This music was originally commissioned by the New England Aquarium for the exhibit “Amazing Jellies”.

I'm so honored that this soundtrack is now used in hospitals, sensory integration clinics, healing centers, pain clinics, classrooms, hospice, etc.

TESTIMONIALS:

AUTISM/SENSORY INTEGRATION | SCHOOLS, CHILDREN & ADULTS | RELAXATION & STRESS REDUCTION
SLEEP CHALLENGES | ALTERNATIVE HEALING | HOSPITALS, PAIN MANAGEMENT, HOSPICE | PAIN MANAGEMENT

Click here to read all testimonials.

LINER NOTES:

Music has always been a great mystery to me. The more I’m involved with it - both as a composer and musician - the more I’m astonished by it. For me, the act of creating is far more about receiving than doing. Truly, the music itself is one of my greatest teachers. As a professional composer, I’ve been scoring films for several years now (cinema as well as HBO, A&E, Animal Planet, Disney, Discovery, PBS, ESPN, CBS, NBC, The Learning Channel, multimedia, etc.) It was a new venture for me to write music for an exhibit about the sea. I was very excited when the New England Aquarium called me to compose the score for their “Amazing Jellies” exhibit. I was also not all that surprised - I had already gotten a hint of the score months before while I was out in the Arizona desert.

I often go out to the desert to recharge and get real. I was sitting out in the high desert when the idea came deep in my mind that I would be writing the song of the “sea creatures.” At the time, I honestly heard nothing- in any musical sense - I simply gazed out at the beauty of desert, feeling the wind. I jotted the idea down in a notebook (I’ve learned not to dismiss these sorts of things…), figuring that it would come to light when it was time. Four months later, I was commissioned by the New England Aquarium to compose the music for their new exhibit re: jellyfish and saving the oceans.

Preparing to write the music was an odyssey in itself. I sat for hours by the huge fish tanks at the New England Aquarium - studying the slow, languid movements of the jellies, and the way they would shimmer in the light. The smallest of them resembled tiny luminous umbrellas, the largest of them looked like opaque overstuffed pillows with long tentacles dangling underneath. Regardless, all jellies look like stars when they are first born, and they all move very slowly in the water.

The music is written in 4 movements, each of which depicts a different aspect of the mystery and beauty of the ocean, and the sea creatures who live there:

I. The Sea Creatures Singing Hello, Welcoming You to Their World
II. Jellies Being Born
III. Royalty of the Sea
IV. Swimming in Light

Versions 1 and 2 of “Amazing Jellies (Council of the Sea Beings)” consist of the same four movements - each version in a different sequence.

Regarding Cochiti: A few years ago I took a solo camping trip to New Mexico. While I was there, I met the Martins- a beautiful family who live on the Cochiti Pueblo. They are truly some of the kindest people I’ve ever met. The Grandfather of the family is a Drum maker. After returning home from my camping trip, I received a special Drum in the mail that the Grandfather, Bill Martin, had made for me. A week after it arrived, I had a mysteriously beautiful dream filled with music and dance. In it, I heard several Drums playing with an orchestra while Elders of all walks of life danced together in a Circle, honoring the Earth’s need to heal. I wrote the music down the following morning when I woke up. Soon after, I met up with Brynn Albanaze - a remarkable violinist who offered to put a string section together to record the piece. What an experience that was- literally dreaming the music and then recording it three weeks later! I will forever be grateful to musicians and technicians who take the time to develop their talents.

A lot of time and love went into the composition and production of this music. My hope is that this project and accompanying CD serves you in whatever way is right for you. Many people are benefiting from this music in ways that I never would have imagined - from surgery, to post op, pain and stress management, to trauma relief, emotional relief, hospice, classrooms, special needs venues, etc etc etc (feel free to check out the testimonials page).

What the responses to this music have taught me is that we all need to relax in order to feel well. May this music bring you peace! And may that peace bless you and all those around you. I honestly feel that it’s time for all of us, no matter who we are, to take the time to remember that deep inside, we’re all beautiful.