next Monday: the Lunar—ABOUT THE GUESTLaraaji is an ambient pioneer, sound healer and laughter meditation teacher based in Harlem, New York. Recording since the 1970s, his work on zither and modified autoharp is foundational to the genre. His debut on Brian Eno's Ambient series introduced him internationally. He performs and teaches worldwide.https://laraajimusic.bandcamp.com/music—The Visionary Roze Gift is open. Funding, a residency place in Spain, astro-tarot mentorship, and a guest slot on Season 5. Applications close October 15 → www.rozeumbra.com/visionaryrozegiftConversations on this channel are personal accounts, not medical advice.#Laraaji #ambientmusic #BrianEno

Armen Agop works in black granite, a volcanic stone that resists change and takes millions of years to form. In this Lunar episode inside his Pietrasanta studio, we explore what the stone refuses, what it agrees to, and what 30 years of direct carving have taught him about collective grief, weekly silence, and stripping the artist’s ego from the finished work.

Armen describes granite as an independent entity with its own memory and biography, treating his sculptural practice as a mutual negotiation: “often granite says no.” We examine a handmade curved hammer given to him by quarry workers in Aswan in 1998, discuss why finishing a sculpture feels like an ending relationship, and unpack why he deliberately polishes away every trace of his hand and chiseling marks from the stone’s surface.

The conversation turns to shadow territory through two focus words: grief and silence. Armen reflects on being a second-generation survivor of the Armenian genocide, the subconscious transmission of historical trauma, and the resilient optimism of those who lived through it. He also details his four-year discipline of spending one full day each week in total silence, the sensory overload of digital image consumption, and the concept behind his Silence Pavilion at the Venice Biennale—where visitors are asked to surrender their phones and remain quiet. We close with a tarot pull of the Princess of Wands and The Fool, examining how Saturn in Bharani calls for sacred delay, dark gestation, and trusting instinctive drive over external noise.

Explore Armen Agop’s Work:

Website: armenagop.com

Paired Solar Episode:

Listen to Armen’s Solar episode to hear why he walked away from a Venice Biennale invitation in 2011 and what that refusal cost him: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3FTJcFkssgWfj8kbzMGvC7?si=dce51ee8c3144716

The Visionary Roze Gift:

Applications for Season IV are open until October 15th. To submit your portfolio for the grant and Spain residency, visit: https://www.rozeumbra.com/visionaryrozegift

Armen Agop turned down the Venice Biennale in 2011, during the Egyptian revolution, because he decided it was not the moment for his voice. In 2026 he came back to represent Egypt with a pavilion he made and curated himself.

Silence Pavilion: Between the Tangible and the Intangible is a granite monolith in a dark room at the Egypt Pavilion in the Giardini, open until 22 November 2026. Visitors are asked not to speak and not to photograph. It sits alongside In Minor Keys, the framework for the 61st International Art Exhibition developed by the late Koyo Kouoh.

In this conversation Armen talks about what it costs to stay faithful to an inner voice when everyone around you is telling you to take the opportunity. Why he says he does not work, he either plays or prays. The difference between a statue and a sculpture. Growing up in Egypt surrounded by artworks whose makers nobody remembers, and what that does to your idea of a career. And silence, which he practises one full day a week, and which he insists is not the same thing as being mute.

Born in Cairo in 1969 to an Egyptian-Armenian family, Agop has worked primarily in granite for over three decades.

Next Monday: the Lunar half of this conversation, including the tarot card Armen pulled.

Applications for the Visionary Roze Gift close 15 October 2026. Apply at [your application link].

The Blue Hour is made by Alex Coma for Roze Umbra.

rozeumbra.com

The Blue Hour returns for Season IV.

Thirty-eight conversations with seventeen international artists, sculptors, curators, and occult thinkers recorded in studios across Paris, Florence, Venice, New York, and beyond. Exploring the boundaries of visionary art, sacred technology, the alchemical process, and what it means to encode meaning into matter.

Season IV begins Monday, September 7, 2026.

Featuring conversations with Laraaji, Armen Agop, Jesse Bransford, Terra Keck, Alessandro Keegan, and 12 more visionary practitioners. Two drops every week: Solar (Monday morning) and Lunar (following Monday).

Follow @rozeumbra on Instagram | rozeumbra.com

Surrender your labels and decode the matrix with Alex Coma. Explore the Sacred Shin, Olfactory Tech, and the alchemical rituals of visionary art.

In this "lunar reflective" segment of the Blue Hour Podcast, Roze Umbra founder Alex Coma reveals the hidden layers of his Island of the Black Sun exhibition. This walkthrough explores the intersection of esoteric Hebrew letters, Vedic astrology, and immersive phenomenology.

Inside this episode:

• The Sacred Shin: How the Hebrew letter Shin encodes the balance of polar opposites and the power of compassion.

• Olfactory Technology: Using rose essential oil and engineered soundscapes to trigger deep, timeless memory.

• The Mound Ritual: A guide to the gestation chamber and "surrendering the self" to become a fluid, energy-based being.

• Osirion Temple Mysteries: Why sacred geometry is the language of the "Architects of Cosmic Forces".

This transmission is for the "spiritually curious and mentally sharp" who seek to use art as a ritual machine for transformation.

⏱️ CHAPTERS(00:00) Intro: The Lunar Reflective Segment (02:38) Light in the Womb: 5-Pointed Stars & Spirit (04:23) The Mirror & The Creator Loop (06:30) Facing the "Peaceful Void" (07:47) Engraving the Soul: Vedic Astrology on Copper (10:39) Goddess Nuit: The Lust of Space & Kundalini (14:16) The Sacred Shin: Hebrew Esoteric Qualities (17:17) The Osirion Temple: Ceremony of Rebirth (19:03) Olfactory Tech: Scent as a Portal (22:38) The Turtle’s Back: 13 Lunar Panels (31:53) The Spider: Weaving Space-Time (40:37) 8-Minute Ritual: Saturn & Karma (43:13) The Mound: Gestation & Surrendering Labels (47:17) Battery Alchemy: Recycling the Ego (51:45) Closing: The Return to the Divine Feminine

🌀 CONNECT WITH THE SANCTUARY

• Website: www.rozeumbra.com

• Alex Coma’s Portfolio: www.alexcoma.world

• Newsletter: Sign up for the Roze Gift Grant and European Residencies. (website and instagram)

Decode your reality with visionary artist Alex Coma as he explores Jungian shadow work, the Osirion Temple, and how to "code" your unconscious mind like a video game.

In this special episode, Roze Umbra founder Alex Coma steps into the guest seat to discuss his 2026 exhibition, The Aeonof the Black Sun. Interviewed by Carissa, Alex reveals the "Psychological Technology" behind his visionary oil paintings and how he uses symbols as "seeds" to manifest 3D reality.

Inside this episode:

• The Osirion Mystery: Why this ancient Egyptian site is a "feminine rite" of birth rather than a tomb.

• Vedic Astrology: Navigating the 6-year Solar Dasha (Sun Mahadasha) and the transition into the Aeon of the Black Sun.

• Grieving Birth: Healing the primal pain of separation and the "Beautiful Sadness" of the soul.

• Quantum Mysticism: Why Quantum Physics is the new religion of the Age of Aquarius.

Whether you're a "spiritually curious" creator or a seeker of esoteric wisdom, this transmission provides a blueprint for exiting the "Netflix Loop" and building new mythologies through heart-centered intention.

⏱️ CHAPTERS(00:00) The Art of Projection & Coding the Unconscious (02:09) The Island of the Black Sun & Karmic Energies (02:38) Vedic Astrology: The 6-Year Solar Dasha Shift (04:52) The Aeon of the Black Sun & Saturnian Transitions (08:10) The "Beautiful Sadness": Opening the Heart (15:22) Channeling the Osirion Temple & Ancient Egypt (17:41) Sacred Geometry: Mapping Cosmic Architects (19:06) The Ritual of Obstruction: When the Fire Started (25:23) Symbolism as Seeds: Programming the 3D Matrix (31:33) Mythical Psychology & The Nakshatras (48:02) The Vision of Ecstasy: Grieving Our Physical Birth (51:09) Quantum Physics: The New Religion of Aquarius (53:23) The Dark Feminine & The Lilith Archetype (01:03:10) The Heart Ritual: Releasing Labels (01:10:23) Future of Roze Umbra: Spanish Residencies

🌀 CONNECT WITH THE SANCTUARY

• Explore the Vision: www.rozeumbra.com

• Alex Coma’s Portfolio: www.alexcoma.world

• Apply for the Roze Gift: Join our creative sanctuary and visionary mentorship programs. (Website and Instagram)

  
  

ABOUT THE BLUE HOUR PODCASTThe Blue Hour Podcast explores the intersection of visionary art, esoteric wisdom, and the mysteries of the unconscious. Hosted by Alex Coma, we interview the "Living Architects of the Invisible" to help you remember your purpose and give the world new form.

The Blue Hour — Lunar Segment | Brian Cotnoir: Alchemist, Artist & Author

What does an angel say when it wakes you at 2:45am? For Brian Cotnoir — alchemist, artist and author — the answer became a piece of art, and a doormap to something deeper.

In this Lunar segment of The Blue Hour, Brian and I wander through the Books of the Dead, elm trees growing indoors, dream visions, pinhole photography layered with text, and a breath-counting practice he considers the foundation of all serious inner work — whether you're an athlete, an artist, a meditator or just someone trying to pay attention.

A shorter episode, but one that lingers.

Next week: the season finale — filmed at my own art show. And next season, something new is coming. Filming starts in May. Stay close.

💬 Find us on YouTube to leave a comment and tell us what you'd love to see more or less of in the Lunar segments next season.

#BlueHour #BrianCotnoir #Alchemy #Esoteric #Meditation #BreathWork #Consciousness #SpiritualPodcast #InnerWork #ArtAndSpirituality #MindTraining #LunarSegment #Podcast

Welcome to Part One (The Solar Chapter) of The Blue Hour podcast with alchemist, author and artist Brian Cotnoir.In this episode, we explore what it truly means to make something — not just produce it, but to engage with your materials the way an alchemist would, where your canvas starts speaking back and your art becomes a mirror for deeper inner transformation. We dive into the hermetic tradition and how it lives inside the creative process, unpacking the spiritual architecture of Russian Orthodox iconography, the secret collective practice behind Hilma af Klint's visionary paintings, and Salvador Dali's paranoid-critical method as a living alchemical technique.What happens when the material you're working with pushes back? We explore how sacred image-making, layered pigment, and the act of gilding carry centuries of symbolic meaning — and how any artist, regardless of medium, can tap into this living dialogue between maker and material. Plus, Brian shares why sustained attention is the most radical and endangered creative practice of our time.If you are passionate about visionary art, esoteric wisdom, and the deeper forces behind the creative process, please take one second to hit that subscribe button and like this video/episode! The majority of our listeners tune in without being subscribed, and this simple action is the best way to support independent creators and help these conversations reach more people.Tune in next Monday for Part Two: The Lunar Chapter.Explore Brian Cotnoir's Work:Website & Mailing List: capripress.comWatkins Books (London): watkinsbookshop.co.ukTreadwells (London): treadwells-london.comAnathema Publishing (Montreal): anathemapublishing.comPrinted Matter (New York): printedmatter.orgWork with us + Open Calls:www.rozeumbra.comInstagram: @rozeumbra