Album Notes

"Dazzling...Easily one of the fastest (album opener is astonishing) and talented acoustic guitarists I've heard in a while."
- Smother Magazine

We are racing toward (or are we living in?) a singularity in which the world as we know it is transformed, the present reigns as its own purpose, and loneliness is unveiled as a lovely but mystifying sham. Until then, my name is Michael Garfield, 22-year-old standard bearer of a musical renaissance, evolutionary biologist, professional illustrator, flawed fountain of light. I set off into songwriting at 15 and never looked back; now I live on the bridge between the drummer-guitarists of the acoustic avant garde and the whirling ecstatics of festival culture. My music chronicles my first steps toward an ever-deepening integration of melody and percussion, the scientific method and centering prayer, left and right hemispheres, self and other, nouns and verbs, work and play. It's an aquarium for the strange creatures in my head; a call to listen intently to our humming world when the stereo shuts off; and a passionate testament to both the sacred and the profane, to searching sorrow and the bliss of union. It's a map of an unexplored continent: an attempt to describe the ineffable, succeeding in its failure like all acts of expression. It's sleek, dynamic music; but it seeps into you too, insinuating itself like wind into your crevices and shaping new things there. Above all, it's a reminder of our nourishing commonality: the processes that destroy and rebuild us in this moment, and this moment, and this...

Oh, and if you've read this far, forget about this page. I'm not selling this CD anymore; I'm offering it as a gift, and hoping that anyone who appreciates it will hit me back with donations. For the link to the free download and the paypal donation button, go here:
http://myspace.com/michaelgarfield

love
Michael

"Your music melts me."
- Stephanie Gordon (Chicago, IL, USA)

"While I MEAN to give helpful, rational feedback, all I want to do is run around and throw copies of your CD at people, photograph their faces upon listening, and give THAT to you instead. The music makes me FEEL too strongly to be able to THINK about it enough to speak on it in a way that would be useful to you."
- Ruth Smith (Kansas City, MO, USA)

"Your music is divine...it sends me deep inside and high above and beyond my self. You are an inspiration to me."
- David Titterington (Niihama, Ehime, Shikoku, Japan)

"Wow, you sure are a shredder. Phew. That's some trippy ride I just went on listening to your songs. I'm speechless...in a good way. Your playing certainly has a voice of its own."
- Volya Baziuk (Edmonton, Alberta, CA)