by Greg M | Aug 22, 2023 | Uncategorized
I’m delighted to announce a new release, Fragments in the Maze, my second duo with Chris Russell. Five years in the making, our second album as a team is my first album not to be self-released. I’m thrilled to become a part of the venerable earthMANTRA...
by Greg M | Dec 27, 2022 | News, The Creative Life, Working That Studio
After a two-year frenzy of composition and recording activity, the dominant theme of 2022 was resting and recharging. As mentioned in my blog Tibetan Return: Melencholia and Comfort Music, I somehow or other got burned out, and needed a break. It ended up lasting six...
by Greg M | Apr 20, 2022 | Adventures in Living
Finally! After over eight years, I was able to return to a favorite old relaxing ground, the Tibetan-Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, near Bloomington, Indiana. My prior visit was the last week of October 2013. An exquisite laziness prevailed, the priority being to...
by Greg M | Jan 26, 2022 | Adventures in Living, News, The Creative Life, Working That Studio
Finalizing the 12-String part for Vision Opening just before recording, Jan. 15/22. Photo by Daci. 2021 continued the strong momentum in composition from 2020, but with much more time for recording. That’s because Carving in Shadows, the vision-quest album in...
by Greg M | Dec 31, 2021 | Uncategorized
(Photo (c) 2021 by Jennifer New. Used with permission; all rights reserved.) Some album projects rise up spontaneously and fructify quickly from a fully-formed idea, without any warning. Divinations, We Once Were Lost and Personal Bhajan all happened that way. So it...
by Greg M | Feb 12, 2021 | The Creative Life, Working That Studio
Sandcat Lullaby A few years ago, my wife Daci and I heard a nice piece performed by the Chicago Symphony: In the South (Alassio), a concert overture by Sir Edward Elgar. Writing on vacation in Italy, Elgar made use of a Neapolitan folk song in a delightful episode led...
by Greg M | Dec 30, 2020 | Adventures in Living, News, Releases, The Creative Life, Working That Studio
The COVID-19 pandemic alone was enough to make 2020 a hellish year for so many of us. So many thousands of loved ones have been lost. Our cultures have lost so many musical heroes (whether to the virus or otherwise): Neil Peart, Lyle Mays, Joseph Shabalala, Eddie van...
by Greg M | Aug 30, 2020 | Airplay
The weekly, two-hour radio/streaming program Galactic Travels, hosted by fellow musician Bill Fox, has played my music all the way along. GT has the coolest artist feature that I know of: each month, the show features an artist and plays an entire album during each...
by Greg M | Jul 25, 2020 | Releases, The Creative Life, Working That Studio
I am delighted to announce the upcoming release of a new EP, Sea of Fertility, featuring my singer friend Chako of Jack or Jive. To be released on Aug. 6, the EP consists of one piece, the 20-minute title track. My parts were recorded in one day in August 2015, with a...
by Greg M | Jul 22, 2020 | Adventures in Living, The Creative Life
For our fourth Boundary Waters trip, we decided to base-camp on a lake with several others close by and easily reached by portage, to give us lots of day-trip options. As it turned out, our “home” lake was such a puzzle that warnings about even experienced map-readers...