Be it the slow, liquid tones of an antique 12 string guitar played in
a unique style against the backdrop of New Zealand's Ohakune rain
forest (Life Span) or the haunting strains of the ancient double reed
Daduke (After the Storm), this music is an exploration in sonic
textures invoke strange lands and new vistas within the mind's eye.
Through use of both rare traditional instruments such as the Middle
Eastern Daduke, as well as electronically invented instruments (that
have essentially never been heard before), with all the delicate
phrasing and subtle nuances normally heard in the concert hall, a life-
long dream has been realized in this work.
Joseph Maas is a life-long musician well versed in jazz-fusion, world
beat and new age genres performed on an array of different
instruments.
Born in Kansas City, Kansas in the mid 1950s Joseph began playing
music professionally at age 15. With influences that range from Steve
Howe (Yes) and Josef Zawinul (Weather Report) to German bassist
Eberhart Weber, Joseph moved to Northern California in 1976 playing
small venues usually as a solo artist and always performing original
(if not experiential) compositions.
He studied recording engineering and computer programming in the early
1980s at the then famed Mendocino Technical Community School. In this
era of big 1 inch tape reels and 8 track recorders the size of washing
machines, Joseph began to use the sound technology reproduction medium
as if it were another instrument. This practice continues today as
applied to digital technology. Pushing technical boundaries to bring
out the spirit, essence and natural timber of the performance has been
a focus from the beginning.
Throughout the 1990s, playing and composing regularly, soon it became
apparent that studio perfect recordings could be achieved digitally in
small studio setting given the right equipment and enough patience,
and most importantly without the astronomical costs of such endeavors
only a few years earlier. It was clearly time to put to good use his
decades of experience in both music composition and recording
technology.
Joseph writes, "Music production and recording technology have come of
age to the extent that exquisitely orchestrated compositions can be
fully realized by the solo artist working in an independent studio."
This debut CD, LifeSpan is truly a labor of love. Thirty months in the
making, Life Span is a grand project created without the pressure of
production studio budgets and deadlines. It is clear that compositions
on Life Span were carefully crafted to reveal unique chapters of an
atmospheric journey. In many ways it's an adventure, a theme-propelled
road trip through ever changing landscape on the way to the next great
age of music.
http://www.solarcitadel.com
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