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REVIEWS of this album
Japetus
The Mystic Pathways Series  
The Kabbalah/Zodiac -  The Tarot - The Egyptian Book of the Dead/Kundalini Yoga
Nature & Health magazine by Nevill Drury

It's not very often that a writer has an opportunity to work with a musician creating a specific range of compositions, but since I have just been involved in a collaboration of this sort, I thought I would describe it here.

Two years ago, I was commissioned by German book publisher Bauer-Verlag to write an overview of New Age music that also had a practical orientation. The idea was to select recorded music that could be used as an adjunct to meditation and visualisations. I'm personally very interested in the esoteric traditions like the Kabbalah, Tarot, Yoga and the rebirth aspects of The Egyptian Book of the Dead. Each of these provide a framework for personal development and open pathways to the spiritual dimensions of the mind. I worked on the book for a year, condensing the main symbolic themes of the different mystical paths and endeavouring to present the material in a way that was authentic but accessible. After all, cosmology and mysticism can get a little abstruse at times. Anyhow, my German publisher was pleased with the book and the workshop exercises, and also with the New Age music listings included in it, but he made a good suggestion why not have a series of accompanying cassettes created specially for the workshops?

This is where Australian New Age composer Japetus came into the story. Readers (and listeners) will know of Japetus as a result of his fine recordings The Great Great Silence and Once Around the Sun. I suggested Japetus to the German publisher and as a result we were commissioned to develop a series of albums based on the esoteric traditions mentioned earlier. These have now been released as Music for Inner Space, in Germany, Britain, USA and Australia, and the book issued in an English language edition.

It certainly wasn't easy for Japetus to translate into synthesiser music the archetypes of the Major Arcana of the Tarot or the sun-god's passage through the dark halls of the Egyptian Underworld. But he has done it brilliantly. There are also soaring sequences of music for the ascent of consciousness in the Kabbalah and compositions based on the cyclic symbolism of the Zodiac. Japetus also wrote a fine composition to assist in the arousal of Kundalini through the different chakras.

In writing the book. I took a different approach from musician Steven Halpern, who is well known for his ambient piano compositions. In developing his music, Halpern divides the chakras into bands of rainbow colours - which sounds appealing at first, but is a departure from authentic Hindu tradition. What I did in Music for Inner Space, and what Japetus has done in the accompanying music, is to focus on the five elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Spirit - since these are universals in the different esoteric traditions. It also makes sense when you describe passages as 'water' music or 'fire' music most people can relate to that type of distinction. With this in mind, there are listings in the book of different New Age album tracks. 'Earth' listings include selections from Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, the 'Water' selections include several tracks from Robert Fripp, Edgar Froese and Jade Warrior, 'Fire' includes Laraaji, and 'Space', recordings by Brian Eno, Ash Ra and Geoffrey Chandler.

Overall, developing Music for Inner Space was a fascinating exercise. For myself, I am delighted that a musician like Japetus could be published in Germany (and now in England and USA also) as well as in his native Australia. There is no reason at all why good New Age music shouldn't be international in appeal.

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THE MYSTIC PATHWAYS SERIES in association with Nevill Drury
3 x Double CD packages

This three album series was originally commissioned for the written visualisationss in the the book Music For Inner Space by Nevill Drury for release in Europe. The Series serves as a multifaceted path through the worlds of illusion, glamour and maya, initiating the listener onto various pathways to higher realms.

Using the 5 elements as signposts, each of the 5 traditions provide a different perspective up the Magic Mountain. Because these albums contain such diverse, vibrant and dynamic material (two of these titles have two different traditions in each title), there are twice as many audio samples for the Kabbalah/Zodiac and Egyptian/Kundalini. (The Kundalini process is actually used in universities as part of the Sociology and Anthropology degree courses.)

Learn more about how the visualisations work as a two album package

The Egyptian Book Of The Dead / Kundalini Yoga is the third album in The Mystic Pathways series. This series is a collection of ancient traditions brought into a modern setting as a meditation tool based on the five elements - Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Spirit.

The Egyptian Book Of The Dead opens with preparation in the pyramid being wrapped in bandages before undertaking a journey into the underworld and finally being reborn as a sky god. The second part Kundalini Yoga orgasmically explodes from the base chakra up to the crown where Shakti and Shiva are joined in a celestial marriage.

The Mystic Pathways series is as diverse and colourful as the elements themselves and each tradition offers a well trodden insight into these ancient practices. With the music and the spoken visualisations there is a complete package for exploring and transforming consciousness.

Double album - Album 1: music with spoken visualisations plus Album 2: music only.

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