Starlite
from Deep Space here
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Japetus - Biography
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Vibratory worlds
I was born and raised in
Sydney and from an early age I heard music in
my head but it was not until I taught myself to
play a variety of instruments including drums,
guitar and keyboards, as well as singing, composing
and production that I managed to capture it. I
combined these skills into audio/visual production
and worked for several years as an audio/visual
producer. To assist in my desire to be a recording
artist, in 1980 I set up my own recording studio
and began creating songs and experimenting with
sound using some of the new digital music keyboards
launched in the early 80s. I recorded over 40
songs and sent them to record companies all over
the world, however I was still a few years ahead
of my time, recording as a solo studio producer
writing Pop songs about social change and extra-planetary
influences.
Spiritual paths
Along the way, I stumbled
upon the practice of meditation, gathered information
on various spiritual paths and gradually came
to understand the importance of a higher more
universal awareness. As this new perspective of
life grew within me so, correspondingly, my interest
in traditional pop music began to diminish, and
I found myself working in a more instrumental
vein. I began to recognise the connection between
sound, colour and imagery and the more I worked
with it and continued to explore consciousness
the more I began to channel the various inspired
journeys that went on to become my Visionary Journeys
catalogue.
Framework
Since 1983 I have composed
12 inspirational albums (plus two compilations)
and released them through my own record label
doing all the production, manufacturing, distribution
and promotion myself. This catalogue is an evocative
and colourful collection that presents a profound
musical framework for exploring the vibratory
worlds of imagination and sound for the purpose
of self-discovery, meditation and healing. Most
of the albums were created on keyboard synthesisers
and music samplers intuitively synthesising my
own unique inter-dimensional sounds, perfecting
ways to provide the perfect atmosphere and colour
to evoke the particular journey and imagery. Later
I added spoken guided visualisations based on
the original imagery I saw when I developed the
concepts for the original music.
Synthesis
Although I have focused
on music, as a synthesist in the broader sense,
my talents include video producer, vegetarian
chef, creative writer and graphic/web designer.
To support one of my best-loved albums, Visions
Of Paradise, in 1987 I filmed and produced a video
of magnificent natural vistas, rivers and sunsets,
creating an audio-visual healing experience. This
had wide applications in therapeutic areas as
well as in the home and workplace. It was even
shown on its own Qantas in-flight movie channel
as part of a meditation package and I will be
re-shooting that in digital video later in 2006.
I have also performed some of my musical soundspaces
at various healing workshops and conferences on
metaphysics including the Esoteric Sciences and
Creative Education Foundation conference in 1990
(where I also held a rare workshop) and of course
the opening of Conference Earth in 1995 where
I also had the delight of providing a live soundspace
behind Dr James Hurtak during his mind-blowing
guided visualisation.
Commissions
In 1985, Australia's most
prolific writer in mysticism and the occult, Nevill
Drury, asked me to produce a series of three albums
of inner space music to accompany his book Music
For Inner Space (ISBN 0907061745) for release
in Germany and around the world. Over the last
20 years, I have worked with Denise Linn (USA)
and Jo Buchannan (Aust) on guided visualisation
albums, produced the soundtrack for an alternative
movie called 'Into The Light', recorded and produced
a series of Tibetan Buddhist chanting practice
tapes for Lama Trijam, and supplied music exclusively
for the National Federation of Healers Inc (Australia)
guided visualisation album. In 1996, I was commissioned
to create the title theme and incidental music
for the 26 part TV series 'Yin, Yang and You'
already shown to over 100 million viewers on NBC
Asia as well as in The Middle East and South Africa.
In 2002 my music and video was selected to support
a guided meditation video for Qantas.
Awards
In 2000 I won Best New
Age Ambient instrumental track + Best Environmental/Message
song + Best Promotional Artwork design in the
North Coast Entertainment Industry 'Dolphin' Awards
and in 2002 I also won Best Folk song and numerous
nominations in 2003.
Global
After establishing my own
website in 2001 and remastering all my albums
for CD with new artwork all designed by me, I
was delight to be signed to iTunes as an official
Label Affiliate in 2005 with my entire 14 CD Visionary
Journeys catalogue now available for download
in 22 countries world wide. In January 2006 I
travelled to Cannes in France to attend Midem
- the world's largest music industry market -
where I secured distribution in Korea and am currently
negotiating licensing in Germany, UK and US. In
July 2006 at the International Planetary Society
world conference in Melbourne planetarium (the
first one ever in the southern hemisphere in 30
years) I was delighted to have my music played
during the two evening dinners.
Conclusion
Life is not a monotone.
Life is full of colours and sounds and symbols
of all different vibrations. Relaxation is only
the doorway but there is a whole world beyond
that. A multitude of evolving elements that hone
the facets in our inner divine crystal self. This
diamond must be polished and set and all this
takes patience, practice and energy. Our duty
is to develop a focused consciousness and navigate
our way back from the lowest to the highest. From
manifestation, bridging back across to the all
encompassing universal sphere, within and without.
In today's society it is easy to recognise the
need for healing in any form, and these musical
soundspaces, the spoken visualisations, the visionary
artworks, the video and workshops, all offer a
way of discovering a more subtle and holistic
sense of self.
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Could you take us through your catalogue?
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These albums are presented
in their order of creation. The first two albums
were fairly experimental... which really extends
to include the following three albums as well...
the first 5 albums are all very unique, unusual
and evocative.
- The Great Great
Silence - is very spacey and out there.
It is an outward journey album where each section
lifts off and out into the vast cosmos before
returning with a sense of peace and awe.
- Once Around The Sun
- is the story of the seasons and the cycles
of time experienced on Earth with a solar perspective.
It is very bright and electric and vibrant and
alive.
The next three titles
are The Mystic Pathways series. A selection of
albums based on 5 ancient traditions formatted
using the concept of The Elements - Earth, Water,
Air, Fire and Space (Spirit) as the keys and all
based upon the written, guided visualisations
in Nevill Drury's book Music For Inner Space (ISBN
0907061745).
- The Kabbalah +
The Zodiac - The Kabbalah has an introduction
to the 4 elements then a rather strange piece
Praxis that moves down through the body, with
a final track with a whole Transformation sequence.
The Zodiac has 12 tracks that represent each
of the signs following their imagery and elemental
value and musical key, with a final track Cosmos
that captures the spaciousness of the universe
reflected within.
- The Major Arcana
of the Tarot - has 22 very unique and compact
tracks that conceptually capture each of the
cards on an unfolding journey as stepping-stones
up the Kabbalistic magic mountain. The tracks
are only 2 minutes each like snapshots so you
can feel the different elements.
- The Egyptian Book of
the Dead + Kundalini Yoga - The Egyptian
Book of the Dead is a three part journey beginning
in a pyramid, moving down through the Underworld,
to be reborn into the sky as a God. Kundalini
Yoga, after a monotone bass intro, has a rather
strange four-part track The Tattvas that evolves
up through the body elements with syllable intonements,
before a vibrant percussive track Awakening
that is the marriage celebration of Shakti and
Shiva at the crown chakra.
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Things settle down a bit
with these next two albums that represent my major
works and are based on the previous 5 albums of
finding my feet and pushing the boundaries.
- Visions Of Paradise
- is my best known and loved album and has
some of my most classic tracks. It is primarily
a water/air journey that moves through three
phases in two separate journeys.
- The Radiant Self
- is my most complex and crafted album.
If I had to choose one album and give all the
rest away this one is the most valuable. There
are two inward journeys deepening across two
different levels. The Journey Through takes
you up through five different levels of consciousness
to dive into your inner radiant core and the
second part has the five realisations that you
can have regarding 'being' while in that sacred
inner space.
The 2 'Major Works' above
were followed by some albums more on the periphery.
- Infinity -
was originally conceived as a 12 minute piece
that could play on a continuous loop 12 minute
cassette for as long as you could listen...
up to several days... sleeping and awake...
promoting continuity of consciousness. It has
been released on CD as a 60 minute version but
the original 12 minute piece is still represented
by the first 12 minutes. It should be played
continuously slightly above the threshold of
hearing and is designed to remain playing even
when other media are active including TV.
- Shaman Journey
- is mostly Nevill Drury's hypnotic shamanic
drumming. The continuous repetitive drumming
rhythms entrance the mind as you go on a journey
with your totem animal. In the second half I
create an atmosphere of a group gathering with
inter-dimensional influences.
- Tales From Atlantis
- as I am a producer and not a performer
Tales was primarily created as a selection of
pieces I could actually present live. They are
very simplistic and under-produced and easy
to reproduce. There is a 30 minute feature track
followed by 4 shorter melodic pieces that represent
'music from the domes'. Those 4 tracks are bridged
by a nebulous interlude supposed to represent
travelling between the domes.
- Crystal Light Awakening
- is a double CD produced under the guidance
of Vincent Selleck. On one CD there is a discourse
on the galactic forces influencing Earth plus
a Quan Yin guided visualisation. The other CD
has an eclectic combination of instruments that
elude to the synthesis of old world and new
world and contains some percussion and didgeridoo
as well as synthesiser and sampler. It is a
continuous 60 minute track.
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The final two instrumental
ambient/new age albums of mine are often considered
my most accessible titles along with Visions Of
Paradise mostly because of the more sophisticated
production and arrangement.
- The Threshold -
has 5 powerful angelic tracks which were compiled
from 3 albums originally commissioned by a healer
named Jan Poole. These 5 tracks are very breathy
and inspire a sense of transcendence and angels.
A very popular album for massage.
- Deep Space - has
two 30 minute tracks. The first track Starlite
won Best New Age instrumental track in the North
Coast Entertainment Industry 'Dolphin' awards
in 2000 and it captures the endless formlessness
of space. The second track Celestial Ocean is
a fairly empty track except for an event in
the middle not unlike Atlantis rising briefly
from the sea before sinking back into the depths.
- Peace & Quiet -
my most recent release has relaxing and peaceful
tracks selected from all the albums creating
a superb collection of the most accessible pieces
all together on two separately themed music
CDs - 'peace' and 'quiet'. More often than not
my albums take you on a dynamic and provocative
journey but many novices enjoy something more
conventional. It works wonderfully as a support
for any healing and transforming process.
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Beyond my own work I also
distribute a Tibetan monk named Lama Trijam. Even
though I did not perform these titles I worked
with Lama to record them in my studio. Unfortunately
he died some years ago and so I promote his work
as part of my catalogue. These two Pujas contain
the ancient energy of the healing Tibetan scriptures
and this energy is carried on the sacred chants
embedded into the 'intonements' and ritual. I
also still believe that this is the only time
anywhere in the world that a single Lama has performed
these Pujas on his own, chanting all the parts
and playing all the instruments at different times
in a multi-track recording. It is quite unique.
Beautifully recorded.
- The Mahakala Puja
- Lama Trijam uses combinations of instruments
including Thighbone Trumpets, cymbals, bells,
drums and finger snaps. Along with sacred words
the Tibetans use it to unlock the energies in
various different parts of the body and consciousness.
- The Nundro Puja
- is a basic Puja for beginners. These chants
can be learned or just absorbed. The idea is
to understand and practice chanting these Pujas
that in turn affects your consciousness as well
as your physical form, but this can take many
lifetimes of learning and here we can at least
partake of the purely energetic impact of the
sacred text just by listening.
Visionary Journeys - 14 CD catalogue
- The Great Great Silence 1983 (Visualisation
double CD)
- Once Around The Sun 1984
The Mystic Pathways series
(3 visualisation double CDs)
- 1) The Kabbalah / The
Zodiac 1985
- 2) The Major Arcana of the Tarot 1985
- 3) The Egyptian Book of the Dead / Kundalini
Yoga 1985
- Visions Of Paradise 1986
- The Radiant Self 1987 (Visualisation double
CD)
- Infinity 1988
- Shaman Journey 1988
- Tales From Atlantis 1989
- Crystal Light Awakening 1989 (Visualisation
double CD)
- The Threshold 1992
- Deep Space 1995
- Peace & Quiet 2002 (Double music CD)
- Visionary Journeys (iTunes sampler) 2006
Catalogue also includes
sacred works by the late Tibetan monk Lama Trijam:
- The Mahakala Puja 1990
- The Nundro Puja 1990
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Where is your work available on the internet?
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www.japetus.com.au
+ iTunes + www.lamatrijam.com
+ www.lottelandl.com
+ www.paulsmyth.com
My main website
has almost 80 pages of information and photos
and music. The Albums page has lots of different
audio samples. Of course now there is the fantastic
facility of having all 14 albums available for
listening and download on iTunes in 22 countries
world wide. I also promote other artists through
the Japetus label including Lama Trijam (www.lamatrijam.com)
who does traditional authentic Tibetan Buddhist
chanting Pujas, Lotte Landl (www.lottelandl.com)
who performs beautiful Austrian Zither music,
and Paul Smyth (www.paulsmyth.com)
with his award winning first single Love Conquers
All. All of those artists are available on iTunes
world wide.
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What are your spiritual and consciousness interests?
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I became interested in
esoteric matters in my early 20s when I was introduced
to a psychic in Sydney - Ari Powell - who was
running inner awareness classes. Ari taught me
about auras, meditation, chakras, spirit guides,
telepathy and healing plus communication with
people, guides and extra-terrestrial forces. He
instructed me on the use of music as a vibrational
tool along with colour and energy, all combining
creatively as elements of the healing and transforming
process.
Over many years I practiced
and perfected the various esoteric arts integrating
this new inspirational knowledge with each successive
album. At that time I began reading the books
of Silver Birch who was a discarnate being acting
as a spirit guide and was channelled in through
medium Maurice Barbanell for some 61 years. Maurice
passed in to the life beyond in 1981, interestingly
about the same time I took off into spiritually
guided soundspaces. Silver Birch was one of the
greatest communicants from Spirit of the 20th
century.
Then I discovered the teachings
of The Ageless Wisdom as channelled through Alice
A. Bailey in the first half of the 20th century.
I had been doing my own spontaneous drawings of
consciousness in order to map out my own journeys
in sound and imagery and I was amazed to find
that my drawings fitted in almost seamlessly with
the basic Bailey writings. My drawings even helped
her writings make sense.
This only made me more determined
that I was on the right path with my music and
led me to create my major work album The Radiant
Self - a complex progressive inner journey that
moved up through different levels of consciousness.
This album was sketched out symbolically 30 seconds
at a time for the entire length before I even
entered the studio and it was crafted as an entire
hour-long journey to take you in through to your
inner radiant core (seen as an island with an
active volcano) where five sacred realisations
were then revealed.
The work I did some years earlier
with Nevill Drury also laid the foundation for
this, working as we did using the 5 elements to
unlock ancient mystical traditions as modern tools
for meditation. Having to study and then interpret
the Egyptian Book of the Dead into a 25 min piece
of music was an incredible challenge especially
for someone like me with no formal musical training,
relying primarily on my talents as a synthesist
and a producer to get me through.
I then went on to work with
Nevill Drury on Shaman Journey and because I was
originally a drummer I was able to interpret his
drumming to create a second piece that sounded
like a whole mystical shamanic gathering. A few
years after Nevill I was approached by Vincent
Selleck to produce an album that was part of the
Australian contribution to the Harmonic Convergence
in 1987. We created Crystal Light Awakening with
a discourse by Vincent about the galactic transformation
being triggered through Earth's crystal network.
All very cosmic. It also contained a Quan Yin
energy visualisation and some interesting new
age and world music blends.
Along the way I had the pleasure
of being part of a unique event in recording and
in sacred teachings with the recording of a Tibetan
monk named Lama Trijam. We managed to convince
Lama to record two full chanting Pujas and we
multi-tracked him doing all the parts and all
the instruments, which I still believe is the
only time this has been done. Working so closely
with Lama Trijam was an incredible experience.
http://www.lamatrijam.com
While creating all this
music I filled over 100 exercise books with writings
that I call semi-automatic, as it seems such a
cliche. They served as the background and basis
for most of the music, the covers and the visualisations
and I will be releasing them at a later stage.
It is my hope that all the albums in the Visionary
Journeys catalogue can open a portal, a doorway
to experience higher levels of consciousness.
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What makes the Visionary Journeys catalogue
so unique?
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When I first started creating
these soundspaces in 1983 I didn't really know
what I was doing nor did I really think there
was anything really unique about them. I had grown
up listening to Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream
as well as being addicted to the movie 2001: A
Space Odyssey, which were certainly all influences
on the epic nature of my albums, as long and profound
journeys. When I was producing the albums through
the 80s and 90s I listened to almost no other
music in my genre and was much more interested
in the Pop music scene.
It wasn't until the mid 90s
that I actually heard what other so-called new
age musicians were producing and I was quite surprised.
It was really when I started being reviewed and
compared to other artists as "different"
and "unique" (see Reviews and Testimonials
below) that I actually listened to what had been
produced by other composers at that time. Much
of it was very uninspired tinkling with no real
dimensionality or over-melodic and over-structured
pieces played at a slower pace. Some was ambient
Jazz and nearly all of it consisted of conventional
sounding instruments played in convention patterns
of melody with conventional structures of rhythm.
There were no other albums as
expansive as mine, able to capture long complex
journeys like The Radiant Self using sounds that
were specially synthesised and multi-layered,
strangely other-worldly, without being weird and
electronic. The fact that I had no musical training
at all and had just stumbled onto most of it by
my own inspired prompting also played a large
part in its uniqueness. Fortunately, my talents
as an audio engineer, as a music producer and
as a synthesist held these ethereal channelled
ideas together long enough for me to capture them
in sound.
I am almost unable to play keyboards
in my 'normal' state and keyboards is not really
my instrument of choice. I am much better on guitar
and drums in comparison so the whole process was
often confusing and painstaking for me as well,
spending months and months in the studio creating
an album minute by minute, layer by layer. I still
listen back to most of my albums with little idea
of how they were created or what was played and
I am certainly incapable of reproducing them accurately
again in a live performance situation. Since I
was guided 7 years ago to complete and promote
the work on the internet and CD, so far I have
not even touched a music keyboard! Instead I have
replaced the music keyboard with the computer
keyboard.
Over the coming years I will
continue to develop the Visionary Journeys catalogue
with more spoken stories, DVDs and songs coming
soon.
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Feedback
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Awards
NCEIA - North Coast Dolphin
Awards
(North Coast Entertainment Industry Association)
Winner Best Ambient / New Age track 2000
Winner Best Environmental / Message song 2000
Winner Best Promotional Artwork poster 2000
Winner Best Folk song 2002
Nominated Best Adult Contemporary song 2001
Nominated Best Promotional artwork 2003
Nominated Best New Age track 2003 (2 nominations
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Testimonials
SIR ARTHUR C. CLARKE -
Sri Lanka
"I have played your music, some pieces several
times, and much enjoyed them. Most intriguing!"
ED LANTZ (US) - The Harmony
Channel cable TV:
"What an awesome and amazing collection of
music! Very eclectic. We look forward to reviewing
every piece and selecting cuts for future productions."
DENISE LINN (US) - Healer and
writer:
"The music of Japetus literally carries me
beyond time and space. The haunting melodies convey
such beautiful images. I use this music in my
seminars with excellent results."
NEVILL DRURY (Australia) - Editor
and writer:
"Japetus stands out as one of Australia's
most adventurous synthesiser musicians, and he
has ventured into unfamiliar areas where few others
have dared to go. The Radiant Self is intended
as a musical journey of self-exploration and makes
few concessions to the blandness which characterises
much New Age Music."
The NATIONAL FEDERATION
OF HEALERS Inc., Australia:
The music of Japetus is exclusively used and recommended
by this well respected spiritual healing organisation.
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Reviews
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ART OF HEALING magazine
"Peace & Quiet is the perfect music for
your guided meditation. Japetus has taken the
best music from a 20 year career and remixed it
to create a deliciously relaxing flow of tranquility.
Every track oozes peace and quiet. There are two
CDs in the set - the first 'Peace' has the moving
and relaxed tracks, whilst the second CD 'Quiet'
has the still and relaxed pieces. If you like
background music that sets the true tone of tranquillity,
then this double CD is a must-have for massage,
studying, driving cars and meditations."
LISTEN.COM - internet MP3 reviewer:
"Japetus draws you into his soft, ethereal
works without overindulging in bombastic melodies...
the common pitfall of new age composers. Cascading
harps and ambient synthesisers slip through your
pores."
BYRON SHIRE ECHO newspaper
"Peace & Quiet is the kind of music which
should be listened to when you are naked, lying
on a table covered in oil, being worked on by
your masseuse. This is the perfect soundtrack
for breathing and getting in touch with that deep
quiet within, perhaps a spot of yoga... a perfect
accompaniment to those extended tantra sessions...
it's like having your psyche teased with a feather..."
NEXUS MAGAZINE
"Deep Space is a collage of cosmic moods
that wash through you, taking the soul on a trip
through the universal mind. Starlite - winner
of a 2000 Dolphin Music Award and Celestial Ocean
which ebbs and flows into the soul. Deep Space
is a broad sweep, taking you on an extra-human
journey, not unlike Kubrick's 2001. Very powerful
and profound music."
THE CRYSTAL VISIONARY magazine
"Australian artist Japetus is well known
to listeners of meditation music. His past recordings
are all adventurous works being applauded in the
press as belonging alongside popular overseas
artists. Visions Of Paradise was inspired by and
composed for International Year Of Peace. This
music is superbly suited to meditation and transcendental
states of consciousness. A fine example of New
Age music at its best!"
SOUTHERN CROSSINGS magazine
"Of all the releases by Japetus, I find Visions
Of Paradise the most accessible, but also the
hardest to describe. It is music unto itself,
an emotional feeling, a cosmic mood. As with places
we may journey to, we feel we have been there
before - deja vu. If that feeling could be translated
into music, you would have Visions Of Paradise.
Composed, arranged, produced and performed by
Japetus, an Australian master musician... this
is deep soul music."
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/japetus2
