Damian De Souza @remintrustions

“Music has charms to sooth a savage breast” wrote the poet William Congreve in 1697 and apparently non more so than Marconi Union’s ‘Weightless’, which I have attached to our showcase this morning. Many of us are aware of the soothing qualities of music upon our souls but now it seems science can back up those claims. Recently, a clinical trial in the US compared the levels of anxiety felt by patients who were prescribed the drug Midazolam and others who were told to listen to this track, ‘Weightless’ by Marconi Union. Those involved in the study were having a spinal nerve block. I’ve had several of these, not recently but following liver surgery, once my liver had regenerated, I found I was still suffering some pain. I am sure the patients in this study were having this nerve block for multiple reasons and to conquer pain with music, seems perfectly plausible to me. Twelve days ago I had day surgery, of which the pain was near on unbearable and I wonder now, if I would have been more comfortable with my headphones playing this music throughout. I’m not sure, I may have just ripped them off as I gripped the surgical bed tightly, but as this English band’s song has been declared the ‘world’s most relaxing song’ maybe it would have helped, next time… If nothing else, I feel a benefit post-operatively and anxiety in this dimension is terribly common and affects the body’s ability to heal. As I’m still experiencing pain, I intend to listen to this music more often and when mixed with this weeks Mobile Photography and Art from artists throughout the world, I am indeed finding it has the unique ability to stop me reaching for painkillers and lull me into a sense of delicious serenity. Enjoy!

Thank you to all the talented artists for submitting your works to our showcase this week. If you would like your work to be considered for entry in to our weekly Mobile Photography and Art Flickr Group, please submit it to our dedicated group, here. You can also submit images to our Instagram tag for this section #mobilephotographyandimagery.

Jenny Pieters @sodium Light, Robin Robertis, Susan Rennie, David DeNagel, Paul Yan, Russ Merz, Tomaso Belloni, Jose Matos, Clint Cline, Lorenka Campos, Carol Wiebe, Meri Walker @iphoneartgirl, Rosa Perry, Gianluca Ricoveri, Vadim Demjianov, Fleur Schim, @filizart, Juta Jazz, Sukru Mehmet Omur, Jill Lian, Laila, Deborah McMillion, Giancarlo Beltrame, Deborah Field, Judy Wahlberg, Peter Wilkin, Jane Schultz @before.1st.light, Catherine Caddigan, M. Cecilia Sao Thiago @klimtt, Damian De Souza @remintrustions, Hanni K, Yariv Weinberg, Jun Yamaguchi, Kathy Clay, Dina Alfasi, Barbara Braman.