recordings on spirit mountain
Near the New Mexico and Colorado border is a place known as Spirit Mountain. A mountain not found on maps. A mountain known to the native American as the Peak of the Eagle.
On the invitation of a friend, I arrived at the Spirit Mountain ashram and we walked into the forest, each step and breath took us deeper, deeper into the trails of the ancestors and the sounds of the natural mystic. The sun sat atop the peak of the mountain like a crowned eye, seeing everything. We where in sacred land, land infused by the practice of mans spiritual quest and his union with the Creator.
On that first evening, she introduced me to her piano and said that the time had come for her to leave the land. I asked if I could stay. She said yes. During the 6 months of living in the ashram, I composed and recorded On Spirit Mountain and Between Heaven and Earth.
My method for writing was simple. I woke each sunrise and sat in japa meditation. I then walked, observing nature, practicing silence, thinking only of what I saw before me. This practice is not easy, the mind is a monkey, but the monkey can be trained. After a good walk and a heart full of prayer, I sat at the piano and music introduced itself. Already existing, I had to learn it. And in learning its mood and character, I became a pianist, a romantic minimalist.
Spirit Mountain is a peaceful place, expansive sky's populated by surreal clouds and stars shining in unidentified ways. Theres rhythm in the dirt and music in the trees, and there is wisdom in the air.
This is a place full of secrets and mystery, a land forgotten, a land that attract's only the lost or the spiritual. And that was me, lost, seeking and craving for Spirit.
Still seeking, I know I am closer.