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(Daniel-Johnson's Manic 5 dam in Quebec, Canada - photo by Pierre cb)

Part 4 of The Dam is entitled simply “Dam.” In the storyline, this is when the obstacle is recognized and the necessity of dealing with it is accepted.

Once again the lyrics are pretty much ready, so better let them tell the story.

1st verse
The feeling is getting stronger / I'm aware of a dam
Building internally / This is not who I am
Conflicting directions / Identity crisis
Time has come to make a choice
Quiet the fearful voice

Thi

("The Winged Man" by Odilon Redon)

"The Winged Life" takes its name from the following verse by William Blake :

He who binds himself to a joy
Does the winged life destroy
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise

This piece is a singularity as far as the poligrafic repertoire is concerned. I didn't aim for innovation or cleverness as I usually do because I felt that the best way to let the message through was to keep the music simple. Thus the song is about 4 minutes long and

Clocking in at 22 minutes “The Dam” is my longest composition thus far. The piece uses the metaphor of water flowing from source to ocean to illustrate this mysterious process that we usually refer to as life. It comprises eight distinct movements, identified as follows :

• 1. Source
• 2. River
• 3. Rapids
• 4. Dam
• 5. Immersion
• 6. Surface
• 7. Flow
• 8. Ocean

As the title suggest, the focus is directed on one major obstacle/life-changing experience, symbolized by a dam on the river, which the protagonist/narrator ha

(Globe of Integration by Eugen Hofbauer, Herbert Kalleitner, and Susi Müller. Photo by Manfred Kielnhofer)

“The Chrome Lake” is the core middle part of “Entering The Stream,” the trilogy which begins with "Into The Ashram" and is completed by "Leaving The Ashram."

Lasting a little over 12 minutes, the suite comprises seven sections identified as follows :

• 1. Introversion
• 2. Intervention
• 3. Introspection I
• 4. Introspectrumental I
• 5. Introspection II
• 6. Introspectrumental II
• 7. Integration

“Integration” sta

(Ratha Yatra Festival in Puri, India / Painting by James Fergusson)

Juggernaut. Lots to say about this one. Make sure your seat is confortable...

I’ve started the writing for this singular piece on November 2, strangely enough beginning with the epilogue. I “completed” it over the following weekend, on November 9. The lyrics, and thus the vocal melodies, remain to be addressed, mainly because I’m not sure which approach is best : the symbolical, the theoretical, or the experiential. The vocals wil

("Primeval Center" )

On a background of Wall Street Bailout and the Large Hadron Collider, “Void” paints the Buddhist concept of emptiness.

From Wikipedia :

In Buddhism, the realization of emptiness of inherent existence is a “state of pure consciousness” in which the practitioner realizes all particular objects and images to be appearances of the subjective mind.

The song is made up of twelve short verses, one longer vocal interlude, and no chorus. The vocal sections are tied together with short in