I Am Free

This relaxing CD is centered around the idea of peace and the title track, Give Us Peace, is from the Latin, Dona Nobis Pacem which is many hundreds of years old, it is a tune that originated from the Latin Mass and it is a liturgical canon taken from the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God).

For the title tracks, Christopher J has plays the ukulele (which the Beatles George Harrison loved) in the Give Us Peace duets. It is a wonderful, sweet and unassuming instrument. The idea for doing this song and CD took root as a counter response to all of the NON-peace that the world seems to be filled with these days. And therefore, it is a simple, spacious melody given to the world which is so often busy, distracted and full of disagreement, disharmony, fighting and war. Christopher J also thought the idea of a ukulele playing together with a cello served as an excellent allegory to the dream of two opposite people, nations, cultures or religions living in peace and harmony together. This arrangement of this is based upon the one provided by Mr. Ken Middleton (www.kenmiddleton.co.uk). Mixing assistance was provided by Mr. Michael Powers (www.michaelpowersmusic.com).

The Sunflower Waltz was originally named “A Guitar Waltz”, but Christopher J decided to change the title to “The Sunflower Waltz” since there were such beautiful sunflowers growing in the garden and so he decided to dedicate this song to the Sunflower. This song is a waltz composed by Spanish guitarist, Dionisio Aguado y García from Opus 7.

I Am Free/Running to Be Free:

While Christopher J was studying MIT’s “Open Courseware” Introduction to Music Composition course and after reading John Cage, "Experimental Music" and listening to some of James Tenny’s works, from the album,"Postal Pieces", he was inspired to work on some new music in an entirely different way from what he had in the past, which consisted of lyric writing and working things out on an acoustic guitar. One of the class assignments for the MIT course consisted of the following. ;

"Choose one day (24 hours) between now and the next class. During this time, you should not intentionally initiate any sound producing event that involves music in some way. This means, no iPods, no CDs, no iTunes, no TV, no video games, etc. Please set your cell phone ringers to something generic. In other words, do not initiate passive music consumption."

Afterwards, Christopher J created most of "I Am Free" on the iPad (that was after the MIT assignment above was complete!). It is essentially an exploration of a C major chord arpeggiated in various ways and on various instruments including a Chinese ciao flute, a Steinway grand piano, a synth pad called “Deep Meditation” and an orchestral bass section. Running to Be Free is a variation of I Am Free with some added instrumentation.

These pieces have no other purpose than to explore different sounds and free you from your tension and stress, and help you let go and become free. So, sit back, relax and “Let go and let God”.

Christopher J hopes you feel peace after listening to this CD.