Album Notes

Music For Yoga, Contemporary Dance and other soul transformations.

Spirit Dwelling, sonic architecture for the heart, mind and soul, is a gallery of deconstructed groove soundscapes that mix world percussion (udus, talking drums, rainsticks and the like), with treated guitars (lots of pitch-transposed parallel 4ths through delays, etc.) that bend lengthy modal melodies around drones and the occasionally very pure acoustic note. A holding place that invites contemplation or even 'no mind' peace, yet at the same time energizes and inspires movement and effort. A sonic space to work both with and with-in.

Yoga, a traditional practice of exercise for the body, aims to enable a freedom of spirit and soul from the body's demands. Hence, a music designed to accompany such practice should both inspire the coarse body energy required to complete the poses and so forth, and bring light to the hidden recesses of the spirit, acting as a holding place for a feeling of inner contemplation and peace. Or, as CG Jung writes, “I would do these exercises until I had calmed myself.”

The disc also features pieces in odd time signatures (5/4, 7/4) and phrase lengths, as well as peaceful meditational work and straight 4/4 groove.

Composer Geoffrey Armes, after some twenty-five years working with Modern Dance in New York City, Asia and Europe, combined with practice of the spiritual exercise of the Subud latihan, is uniquely positioned to create such music. With Spirit Dwelling, a beautifully crafted but deeply felt opus, he more than achieves this aim, with a lyrical sonority that sparkles and dances over an inexorable flow of well-wrought, deeply touching music.