Oriental Journey

This music on this CD was totally improvised and unedited from start to finish. Perhaps this is because it was recorded in a period of Edward's life in which improvisation was his primary vehicle. It has been said that improvisation is to be in 'heaven' and compostion is to be on the 'earth'. In the 5 years or so preceding this recording Ed had spend a long periods of time in the Himalayas, living in moutainside huts with his instruments practicing and digesting the years of training he had received from Budhaditya and other teachers. In fact, much of the social and musical life in places like the mountain villages surrounding Dharamsala, center around musicians and travellers from all over the world who meet together each evening to improvise together.

'Oriental Journey' was made without any commercial intentions whatsoever, in fact it almost escaped being release completely. The CD consists of more than 20 pieces, most of them quite short. The idea with each piece was to say in 2 minutes what usually would take half an hour or more in a typical Himalayan jam session. This was extremely difficult to do. Ed and Pat recorded on average about 15 versions of each tune in an attempt to really "catch" that feeling. Needless to say, that 4 years after the original recording session, when they finally decided to complete the project, they had an enormous amount of recorded material to listen through and choose from. They almost decided to make it a double CD, but in the end they didn't.

The CD flows very sweetly. Yes, improvisation is being in heaven, but the resulting music on this CD is something very "down to earth". Very real, very basic, and very alive... a bit like the feeling you have with nothing but a backpack and you passport, wandering around India and south Asia, that is the feeling this music conveys. Bring it with your walkman on your next journey...