Album Notes

Broken Saints is a 'serial online graphic literature event' (read: online comic) which has captured the imagination of tens of thousands of fans - and dozens of major Internet awards - worldwide since its inception four years ago. Written and directed by Brooke Burgess, illustrated by Andrew West and designed and programmed by Ian Kirby, it tells the dark, unsettling but ultimately compelling story of four characters 'from the quiet corners of the globe' who are brought together by shared experiences, dark visions and hardships to face a terrifying threat.

The first volume in the Broken Saints Soundtrack series is 'Passage'. Composed, produced and released in early 1996, it predates the series by a few years and was one of Brooke Burgess's key inspirations in coming up with the basic concept and atmosphere of Broken Saints; it should not, therefore, be surprising how well this music ended up fitting the storyline as it developed. Several themes from this work are central to the series or to specific characters, including 'Muraqiba' (Oran), 'Gathering' (Raimi), 'Jaisalmer' and 'Thar' (Kami), 'Taliesin' (featured at the series beginning), 'Kumbhaka' (featured at the end), and the title track, 'Passage' (Raimi, and the main theme from the Classic site).

'Passage' is the record of a number of journeys, all very much interconnected, some still underway. The first journey was a physical one, and took me to India, Nepal and Thailand for six months when I was but a wee lad of 19. Within that journey was a photographic odyssey which generated a collection of around 1000 slides and prints, some of which are even worth looking at... The other journeys are more nebulous; perhaps it's better to let the music tell that story.

To sum up 'Passage' in a few words is very difficult; quite simply it was, and remains, one of the most elaborate things I have ever undertaken. The initial idea was to select 12 photographs that told the story of my journey, and compose a suite of music around them, each piece exploring the mood and texture of the image it was based on. Somewhere along the line I realized I was telling the story of the creative process as I then understood it (my current conceptions of it are not incompatible with this vision, just a little looser and larger), along with a vast array of connected ideas and impressions of how the world works.

Musically, 'Passage' is quite diverse. It touches on everything from jazz to ambient, classical to trip-hop, worldbeat to elecroacoustics to minimalism, from rigorously composed complexity to freeform trance-like improvisation. It is realized on piano, synthesizer, trumpet, flute, acoustic guitar, fretless bass, and a selection of odd ethnic hand percussion. All in all, it's a pretty advenurous piece of work...