Interpretations of Light

This project originated when Maggie Taylor invited local Champaign-Urbana based musicians to accompany her weekly "grooving yoga" classes. The seminal improvisations by cellist, Xochi Johns and guitarist, Michael Shapiro, led to the idea of composing and recording an album with the intent of serving the many movements, moods, and physical states explored in the practice of yoga. I am grateful to have composed and performed collaboratively for this album and the tracks included here are just a sample of the music we created together throughout the spring of 2014. Ultraviolet explores the interplay of the harp and cello as they add one note to each repetition of the phrase until finally they reach its full value. The gong drone underneath represents the presence of breathing we carry with us as long as we live. Refraction is an uptempo odd meter rhythmic groove juxtaposed against long gently shaped arches of sustained cello tones. Radiance is a semi-improvised solo exploring some of my favorite percussive timbres, resonant metals. The gongs and singing bowls create overlapping waves of eerie harmonics.