Somniferious – Creating a fantasy dream world
Somniferious: Part 1 and Somniferious: Part 2 – Innovative Music CD Project featuring Original Music, Cover Art, Medieval Byzantine Chant Melodies and Arrangements for Acoustic Violin, Voice, and Electronic Sounds
What do you get when you combine medieval Byzantine chant, a violin, wild imagination, a dream state, innovative sound engineering, and the unlikely creative collaboration between a concert violinist, Grammy nominated composer and arranger, and a world-class digital artist photographer? A photo-musical creation called Somniferious.
The idea for this album came to John in 2007 and took seven years before culminating in a two-part CD collection. John met Justin Lassen, who, with his creative vision and artistic mastery, took the idea and transformed it, propelling it upward to an entirely different level. Along the way, Justin and John connected with the brilliant digital artist photographer, Renee Robyn, who added to an essential visual element to the project with her mysterious, evocative cover art.
At its core, the music is based on ancient Byzantine chant. The transportive quality of the melodies, played by the solo acoustic violin, is the musical epicenter. Framed around it is an exquisitely rich, seductive soundscape conceived and designed by Justin. Together these musical offerings take one on a journey through inner space, drawing the listener into strange worlds and other dimensions, to the universe called “Somniferious.”