Album Notes

“What Is Memory?” is a 69 minute aural exploration by Dean Richards/Disturbed Earth (Australia) and myself, Steve Brand (U.S.) of the nature of memory and time, that utilizes keyboard atmospheres, flutes and voice. This impetus for this piece was born out of personal phone conversations between Dean and myself. We both have experienced how time can transform memory, how memories can become distorted, built-up into almost legendary proportions and clouded with sentiment. We also know that when looking back into memories with a clearer mind in the present can transmute once painful memories into those that empower and propel us into a new future. Many times, we seem to feel that we are the result of our past, and that the past is unchangeable, but when we dare to look more deeply, we see that the past changes all the time—and that many times, things were not at all as we remembered. More importantly, we have both discovered that it is not so much what happens to us in life, but how we choose to regard those events that makes all the difference. In short, rather than a hindrance, memory and the past can function as a crucible for personal transformation. Sounds were passed back and forth from Dean to myself at least 3 times over a period of months, with the final result being sweeping and evocative—a true melding of our individual sensibilities and sound.