Chris was asked to do a meditiation album.

He lit a candle, and some insence, placed fingers on synth keys and away he musically "flew" for 54mins - an amazing improvisation resulted.

The next few days found him adding theremin, guitar and various atmospheric touches.

This was a dream of an album to make - CC thinks it's the closest thing he'll get to recording an orchestral work. There is an incredibly rich and haunting atmosphere on this album.

Terje Rypdal, Palle Mikkelborg, Vidna Obmana, Robert Rich, Bernard Xolotl

recorded digitally at Oblong Studios, Leicester, UK, and First Light DNA Studios, Toronto, Canada

6th Glimpse

Merav Hoffman and Di Zhang's involvement happened in a curious way. Merav in an email to Chris said she had walked into a large terracotta bowl and, despite mildly hurting herself, it had made a great sound. CC asked her to send some recordings of her and Di playing the bowls. She sent the recording over and amazingly they were in tune with the music Chris had recorded for Guiding Light.

Big influences on the album was the classical and choral music of Terje Rypdal and Palle Mikkelborg. Best known in the jazz world they are both noted classical composers.

We have known times we might call dark times. And moments where our lives seem to have been touched by the light. I think we all have our own ideas as to what the Light means - whether it means inspiration, love, faith, or a feeling of heightened spirituality.

This music represents a journey towards the light.
A recurring theme "the path", stated near the beginning symbolises a resumption of the journey or search. Each time that search is taken up once again it leads to different possibilities and so it is with this theme, which leads to a different place each time.

Along the way one encounters rising stairways that seem to carry us upwards towards the light, sometimes for a brief flash of inspiration, or sometimes to what proves only to be a false dawn and a resumption of the search. But one always returns with a new perspective gained from seeing things from such lofty heights.

But also along the journey we catch glimpses of the light - moments of beauty where time seems to stand still. We can't make it last forever and once over, we have to resume the journey again. Only by resuming the journey can we experience these brief blissful moments which would otherwise be drowned out by the noise of everyday life. I've used the temple bells to signal the start of these moments.

This music is about the journey as much as it is about the light.
I hope listening to it will remind the listener of that journey.

Technical Notes
This whole piece was created during a brief glimpse of that light myself.
One evening - I closed my eyes, lit some candles and incense, placed my hands on the keyboard and played, improvising for 54 minutes right through. It was quite a flight. Just on strings & choir sounds - as is such a wonder these days, an orchestra at one's fingertips. That provided essentially the whole piece as nothing was removed or altered.
All I did then over the next few days was to add some embellishments, highlight the recurring theme, and add some magic touches to the glimpses of light sections.
I'm indebted to Merav Hoffman and Di Zhang who sent me the terracotta bowl sounds from out of the blue which was the icing on the cake, and to Jett Van Leeuwen for suggesting it after having walked into one. I believe these things were meant to be, and serve as a reminder, should we need it, that beautiful things can rise out of misfortune.