I am excited to announce, that one of my ancient Roman-themed lyre tracks is to feature in a scene in one of the episodes of a new global television series out in July - starring Anthony Hopkins!
Starring Anthony Hopkins as Emperor Vespasian, the series “Those About to Die” is set in the world of gladiatorial competition, following an ensemble of characters from all parts of Roman society who collide in the arena.
The dreamy mood Damon McMahon manages to conjure with his music serendipidously matches my own solo lyre recording projects - never having even heard of Amen Dunes here in the UK, I have since fallen in love with the wonderfully experimental, fuzzy textures he uses as a the background layers to his songs, many of which which all feature beautifully elegant melodic lines & many of which are also modal in character.
As far I so far know, the clip of my lyre music will come at the tail end or last song of this album of original songs by Damon McMahon, who releases contemporary music under Amen Dunes. No matter how brief the loop of my lyre music in whatever specific track it eventually features on Damon's new album, this amazing cross-over of musical genres is the first real small step I have come in attaining my dream, of making the lyre 'mainstream'!
Now available from all major digital music platforms, I am delighted to announce the release today of my antidote to the chaos of the modern world."Musica Lyra" - an ancient Roman-themed album inspired by themes from stoic philosophy. Here is Spotify album link:
The album explores through music, the turbulent emotions of unresolved desires, grief, regrets, longings & sorrows which can cloud the positivity of life, which though endurance of the human spirit & the focus of stoic meditation, can be overcome, until the ultimate stoic ideal of “Amor Fati” - developing a love of fate, no matter what obstacles we may encounter during the brief enigma of our conscious experience of life.
As I have no record company, I literally soley rely on the support of my much valued listeners in order to ‘get my music out there’ to new sets of potentially receptive ears - if any of you are able to kindly share news of the album's release across social media & include tracks in new Spotify playlists & post album reviews on platforms such as iTunes or Amazon, this would be greatly appreciated!
I am pleased to announce that a selection of my music from my 2020 album, “Echoes of Ancient Mesopotamia & Canaan” have been featured as the soundscape to an exhibition currently on at the Israel Museum of Jerusalem, entitled “The Feast” .
The exhibition explores banquets, feasts, and food in the Ancient Near East in the 4th-1st millennium BCE, presenting them as the ideal setting for the negotiation of ideologies, and as a symbol of political and social status. The exhibition is on display between May 12th 2023 - December 31th 2023.
In particular, I was delighted to learn that my music will be being played in the very same gallery which displays the iconic Megiddo Ivory - a depiction of a Canaanite-style lyre from Megiddo, which is about as close as we can get to an idea of what the actual lyre of King David might have actually looked like:
The concert and talk was in short, an evocation of the music of the ancient Biblical Temple lyres of the Levites and the lyre of King David, performed on modern recreations of the 10-string Biblical Kinnor and an actual replica of a Canaanite-style lyre discovered in Egypt - enjoy!
Almost as if Apollo himself approved of this collaboration, by pure serendipity, for my live lyre concert at the British Museum back in January 2023, I was astounded to learn that I would be performing in the very next gallery to where the original Greco-Roman sculpture of Apollo with Kithara, which Koons based his new sculpture on, was actually located!
The exhibition, "Machine Room of the Gods: How our Future was Invented", will be on view from 8th March - 10th September 2023:
My ancient Greek-themed lyre music is now the soundscape to an exhibition at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts!
The exhibition, "Making Past Present" features the work of Cy Twombly, a painter and sculpture who found much inspiration in the philosophy and relics of the ancient Greeks:
For the first since 2013 and for the first time I have had any official live performances since the restrictions of the pandemic, on 23rd January 2023, my live lyre music will once again be the soundscape to a British Museum Member's Evening:
The event is exclusively for British Museum Members - quite possibly the perfect potentially interested new target audience for my musical mission, to continue where the ancients "left off"!
I will be providing a Greco-Roman, Mesopotamian & Ancient Egyptian-themed soundscape and will be performing near the Greek Galleries, between the following times:
I am amazed to finally be able to publicly announce my collaboration with the iconic American contemporary artist, Jeff Koons!
My music for recreating ancient Greek kithara is now the main soundscape of Jeff Koon's new animatronic sculpture, "Apollo Kithara" (2019 - 2022) on display inside Jeff's magnificent recreation of a Temple of Apollo, on the Greek Island of Hydra. The exhibition is at the DESTE Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, which is a free contemporary art space open to the public on the island, from 21.6.2022 to 31.10.2022:
Jeff is featuring 20 tracks of my recordings of the recreated ancient Greek kithara - the lyre of the professional musicians of classical antiquity, associated in ancient Greece with the god Apollo. He wanted to play my music in the exhibition space as a way to celebrate Apollo (god of music, Olympian god of the sun & light) and the history of the Mediterranean.
According to Jeff's agent, Jeff wanted to incorporate my music as follows:
"With the recordings of your ancient kithara music, Jeff would like to overlay at times acapella recordings of contemporary singers, such as, David Bowie, Robert Plant, Lady Gaga, Lil Uzi Vert, and others. For Jeff, mixing the ancient sounds of the kithara with the acapella vocals of contemporary singers will be exhilarating and play with aspects of time, which will also be visually evident in the exhibition. Jeff seeks and desires a sensual quality to the experience of the exhibition and believes the music will amplify this connection to the past, present, and future."
I am pleased to announce the publication on YouTube, of my interview with the World History Encyclopedia - the most detailed discussion on my musical mission to date!
The interview features demonstrations of almost all my recreated ancient lyres, all the background about my musical inspiration, with detailed discussion on topics ranging from the myth of monophony in ancient music, ancient tuning systems derived from Pythagorean numerical cosmology, how ancient lyre playing techniques can be inferred from ancient classical texts & from how lyres are still being played throughout the continent of Africa today: