Conjunction

This is a story of how the "Conjunction" CD came to be.  On Thursday October 27th, 2011 my old friend Stephen Red Hawk arrived for his annual weekly visit from Sedona, AZ.  Red Hawk and I met 13 years ago while working together as forest rangers at the Palatki Ruins in Sedona, AZ.  This is where we both began playing Native American Flute.  We would play our flutes and listen for the echo bouncing off the adjacent canyons.  Our journeys together throughout the years have been very special.

Rock formation with Chumash Chief face

While Red Hawk was visiting this year, we decided to record our flute songs and experiment with nature sounds from our travels. The night Red Hawk arrived there was a planetary conjunction taking place in the early night sky.  Venus, Mercury and the crescent moon aligned to form a triangle just after sunset.  I got the feeling that night that something  very powerful was going to go down on this trip. The next day we packed all our instruments and headed up to the highest peaks in the Santa Ynez mountain range above Santa Barbara, California to begin our recording session.  This photo to the left was a rock formation that crossed our paths as we were driving up the mountain.  If you look closely you might see a face in the middle of the rock.  To Red Hawk and I it looked like an ancient Chumash chief looking over us as we passed by.  We eventually found our way to the top of the mountains where we set up our recording equipment and began to capture our flute sounds.  There was a powerful energy that we both felt up on top of the mountain.   

Santa Ynez Mountains

 It was then that we realized something was happening to us.  The energy we both felt in our solar plexus.  It felt like it was rewiring us so we could ground in the energy to materialize the sounds.  We recorded some great tracks that afternoon on the mountain.  On the way down we stopped at a creek crossing to  record the sound of flowing water and found our way back to civilization.
            Red Hawk set up a recording studio in my house and we began to plug in the flute sounds with the nature sounds we recorded from the day.  For the next eight days we traveled around the county to play flute and  capture the sounds of nature.  We traveled to Loon Point to record the sound of crashing waves at the beach, to meditation mountain in Ojai, California to record the sounds of humming birds and recorded the chimes sound from my backyard.  With a collection of flute and sound effects Red Hawk and I had enough material to create the CD.  After a few long days of mixing sounds we finally had a complete album.  All we had left to do was put the tracks in order so the CD could tell the story of our journey.  It was then that I decided the name for the CD would be called "Conjunction" inspired from the planets and moon aligning on the day Red Hawk arrived.

California White Sage

The tracks on the album have a story as well.  Track 1 called "In the beginning" is the introduction of the album.  On this track we recorded flute with a vibration tone similar to a didgeridoo, a singing bowl, mouth harp and Red Hawk played a flute overlay. It felt like a good track to have at the start to set the vibration for the other tracks.  Track 2 called "Indigenous Chant" was recorded on top of the Santa Ynez mountains.  I used a Chumash Clacking stick and just allowed the energy of the ancient ones to speak through me.  I felt like a conduit broadcasting the sound waves.  Track 3 called "Enlightened Waves" has live crashing waves sounds recorded on Halloween at Loon Point beach close to my home.  It was a very foggy and mysterious day so I used a very deep sounding flute to emulate ships fog horns traveling out in the ocean.  Track 4 called "Flight of the humming bird" captures the sound of live hummingbirds that we found swarming a sage plant at our trip to Meditation Mountain in Ojai, California.  Accompanied with flute the hummingbird sounds weave in and out of the track.  Track 5 called "Spirit Calling" has a very unique sound produced by an instrument know as the Bull Roar.  Indigenous cultures all over the world have used the bull roar to communicate with spirits in the supernatural world.  On this track the spirit of the flute and the bull roar combine to form a unique relationship calling out to the spirit world.  Track 6 called "Dynasty" fuses a lighter sounding flute with wind chimes.  The track resembles an eastern sound to it that reminded Red Hawk and I of the orient.  Track 7 called "Emotions" takes on an emotional path combining  piano with flute woven in to the background.  The piano emulates the emotions I felt while recoding the music and I wanted to have some place in the album that could be a release point these emotions.  Track 8 called "Riparian Echoes" utilizes a high pitched flute track that I recorded on top of the Santa Ynez mountains mixed with flowing water from the creek at the base of the mountain.  Track 9 called "Ferry Crossing" was recorded on a ferry boat ride that I took from Whidbey Island  after care taking for a dear friend of mine that came down with cancer last year.  I took care of him for three weeks and as I was leaving on the ferry, I didn't know if I would see him again.  The song captures my emotions and reflects on the time I spent with my friend.

Thank you for viewing my Blog.  Hope you enjoy the music!

If you would like to order a CD or contact Greg please send an email to: gregbressani@gmail.com