Experiencing V: Shining

 

 

This final segment 5 was completed on August 29, bringing the album to a close.  It weaves new material, with themes from the first movement at a faster tempo.

The closing coda is a recapitulation of the ending theme from the center movement.

All the pieces are in place, and the whole is revealed.

Thanks for sharing in this “Experiencing”.

 

Experiencing IV: Dimensionless Rosemary

 

 

 

Segment 2 presented a flow of an Abstract Expression to a Song about a Plum Tree. Segment 4 is a mirror image, offering a Song about the prolific, beautiful and exemplary Rosemary that graces the Rainbowland landscape, flowing into an Abstract Expression. Abstract-Song / Song-Abstract. Bridges of mirroring symmetry, framed in three movements of symmetry. The album structure is now revealed. Fun stuff.

 

Experiencing III: Knowing

 

This is becoming most enjoyable, watching an album take shape. I am discovering and recognizing it as it happens, but the Muse is creating, and I am an instrument.

Again, the words are coming from Rupert Spira, either directly, paraphrased, or influenced. The mid-section of this segment is a resetting of a 1996 song called “The One”.

Truth, love and beauty reside at the source of experience. They are our Self.

 

Experiencing II: The Infinite Plum

 

 

Feels like a vision for what will ultimately be a new album is starting to take shape.

Here is the second segment, Experiencing II. It comes in two parts. The first is an improvised layered musical abstract with a rhythmic speech-voice overlay. The second is a contrapuntal pop tune honoring the amazing Plum Tree that has graced the lower corner of Rainbowland these many years.

Enjoy!

 

Experiencing

 

After David Crosby’s passing – a significant event in my life – I was listening to all things Croz. I got to the CSNY live album, 4-Way Street. Neil Young introduced a solo song by saying, “this one starts out slow and just kinda unravels from there…” I thought to myself, “yeah, I wanna do something like that.” Something that doesn’t go much of anywhere for a chunk of time, and yet when it comes on the iPod, I respond, “Oh good! I love this one.”

So here it is. “Experiencing”.

I’m much less frequent in the studio these days. When I’m there, the windows are shorter, and my work is slower. Still, there is much percolating within. This first chunk has been a slow joy and a lingering satisfaction. Is it part of a bigger project? No idea.

I am experiencing.

Doug

 

 

 

 

Joy Amidst the Crash of Breaking Worlds

 

Joy Amidst the Crash of Breaking Worlds

A Concerto for Pop Piano and Poetry in 4 Movements

 

It is the fall of 2022. I completed this wonderful new album at 11:00pm on October 9th, under the light of a magical full moon.  

We’ve had four turkeys with us since late spring. We walk the labyrinth at sunset. Serendipitously, as the sun approaches the horizon line, the turkeys wind their way up from the meadow to a space adjacent to the labyrinth. From there, they fly high up into the Gray Pines for the night. We have been present at the center stone of the labyrinth to witness this magical ritual many evenings. Blessings beyond measure.

Recently, I have been listening to a lot of YouTube clips from Rupert Spira. Rupert brings a mind collapsing clarity to the non-dual perspective. It feels for me as if my entire experience is being “re-wired”. Both the lyrical reach and the musical reach of this album are into new frequency, and the creative process has been a thrilling experience.

The influence of Rupert Spira pervades the lyrics, as I reach to find my own words for the paradigm shift I am feeling. There are both direct quotes and paraphrases from Rupert’s talks throughout the album.

The lyrics are often expressing what I call “mantra modules,” poetic phrases that appear and reappear  through the movements.

I AM is the one life we all are living.

In the One Life,

Doug

 

The Year of the Dove: A Mystic Meander in 5D

There is a light, steady, and most auspicious rain happening at this moment.

It is June 4th, 2022, and I have just completed a new album–“The Year of the Dove: a Mystic Meander in 5D”

The project began in January, with the idea of collecting all the basic material for the album on the classical guitar, using the fingers on my right hand, as opposed to using a pick.

I began collecting poetry in January, generally on my morning walks.  As I passed the large Oak Tree just above the orchard, huge gatherings of Morning Doves would take flight from the tree quite suddenly, as if in collective “good morning.” Note: I have consciously dropped the “u” from Mourning Dove. These are birds of the morning, and I perceive no sorrow in them.

These greetings of ascending Morning Doves in huge numbers continued daily for weeks. An unprecedented experience across all the years past. Whatever else was going on in the rest of the world, it was “The Year of the Dove” at Rainbowland.

The Doves have continued their presence in evolving ways throughout the album journey. Often, a group of them has been in the labyrinth, arising into the trees on our approach.

Last night as I was heading into the studio, we discovered a Dove on the ground behind the Tree House. Clearly stunned, she was still alive, though barely moving. I sat with her for over an hour… praying, chanting “Om”… cooing…. She was still alive when I went to my room. In the morning, I buried her beneath the Oak tree where the large gatherings had started, and where our bird “Peachy” was laid to rest.

I completed the album this afternoon. At mid-point in the final orchestration, walking back to the office, I was greeted by 20 Doves, who ascended right in front of me into a nearby Oak. Later, walking back to the office after the album completion, I was greeted, one after the other, by 3 small groups of ascending Doves, and then a larger 4th group of around 20. An extraordinary finale of Dove experience, on the day of the album completion.

The other intention I began with, was to create through music and poetry, a high frequency zone of focus (5D), to help me navigate the various collapses occurring across the 3rd dimension. On this level especially, I find this album to be profoundly satisfying, and a blueprint and personal guiding light for this time to come.

Thanks for reading this. I hope you are touched by the music and words.

Love and Light,
Doug

PS – it’s worth mentioning that there was an inch of rain that began on the day of the album’s completion. Let it rain indeed. Jai Ma.

 

 

 

 

Weave a New World



This album has two concepts at play. The first, it’s conceived as a dance album. The defining attribute making it dance is the pulse. Each song begins with a pulse that continues to the end of the song. Whatever else might happen, the pulse is always steadily present. The second concept is that the lyrics are inspired by the myth reader, storyteller and visionary, Michael Meade. Many of the words are either paraphrased or directly transcribed from Michael’s Podcasts or You Tube videos. My initial introduction to his message was from a powerful video called “Climate Change and Mythic Imagination”, presented in August of 2021. Here is a quote from Michael’s book, Awakening the Soul:

“Despite what some might think, humans are not simply an accident of existence, or an experiment that has run its course. Rather, humans are a risk, taken by the forces of creation, in the interest of bringing conscious awareness and liberating insight into both the failures and the triumphs of existence.”

Thanks for your interest, and may we all, each in our own way, contribute to the weaving of a new world.

Love & Light,

Doug

A Gallery of Angels Within

 

A while back, a dear friend made a suggestion to Cath that I consider doing an instrumental album. When Cath relayed the suggestion to me, I chuckled. “I’d be more likely to do a book of poetry than an instrumental album,” I responded. Still, a seed had been planted. This new album turns out to be a combination of both. Recited poems are alternated with instrumental interludes. The poetry, freed of lyrical parameters, is more expansive in its expression. The music, released of its responsibility to provide a setting to the lyrics, can be more complex in its content, and intricate in its arrangement and textures. On several occasions, the voice is included in the musical interludes, and functions as another instrument in the orchestration. This approach has been unique in my experience. I know of no other album taking such an approach. It has been quite an adventure, and now that it is complete, I am satisfied beyond imagination of expectancy. Hope you find the listen an enjoyable adventure as well.

Love & Light, Doug

7/18/21

Hold the Vision

On December 12th, I completed the recording process for this album, “Hold the Vision.” The creative process began in June, so the entire album has come into being during this amazing and most unusual pandemic year.

 

A time of lock-down and isolation, it has also been an inward journey of great deepening. A time of letting go of many details that seemed important to the life flow, and in the space that resulted, a new experience of what is really most important to this life journey. The other side of letting go is stepping into new life.

 

“Hold the Vision” is the freest and deepest expression to come through so far, and I’m excited to see where the Muse Dance takes me next. Even as this physical temple shows signs of aging, I am nevertheless at the top of my game, and inspired to explore any and all new musical territory that Muse still has in store. Thanks to you, whoever might be reading this, for sharing this journey with me. Your connection with the music completes a creative circuit, and sparks the continuation of a creative adventure that is “beyond imagination of expectancy.”

 

So much love,

Doug

12/12/20