Karen Ponzio Photos

Jim LoPresti shakes away the stress with his bamboo leaf rattle.

If asked where one might go in New Haven for a moment or two of meditative stillness, few people would suggest Crown Street, known for its bustling and crowded restaurants and bars as well as a bevy of sounds that would challenge any symphony. But one place offers, among other wellness and restorative practices, a chance to take in an hour of music made specifically to center its participants and give them a chance to remain present and thoughtful in their minds and bodies.

Sound Bath Sundays are held once a month at Breathing Room, the yoga studio that sits on the second floor of LoRicco Towers. Participants are invited to come by, lie down, and simply let their stress go, all to music created specifically to help them clear their head and let their body unwind.

The flyer for the event posted on social media stated that participants would ​“embark on a transformative journey of connection and harmony through the power of sound.” On this particular Sunday afternoon, that sound would be provided by multi-instrumentalist Jim LoPresti, whose set up at the front of the room included a hand pan, steel tongue drums, a Tibetan singing bowl, a bamboo leaf rattle, chimes, and a gong. He also would be utilizing electronics that included prerecorded percussion to add to the mix.

LoPresti had the room set up with blankets and bolster-type pillows for each participant. Many arrived with their own yoga mats, and as they filed in and set up their spot for the event, some went right into comfort mode, covering themselves in a blanket or two and immediately folding into the peacefulness of the room and its warm relaxing vibe. LoPresti offered assistance and made sure everyone had what they needed to be comfortable.

The set up of the room.

Once everyone was in place, LoPresti began by welcoming everyone, asking if anyone had never participated in one before. 

“The good thing is there’s not much to do but lay down, but every time I say that, I rethink it,” he said with a smile. ​“There’s a lot to do up here,” he added, pointing to his head. 

He then explained that there would be 10 minutes of grounding followed by one hour of music playing. The session would end with five minutes of silence, followed by a little bit of talking ​“to bring us back.”

“This is a great way to wind down the week, or get ready for the week ahead. We can take some of that steadiness with us to Monday.” 

As the grounding time began, LoPresti emphasized to the participants that this was ​“your time” adding that there was ​“no right or wrong way to experience it.” He reminded people that if anyone need to move around or get up, they could go ahead and do so. He also mentioned that if an outside noise was heard to ​“bring your minds back to the breath and body.”

“Be kind to yourself and relax. It’s tough to slow down. All these thoughts are a missed opportunity for mindfulness.”

He noted that some people use the time for meditation and others simply ​“drift off” to sleep, but that for everyone it was a chance to ​“slow down and stop thinking” once the music began. ​“How do we do that?” he pondered, and asked us to ponder as well.

LoPresti then began performing, the percussive tones changing and morphing throughout the hour. A longer, more dronelike sound came from a prerecorded synthesizer, while a sound like wind blowing through the trees came from the bamboo leaf rattle. The chimes gave one a sense of lightness, like a gentle drizzle of cool rain on a hot summer day, and the gong, which LoPresti ran the mallet along versus hitting it, offered a lower tone that inspired even deeper introspection.

The instruments used by LoPresti

This reporter participated to her fullest extent (save for trying to take some notes and photos without being disruptive to the process) and found it to be one of the first times in many years that she was able to shake away the pervasive thoughts of past and future to settle into the present and just be. Even the silence seemed to wash over the room in a melodic and cleansing way that offered a freedom from the car horns and shouting from the street below. 

The session ended with LoPresti instructing the group to come back out with deeper breaths, adding that they could wiggle their toes and fingers to initiate movement, and then find their ​“path of least resistance” to sitting when ready. Each person took their own way and time, and everyone left the room smiling. 

LoPresti, who has been a musician since he was 8 years old and a percussionist since he was 12, began playing hand pans around 6 years ago. He has many recordings of his music (including one which is made specifically for sound baths) on Bandcamp and has also performed at a variety of venues throughout the state. He has been facilitating both groups and private sessions with Breathing Room since the end of 2020 and is now a part of a regular rotation of sound bath practitioners that come through the space once a month. He noted that during the sound bath, the music he plays is ​“improvised, but with a little bit of structure.” He pays attention to tones, working to keep them ​“brighter and happier towards the end” of the session.

“It’s a grounding mindfulness meditation,” he added, noting that some people have a difficult time staying still and some even may have pain or discomfort come up that they can address elsewhere. But overall, he hoped people would be ​“uplifted.”

“I try to keep it really inviting for everyone so it isn’t too much,” he said. ​“It’s mindfulness.… I bring it back to that, the breathing and being aware of the room and each other. Music helps us to quiet our minds and stay steady.” 

As someone who has practiced meditation and mindfulness himself for many years, LoPresti knows that it is, in the end, a practice, not a quick fix. The more we attempt it, the less difficult it can be to let ourselves have that time to stop, settle in, and let go. 

“Ultimately, we don’t take time to sit and quiet our minds, so if you have that quiet time, you think, ​‘OK, maybe I’ll set time aside for myself and do this more often.’”

As I walked down Crown Street after the session was over, I let the sound of the cars and the crowds move past me, and let the peacefulness remain. 

Sound Bath Sundays happen monthly at Breathing Room. Please check out their website for more information including pricing and registration.

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Basking Ridge, N.J.: To Voicer Jonathan Kleid: I totally agree with you. I think a majority of the country doesn’t think mental illness is a real thing or a real illness. It certainly is, and left untreated, it can and does lead to death.

I was very successful in life. I was vice president of employee benefits for a large corporation that had 50,000 employees. I suffer from mental illness and I’m not afraid to say it. I actually want to. People don’t understand that you can’t and don’t cause your own mental illness. I’m writing a book about how successful you can be, as I was, if you have mental illness so long as you get diagnosed and take your medications daily. Accept that you have the illness like you would any other and treat it.

I’m not sure why Daniel Penny isn’t sitting in jail. How can you get released when you killed a man via a chokehold? I’m not saying he is innocent or guilty, but you don’t release a guy who held someone in a chokehold for several minutes until they died, no matter the circumstances. They didn’t even charge the guy at first. Until the grand jury hears the case, he should be in jail. He took the law into his own hands and decided to choke Jordan Neely. That’s not defending yourself — the guy didn’t even attack him. After Neely’s first incident, he should have been treated for mental illness. He wasn’t a bad man. He needed help and the system failed him, and that can lead to death. Joe Tierney

Brooklyn: It’s a crime that poor Neely had to die for his family and politicians to come forward because it seems when he was alive and troubled, they were nowhere to be found. That would have been too much to handle for them, but since he is no longer a physical being, they only have to talk. That’s easy, it’s not a physical job. Shame on them. Where were they? Joe Many

Daniel Penny is escorted from the 5th Pct. Friday, May, 12, 2023 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/for New York Daily News)

Massapequa, L.I.: The young Marine, who was removing a person considered to be a threat, has now taught us all a lesson: “Don’t get involved!” I’m sure he had no intention of killing anyone. Is the answer to issues like these to change cars, get off the train or just don’t get involved? If you see something, do something! The city needs to get the homeless, panhandlers and mentally challenged individuals off the streets and trains, and get them the care they need. Phil Rail

Astoria: NYC political cowards are letting Al Sharpton and protesters dictate what is happening in the city yet again. A brave Marine is being criminally charged for causing the death of a homeless criminal in the subway. Penny clearly did not put pressure on the neck — watch his arm, there is muscle flexing. Neely died some time later at a hospital. This case should have gone directly to a grand jury, there is absolutely no need for an arrest, they are only doing it to appease the idiots. Tim Austin

Manhattan: Daniel Penny didn’t kill Jordan Neely, K2 (synthetic marijuana) did. Neely didn’t engage in threatening and bizarre behavior until he started taking K2, a drug known to increase aggressive behavior. If it wasn’t for that, there would have been no reason for Penny to protect the subway passengers being threatened by Jordan and he would be alive today. It’s possible that even after Penny subdued Neely, he would be alive if it weren’t for the effects that K2 has on respiration. Gamaliel Isaac

Bronx: To Voicer Frank Brady: I stand by my comments. I have read Leonard Greene’s comments and, like most columnists, I do not agree with him on everything. I didn’t agree with his recent column about the ex-Marine. He is still less slanted than the N.Y. Post. Thursday’s Post headline had something to do with President Biden and how being related to him gets money. Someone has to tell the Post that Hunter Biden does not work for the government, so if he sells his paintings, who cares? Unless Hunter is indicted, there should not be columns on him every day. The Post has Donald Murray, who is conservative and slanted but for the most part readable. Others are not. All columnists are slanted, it’s just to what extent. Martin Sandok

The Daily News Flash

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Catch up on the day’s top five stories every weekday afternoon.

Secaucus, N.J.: Anything on the Biden conflicts of interest around acquiring tens of millions of dollars from sources in other countries for doing nothing? You know, stealing for favors. Money flowed to the Biden family and some back to President Biden himself. That’s a crime. It’s also a sin that you don’t address that. Your daily failure to report these facts only shows your lopsided approach to reporting the facts, just like Bramhall’s cartoons always making fun of Republicans and Donald Trump. They are not even funny, they are rather stupid. The lack of integrity runs rampant. Jesus Linares

Clearwater, Fla.: Here’s Donald! Yessiree, former President Donald Trump received more laughs and applause than the late Johnny Carson. Trump had the audience wrapped around his little finger. And kudos to him for appearing on CNN’s town hall. The only way President Biden would appear on a Fox News town hall is in the Twilight Zone. Bad news bears to AOC and everyone else who criticized Trump and the event. We know exactly why their nose is out of joint: Trump won the audience over. It’s about time that folks realize Trump is not the big bad wolf that Democrats portray him to be. JoAnn Lee Frank

Mount Sinai, L.I.: It’s astounding that early polling shows neck-and-neck approval ratings for Biden and Trump. To me, it’s as simple as choosing between a mild skin rash (Biden) versus a malignant carcinoma (Trump). Those noble citizens in the audience at that CNN town hall debacle have assured me that the country I loved and used to be so proud of is sliding away at breakneck speed. Sad. Karl Bean

Scranton, Pa.: Much is made of Donald Trump’s base. These are his hardcore supporters who would allow their immaculate, indicted idol to shoot them, as he so eloquently put it, without losing their loyalty. Trump’s base was in attendance at the recent town hall televised by CNN. The base hooted and hollered in delight as he denigrated the woman who grabbed him for $5 million for sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room. The following are some of the definitions of the word “base” as it applies to a person: Morally low; without estimable personal qualities; dishonorable; meanspirited. It’s the perfect description of a base that is basically as base as it gets. Vin Morabito

North Bergen, N.J.: By Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s transporting some of the refugees entering from Mexico to cities like New York and Chicago, he is committing a crime. It is a federal offense to knowingly transport illegal or otherwise undocumented individuals across state lines. That is exactly what Abbott did when he sent busloads of undocumented individuals to cities like New York and Chicago. Abbott’s arrogance should not be ignored and should not go unpunished. Irving A. Gelb

Forest Hills: Why doesn’t the city just charge cars with license plates that aren’t from the tri-state area? I see more cars from every state, even from Canada, all over the city. The MTA will always be mismanaged, with money never accounted for, and they’ll always have their hands out. When is everybody going to stop supporting them? Sara Ross

Staten Island: Why does the Daily News print complaints about the comics that bother people? There are more serious problems that should upset these individuals. To state that it is a waste of newspaper space to print the comic is your opinion. Now I will say it is a waste of space to print your complaint. You need to organize your time better. And the Daily News has to stop printing nonsense. Jeffrey Van Pelt

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Tre. Charles | Artsplosure  |  Downtown Raleigh | Saturday, May 31, 11 a.m.

I like Tre. Charles’s music all the time, but there’s a special way it hits early in the morning. When emails, songs, and pitches are swarming around me with stressful speed, new Tre. is about the only thing that will drown it all out for a few minutes, laying me back in my chair to breathe.

Drawing on an itinerant 32-year life’s worth of influences—emotional ’90s rock and ’00s hip-hop, neo-soul and alternative R&B, choral music and canons—the Durham resident, whose given name is Trey Charles Horton, has arrived at a style I think of as ambient soul. His songs come in clouds of trappings: skating drum machines and hovering plug-in strings, stretched and shifted vocal harmonies, and long-tailed reverbs and delays that hum like cathedrals.

This labyrinth of sound, blurred at the edges yet sharply etched in the middle, is where we find his just-woke-up voice and glinting guitar, his fingers tweezing jazzy splinters from thick barre chords. 

The overall effect is calming, but in a transfixing, time-halting way, like dancing candlelight.

“I used to get so annoyed when people would tell me, ‘Your music is so relaxing,’” he says. “I guess that’s just the natural way I play. I love the big, lush reverb sound. I love the space, the scope, all that room to feel the song.”

He’s a big guy, with a deep, inquisitive voice and soft, open features. He has a background in modeling; you could easily picture him wearing a big quilted coat and small smile in an Urban Outfitters ad. We spoke over several convivial meetings at Durham spots like Queeny’s and Corpse Reviver.

“I used to love singing in big parking garages and churches because I loved how big my voice could be,” he goes on, “and there were so many people telling me, ‘You shouldn’t do this; you’re not that good at it; you should probably stick to something else.’ They wanted to put me in a box, and I let them for a long time.”

One wall of that box was being a Black man plastered with stereotypes of aggression that were at odds with his inner wells of feelings.

“Now I’m like, naw, this is who I am currently,” he says. “It might not be who I am tomorrow, but it’s who I am now.”

Currently. is the four-song EP that Tre. Charles has been working on and releasing bits of since 2019, when a near-death experience got him started on his music career, making videos and playing more than 300 brewery, venue, and festival gigs. His music’s invitation to slow down is made plain in soft, measured, taut laments about life in the too-fast lane like “Lately.” and “Stressin.”

The EP is a concise gem, never doing any more or less than needed musically. But it does raise a question: Can you pursue vulnerability and mindfulness in an industry that runs on hardness and hustle?

Tre. Charles lived in Syracuse, New York, until age 10, when his family started moving around a lot for his father’s work as a civil engineer. In North Carolina, home was mainly the Concord area. He sang baritone in his high school chorus, a role he didn’t like. He could sing low, so it’s what he was assigned. Now he sings in a hushed, expressive tenor that fits just inside the pocket of his quietly booming arrangements.

“Moving around a lot, music was one of the things I could have as a constant,” he says. “And I was always picking up new music in different areas I would go to.”

He got into skate and surf stuff in Florida and California, ’90s R&B like Boyz II Men and Jodeci and contemporary tastemakers like Frank Ocean and Sampha, the golden age of DatPiff and Dipset mixtapes, all kinds of things.

But when he started college at UNC Pembroke, he says, “I played some cowboy chords, and that was it. C, G—I couldn’t play an A because I didn’t know how to get the three fingers right there.”

He was then pursuing modeling and acting. He got a county tourism commercial here, a community college billboard there. The exposure was good, but the money wasn’t, so he packed his belongings in his Jeep Grand Cherokee and headed for LA to give it a bigger try. The living situation he’d arranged turned out badly, so he stayed for just a few months, playing his guitar on a rooftop, journaling, and feeling the need to change course.

 Afterward, he landed in Richmond, Virginia, working at a country club and testing the edges of the music scene. But he had studied restaurant work in college, and he was getting more and more sucked into that world, moving to Charlotte for a job in 2016.

“I still wanted to be in the music scene, but I didn’t have the confidence to get in there,” he says. “In high school, people knew me as someone who sang, not as a singer, so that’s where the imposter syndrome came in.” He started making videos, mostly covers, but he felt aimless for the next few years, until January 2019, when everything changed.

It happened in the wee hours of the morning. One moment, Tre. Charles was driving to Florida for a restaurant ownership training program. He had his guitar and a Mac with him, but he still felt like he was just running on tracks.

Then he saw a flash of bright light. The next thing he knew, he was very cold and didn’t know why. His car’s horn was blaring, and his turn signal was ticking. “And I just heard the air,” he remembers, “the night air, because the windows were smashed open.”

He was pinned in the car, with badly injured knees that made doctors fear he’d never walk again, though you’d never guess it from his easy saunter now. 

He had been working at 5:00 a.m. most days, exercising too much, and not resting enough. Half-asleep, he’d turned the wrong way onto a one-way ramp—the symbolism would seem contrived had it not really happened—and ran head-on into another car. (The other driver sustained a broken bone.)

“I was just happy to stop going for a while,” he says of the long recovery to follow, “because I was going and not knowing where, not having a compass. When I was in the wreckage, I was like, ‘This could be over so quickly. I don’t want to keep pursuing something I don’t love, living for the idea of safety or happiness or success.’ So it was kind of a divine intervention, like, stop.”

“Stressin.” came first and has built up respectable numbers for an emerging artist, with its beautiful feel of gentle rolling and blossoming. “I had a lot of life experience and creativity pent in,” he says. “The mentality I had was that I was going to be more vulnerable because I wasn’t necessarily a person to share my emotions. But I always connected to songs that were super sad and had a lot of pain.”

He set about really learning guitar, studying YouTube videos until the chords matched what he felt. “The minimal sound is more relatable to me personally” than the Auto-Tuned one that some industry folks have urged upon him, he says. (For the record, it’s a terrible idea.)

“You can dress it up and make it seem prettier, but it’s supposed to be this raw emotion. I like taking one simple shape and letting each part shine and move around and be intricate. Instead of just a G, it’s a dance of G. It’s like a mantra, and you can hear different things in it.”

As his guitar skills developed with enviable speed, he started taking any gig he could get as long as it paid something, though he’s starting to break into better rooms, having opened a show at the Cat’s Cradle Back Room in April. Last year, he did his first independent tour, which took him through New York and Toronto. Then he put performing mostly on pause to toil on his EP, trying to make the transition from an artist who catches your ear to one you’ve gone to see.

As for making the concert grind align with the message, well, if being a working musician isn’t always therapeutic, finally being heard is.

It’s all a promising work in progress, anyway, as expressed by the period that appears at the end of all of Tre. Charles’s titles—his interpretation of stopping to mind the details. One notices that it takes on another subtext in the middle of his name, of a person suddenly starting over, freed and unfinished at the end.

Comment on this story at music@indyweek.com

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