We are a duo with roots in reggae and rock, one of us from Kingston, Jamaica, one from San Francisco, California. We have been partners a good while: we have a 27-year-old son. We got together in New York City, lived for a year in Strasbourg, France, and now live in San Francisco.
This new CD of ours, Hydrogen Burning, has reggae grooves, rock guitars, and mostly ancient Egyptian themes. The songs are written and sung by Beverly, with Kevin doing most of the arranging and guitar playing.
As the album took shape, so did a rich, multi-threaded myth of future generations of humans reaching back through time to participate in the birth of their intergalactic system of collaborative cultural regeneration. To present just a few key elements of their world, and the system of enchantment they share, we had to include a 32-page booklet with the CD.
Several of our songs keep revisiting key themes that a particular tribe of these chronovision producers (the Helions) are driven to explore:
The struggle of the ancient Egyptian creator god, Atum, to emerge from the primordial waters of Nun by laying a foundation in his/her heart. The Helions believe this is analogous to the struggle of people in our crucial era to lay the foundation for a planetary community that successfully passes through the coming global challenges.
The need to become adept at crossing back and forth at will between the waking world and “the other side” (the Duat, where the Sun goes at night, where we go when we dream, the collective unconscious perhaps). This is how the cultural nutrients are brought back to the community to fertilize the growth required of all who would participate in this great transformation.
The hunger of a protostar to ignite at its core and, at long last, balance the crush of gravity with electromagnetic radiance. This is the master metaphor of the quest of the Helions, a shared obsession that unites them all.
Other songs on the CD celebrate: the deep, strong roots of the oak tree; a wizard in a dream who "plays every part"; the annual return of the Inundation in ancient Egypt, soon after the appearance on the horizon of the dog star, Sirius, when the rising waters of the Nile bring regeneration and relief to the people and to the hard, dry soil.
The 32-page booklet (created entirely by us) introduces key elements of the mission that chronovision producers have begun to wake up to: the upcoming (starting winter solstice, 2012) chronovision production Rotundum 1, the lunar matrix of the Radion Rainbow, the 26-year Regeneration Rotundum, the lunar-solar Spiral Calendar, the very first chronovision quest, the Spiral Tuned Guitar, as well as all of the lyrics.
With the CD you also get two 8.5 x 6 inch cards with the complete Alpha Centauri Channel lunar matrix, and the complete chart of the Regeneration Rotundum.
Here are some images from the first chronovision quest — 8 consecutive sunrises from 8 sites around our city, with simple rituals of water, cloth, verse, and melody, laying down the spiral groove, looking toward the next quinquennium.
Lay down the foundation
Lay down the groove
In your heart, lay it down
Over and over, in your heart
Over and over again, in your heart