"exceptional,fiery, brilliant pieces!"
- Lezet, avantgarde jazz composer
"In terms of your music ... I find them layered and engaging, I think the sounds you use are very aesthetically pleasing. I too play guitar but not to a standard that I would record myself playing. I hope to obtain a standard similar to yours."- A Shout For Signs Of Existence
"...beautiful music...can feel the spirit and the message of your soul...in my way...so, with the love of music..really deeply inspiring music...can feel your colours...magic :)" - Harald Peterstorfer, New Age Guitar-Harpist
"Congratulations! It sounds like you have powerful Shamanic Journeys!" - Philip Ringler, Photographer
An hour of life changing music.
A dreamscape for and of your mind.
You have known this music all your life.
Isn't it time you opened The Book Of Worlds
and listened to it...
The unknown, undiscovered Domina Catrina is the world's premiere Asian Transgendered Jazz-Rock Guitarist-Composer.
"The Book Of Worlds" is her personal vision of a global ambient jazzscape informed by the emergence of a new globalism in new music circles, but stands out in her intuitive use of what she has called "The Grand Unified Field Theory Of Modern Harmony".
Domina Catrina's use of the "Field" is intuitive in the manner of composition which is woven directly, for the most part, from improvisations directly into her laptop, and then responding to her initial creative impulses. Although a seemingly "through-composed" 55 min long tone poem or concept album,
"The Book Of Worlds" retains that fresh, spontaneous energy that typified early Weather Report...(if Weather Report included Steve Reich, Pat Metheny, Trilok Gurtu, and a dozen other diverse, eclectic influences) But this is not what makes this work unique. That this process has inspired this organic modern shamanic tale, a visible and tactile story, is.
In her ambitious one-woman solo debut, Catrina has managed to evoke personal story lines that lie beneath our very different from one another life situations. Like the Harry Potter series of books and motion pictures, it strikes a chord of deep familiarity in the listener, not for the exotic blend of very disparate styles and elements. But for the sense that this all-instrumental music is somehow telling a *story*. The nature of this tale is the story of the Shaman whose journey of loss, suffering, search, and illumination when our Hero (*you*) arrives at the mythic location of "Axis Mundi" - when Enlightenment hits, however, there is only one place to go. Down. The loss of the state of absorption into Axis Mundi results in the 'return to the world', a state initially characterized by elation and joy, then disillusionment and betrayal.
Her official MySpace site describes her music this way: "Domina Catrina's music is a mystery wrapped in a cathedral of enigmas, informed by the noetics of Jazz, powered by the rage of Rock, catapulted around this planet we call :earth: that a young child created by opening up a book. The book describes a Shamanic Journey into the Lower Worlds, and Redemption via Dismemberment/Resurrection, also suggestive in the interlinked Suite of song titles - the Return to the World as described in the Buddhist :ox-herding: pictorial cycle:"
The loss of oneness with all beauty however is also seen to be illusory. Our Hero, which is again, you - not only return to the state of grace perceived earlier in the song cycle, but is revolved into newer, and indescribable states of intelligence, insight, and happiness("The Higher Road", "Sunshadows")
She has debuted her "Invisible Music Collective" comprising of
(Virtual Instruments) Ceramic Clay pot,
Chinese Percussion,
African Percussion loops,
Club Beat loop, Indian Temple Bells,
Indian Tabla and Mrindangam loops,
Persian Santoor,
Grand Piano, Synthesiser Drones, Flute,
Indian Bansuri Flute,
Peruvian Pan Flute, Fret less Electric Bass,
Double Bass, Synth Basses,
Latin Baby Bass, Fender Bass,
Marimbas, Organ, Electric Piano,
Chinese Er-hu, Japanese Koto,
Chinese Gu-zheng, Chanting loops,
Brazilian Berimbau, Australian Didgeridoo,
Turkish Oud,
English Recorder, Tango Accordion, Celtic Dulcimer, Irish Bouzouki,
Medieval Lute.
(real instruments) Left-handed Acoustic Guitar, High-strung
Acoustic Guitar,
Distorted Acoustic Guitar
(no electric guitars were used in the recording of this album),
glass bottle slide
in the summer of 2009. This large scale project all took place in the virtual spaces of her laptop via her guitar and keyboard controller alone. Recording tentatively began in late of December, 2008, and final touches were added in late of May, 2009. Most of the album were created in smallish rooms in Singapore (where Domina Catrina currently resides), and parts were recorded in Antwerp, Belgium.
New friends of this music are being made everyday. It has been called "timeless", "divine", and described as a 'powerful shamanic journey' by beguiled fans at MySpace and Facebook.
Domina Catrina's own guitar touch may be described as 'abstract lyricism" -delicate, fluttery, feminine, bebop, folk, and IndoChinese influenced.
At a glance-lyrical one moment, driven by some pre-rational elemental force another. Catrina has no guitar technique to speak of. All technique is the pursuit of musical ecstasy.
She has just finished her second recording - using only prefabricated loops, and virtual keyboard triggered instruments, a work solely for the purpose of aiding meditation and mindfulness practice. Catrina is also contemplating writing a very real method book that will outline what she claims will explain harmony in Western music terms from the time of Bach til the present in an elegant, simple, and all-encompassing system ideal for all jazz, rock, and classical musicians and composers.
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