Andy Burns - Piano on "Dawn", "Cede" & "Grace"; Rhodes & Hammond organ; Bass on "Unity"
Jeff Evans - Analog synthesizers on "Serendipity"
Matt Harris - Electric guitar on "Dawn" and "Unity"; Bass on "Overture"
Megan Kelleher- Lead female vocal on "Unity"; Backing vocals
Louise Hildyard - Violins on "Gaia" and "Grace"
Gary Winchester - Bass on "Dawn", "Discovery" and "Baraka"
Kate Kearney - Flute on "Cede"
The Balaclava Boys Choir - Group vocals on "Dawn"
..And special thanks to Troy Trigwell for amazing assistance and support
Influences
Afro Celt Sound System, Tori Amos, Aphex Twin, The Beatles, Beck, Björk, Ralph Blum, David Bowie, Kate Bush, Fritjof Capra, Kev Carmody, Rachel Carson, Ferdinando Carulli, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Chemical Brothers, Cold Chisel, Crowded House, Ram Dass, Dead Can Dance, The Doors, Nick Drake, Dream Theater, Eurythmics, Neil Finn, Peter Gabriel, Peter Garrett, Siddharta Gautama, Genesis, Lisa Gerard, Kahlil Gibran, Philip Glass, Henryk Górecki, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jimi Hendrix, Hermann Hesse, David Holmgren, Jethro Tull, Roshi Philip Kapleau, Jack Kerouac, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Stephen LaBerge, Led Zeppelin, Riley Lee, Michael Leunig, James Lovelock, Joanna Macy, Massive Attack, Midnight Oil, A. A. Milne, Bill Mollison, Ennio Morricone, John Muir, Muse, My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, Michael Nyman, Arvo Pärt, Pink Floyd, Robert Pirsig, Zbigniew Preisner, Radiohead, R.E.M., John de Ruiter, Rumi, John Ralston Saul, Nitin Sawhney, John Seed, Ravi Shankar, Sigur Rós, Smashing Pumpkins, Dick Smith, Gary Snyder, Fernando Sor, Spiritualized, Bruce Springsteen, Supertramp, David Suzuki, Talk Talk, Tangerine Dream, Tears For Fears, Tomita, U2, John Williams (the guitarist and the composer), The Who, Yes, Neil Young, Hans Zimmer…we think you get the picture.
More so now than ever we as a species are at a crossroads.......
Our voracious appetite for resources and a new fix places us perilously close to the destruction of ourselves. We are already guilty of the extinction of vast number of sentient beings. How long do we want to continue this kind of behaviour? And while Iraq becomes the 21st Century Vietnam we wait with bated breath for the next Play Station. While desperate people lie rotting for years in prison without charge or fair trial we complain about traffic congestion that delay us getting home just so we can watch our favourite TV show on time. While the skies darken and the fires continue to burn, we bicker about who has or hasn’t signed a piece of paper. So what?!! Just do something!
And what is that something? To have faith? Faith in what? Faith in an untried technology of now or faith in an ancient prophet who once thought the world was flat and would’ve had no idea of the kind of dilemmas we face today? Ultimately the answers lie within. We have the fortunate blessing to be human. Some may see it as a curse but we have such incredible potential we cannot deny our capacity to be truly human. We may not know where we have come from but we have a very good idea of where we are to go: a state of Grace.
May we truly honour and respect others as we would like to be honoured and respected. May this album take you on a journey that will inspire, humour, confuse and possibly anger you. But rest assured that at the heart of this is Grace, for that is what permeates through us all.
The four tracks you hear come from the soon-to-be-released album "One Act Begins It All" which contains ten rather interesting, diverse, sublime and rockin' tracks to say the least!
The album was programmed, recorded & mixed at Woodstock Studios, Master Class Audio & Salt Studios, Melbourne during most of 2006 & early 2007.
All music written & arranged by Kye Thomas & Justin Lawson (with assistance from Jeff Evans on Serendipity & Megan Kelleher on Gaia & Cede).
Lyrics written by Kye Thomas (except "eco-rap" in Gaia written by Justin Lawson)
Produced by Kye Thomas & Justin Lawson.
Engineered, programmed & mixed by Kye Thomas.
Mastered by Robin Mai at Woodstock (but the songs you currently hear aren't the final mastered versions - we're getting around to putting them up on the site!).
Vocals, acoustic guitars, bass (on Dawn & Cede), piano (on Discovery), string arrangements (on Gaia & Grace) by Kye Thomas.
Didgeridoo, shakuhachi, darambuka, piano (on Serendipity), backing vocals (on Dawn), eco-rap (on Gaia), electric, acoustic & classical guitars by Justin Lawson.
Wisdom in Word by Sonia F Stevens Why is it that people fall in love with the cage?Why did you not love the bird?Many birds will live in a cage. The cage will be there always and wont fall in love with you.The bird in the cage lives and returns love. When the bird is gone only a cage remains.I enjoyed and loved the bird not the cage.When you live in a house .. You loved the house but it does not return that love. The people who live in that house made it their home. What is the house without people.I enjoyed the people in that house who made it a home.The house will be there long after the people, The memories of the home which people made are there, if you remember them.Words are words if they have no feeling behind them, so no matter how they are said. That is what is remembered with feeling.Words can be soft as a feather or gentle. Words can be sharp as a knife or as powerful as a explosion. It is how it is remembered. How they are felt at the time which were spoken.Wars were started with a word which was said in a certain way. Peace was established in the same way.How you choose to say or write your words, gives your feelings to them. Spelling and grammar are only a technically side of things. It is the feeling behind the word which is felt, and remembered. Many men have pondered on words but unless they have heard it when it was first said, translations are always not there, when disputed by others. Music is part of the soul and has a great power. It depends on the listener, the player, the writer, on how each note is read, played,written. It is the feeling of the musician which is being expressed who wrote the piece and sang the note. Others copy and cover the music. The one who wrote it, knows each expression which is to be expressed, others only interperate their way, not the the way of the one who established it first. Copyrighted by SFS
Checkout the Big Man's new music video titled, Anna; recorded with his new band Temple Of Soul, which is composed of music legends Clarence Clemons, T. M. Stevens, Narada Michael Walden and Vernon "Ice" Black.
