Seven meditative, classically inspired ambient soundscapes


When the solar wind alters the magnetosphere by changing the pathways of charged particles, the resulting auroras ionize the space and bring forth light of colorful complexity. The 1865 work “Aurora Borealis” by American landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church depicts this phenomenon and

Seven meditative, classically inspired ambient soundscapes


When the solar wind alters the magnetosphere by changing the pathways of charged particles, the resulting auroras ionize the space and bring forth light of colorful complexity. The 1865 work “Aurora Borealis” by American landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church depicts this phenomenon and the Arctic expedition of his friend Isaac Israel Hayes. Upon observing the event en route to what then was thought to be the Open Polar Sea, Hayes wrote the following lines:

“The light grew by degrees more and more intense, and from irregular bursts,
it settled into an almost steady sheet of brightness…
The exhibition, at first tame and quiet, became, in the end, startling in its brilliancy.
The broad dome above me is all ablaze…
The color of the light was chiefly red, but this was not constant,
and every hue mingled in the fierce display.
Blue and yellow streamers were playing in the lurid fire;
and, sometimes starting side by side from the wide expanse of the illuminated arch,
they melt into each other,
and throw a ghostly glare of green into the face and over the landscape.
Again this green overrides the red;
blue and orange clasp each other in their rapid flight;
violet darts tear through a broad flush of yellow,
and countless tongues of white flame, formed of these uniting streams,
rush aloft and lick the skies.”

Offered in the form of a multi-movement programmatic work in the European classical music tradition, ‘Aurora” endeavors to provide a soundscape for Church’s depiction of Hayes’ voyage. Although the title track is a sonic representation of the painting itself, the remaining six movements render imagined scenes from the journey at once filtered through and informed by the artists’ deftly veiled brush strokes in tones of ochre, black, brown, gray, blue, and green.

This album is, in essence, a deconstruction of the song Time Remembered by pianist and composer Bill Evans. Although the project was conceived more as an effort to further explore the possibilities in a particular work than as a homage to the piece and its composer, it is hoped that one result of the exercise is an enhanced appreciation of both.

This album is, in essence, a deconstruction of the song Time Remembered by pianist and composer Bill Evans. Although the project was conceived more as an effort to further explore the possibilities in a particular work than as a homage to the piece and its composer, it is hoped that one result of the exercise is an enhanced appreciation of both. None of the material on this album was collectively rehearsed and it was recorded live in one studio session.
The track titles are anagrams of the composer’s name (a device that Mr. Evans himself employed on several occasions throughout his career). This was done to have a bit of fun with the task, but also as a means to offer the selections on this recording as one complete work. To that end, the track order itself is indeed arbitrary and designed to be organized at the discretion of the listener who wishes to explore the piece in its entirety.