I'm very excited to announce that my latest release, "Children of Alcyone," is available on Hypnos/Hypnos Secret Sounds in the Hypnos Store. Below is the blurb I just wrote to support the release. An early version of "Golden Cloud" from this disk can be found on my AW.ning page:
http://atmoworks.ning.com/profile/SteveBrand++++The inspiring energy for "Children of Alcyone" was/is the books of Barbara Marciniak. Marciniak's books are said to be channeled information from the Pleiadians, our distant multi-dimensional ancestors from the Pleiades constellation. (Alcyone is the name of the "central sun" of this constellation.) Upon being introduced to these books, I was immediately taken by their wit and irreverence, the nearly unfathomable timeline of events, and their uncanny relevance to things that are currently taking place here on Earth (the first of these books were channeled in the early 90's).
The initial sound sketches for "Children" were begun in September of 2007 in the tidal wave of energy that was Steve Roach's "Into the SoundCurrent" masters' class, and elaborated upon, refined, and re-energized over the intervening 3 years in my own studio. The result is a sometimes murky, sometimes soothing, sometimes phantasmagorical series of excursions through multiple timelines, and myriad possible half lit universes that other versions of ourselves inhabit.
My friend, and frequent collaborator, Jonathan Benham, not only created the art for this disk, but contributed energy and sounds to a couple of tracks with his array of homemade instruments during a series of improvisations between he and myself captured at my studio.++++
Golden Cloud - 8:17
Sounds for invoyaging. Driftworks. An alien folksong. Features Jonathan's overtone flute towards the end.
Light Age - 22:51
Anthem for a the age we've just entered. This is one of those pieces that just sort of come forth once in a while that I can hear being arranged for an orchestra in the future. Kronos does Steve Brand?
Outside The Time Grid - 17:15
Huge mandalas, tectonic plates of time slowly spinning, moving, grating against one another. You sit before yourself. Features part of an improv between Jonathan (organ whistle device) and myself (flute).
Into The Central Sun - 12:30
Envision the final moments of "The Fountain"...this time, you are in that bubbleship heading to Xibalba...or is it Alcyone. No return trip.