Album Notes

Crystalline compositions for acoustic guitar -
solo, duo & bass 2008
11 truly innovative pieces touching on archetypal Arctic elements of raw natural beauty, glaciers, & ocean rhythms as well as the intuition, sorrow & equanimity around preservation of this frontier wilderness. With virtuoso Matthew Montfort on second guitar.Drilling for oil in the Arctic Refuge would be a horrible atrocity, evidencing a profound lack of wisdom on the part of our representatives in Congress. Support the movement towards an Arctic Refuge National/International Monument. Let your voice be heard and make your actions felt through conservation. 50 minutes


REVIEWS
Alan Tower brings together innovative technique and real heart to create a new voice for guitar - Alex deGrassi

The rich movements of alan tower's guitar on Arktos are both soothing and unexpected. In addition to evoking nature's beauty and texture, they made me do things that very little new music in this music-saturated world makes me do any more. They made me stop what I was doing. And listen. And feel gratitude.
- Alan AtKisson, sustainability consultant and author of Believing Cassandra

Alan Tower Bio
For many years I was entranced with writing for solo acoustic guitar with Leo Kottke, Alex deGrassi and Michael Hedges as inspiration or mentors. In the early 90’s, experimenting with a new barring technique, I injured my hand so severely I was not able to play for many years, and now only for short periods. However, this was a gift, as I became drawn to a series of new earth based instruments and began working with the inventors to expand their tonality and resonance in the world. The first was the huaca, a triple chambered clay vessel flute, then the didjeridu and most recently the Hang and Shruti Box. These instruments are made from clay, wood, alloy or agave and provide a natural connection to my work as an environmental activist. The instruments are also based on, or directly from, non-western cultures and use the natural scale vs. western equal temperament. The intersection of music, activism and world cultural became complete without a previous plan to integrate these together. In bringing the western compositional approach used in writing for solo guitar to these new instruments, I discovered that there was a wide world open to me in pushing the instruments beyond their current boundaries and became fascinated by experiencing an music based on this natural scale heard in Indian music.

The work of Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry have particularly inspired my vision of music as a voice and catalyst for a more humane sustainable culture. My compositions and unusual sounds were spotlighted in the Ellipsis Arts CD/book Orbitones, Spooharps and Bellowphones, in a series of Tsunami Rangers video’s on sea kayaking, in the 2004 Disney.Skywalker movie Peter Pan, and in soundtracks for meditation and yoga. I perform solo, in duo, with Ancient Future and SpiritMoves, and in the Cave Concert series overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.