How better to understand primal emotions than to experience them through the eyes, heart and mind of a child? Innocence untarnished - there is no way to assuage the pain through denial, nor is there any restraint in enjoying the visceral sights and pleasures of the imagination.

I'm undertaking the effort to write from the perspective of a child - one who is sleeping and letting the imagination run wild in fantastic and horrifying scenes in their dreams. The joy of entering a colorful world full of childhood temptations without parental supervision, the pain of loss & grief of those close, fear of the unknown that exists in the dark, untarnished love and all that it brings with it.

The album is formed around two intertwining long format compositions split into three movements each. The first of the two opens the album as the dreamer descends into REM sleep, and the second provides the context for the dreaming with the musical and topical themes being formed and melds it into a journey from dusk until dawn within the inner eye of the child.

The final work in a trilogy of albums that go from reflective and dwelling on the upper level feelings and desires for power and insight, through desolation and depression leading to end of life, and now love/hate/fear/joy/sadness/confusion as seen from the perspective of an innocent.

UPDATE Dec 26, 2019: This project is definitely growing wings, as new tracks supersede really raw demos and the track order is beginning to take shape. True to what I said would happen when I started this a few years ago, there is less room for vocals on this project, but where vocals will exist there will be a lot more "playfulness" in trying out many different things with them - Beach Boys type harmonies, changing vocal tone during singing to emulate Bowie'isms and expressivity, I'm also very much looking to redo some guitar tracks to get sound quality to an absolute premium - I've been learning a lot more about the Kemper and using S/PDIF with my UAudio Apollo x6 and wow what a difference!

For you, the supporter/patron - if you preorder today you'll get all the piece here as a digital download in full WAV quality. Then every time I make changes or updates to the file you will get those updates, essentially being a part of the production process as a third party QA person who can then yell at me if you don't like the change or make suggestions, or just enjoy. Once the album / project is complete - you'll get both the full mix/mastered file in running order with all crossfades and sampled audio that post production injects, PLUS the all instrumental version of the album for those nights where you have guests and you want to put it on and perform karaoke for them.

This I think is kind of a big deal - I've been very honored and pleased to have the participation of the following people in recording this project - Thomas Lang (Paul Gilbert, John Wetton, Robert Fripp, Peter Gabriel), Andy Edwards (Frost*, IQ, Neo, Kiama), John Jowett (IQ, Jadis, Frost*, Arena, Ark), Jimmy Keegan (Carlos Santana, Pattern Seeking Animals, Spock's Beard, 3.2), Todd Sucherman (Styx, Brian Wilson, Spinal Tap), Jeffrey McCormack (TKO, FireWolfe), and Marc Miller (Toy Matinee, Mister Mister, Oscar Peterson Band). This list of people is amazing to me - reinforces that this project has value to me personally and potentially to others as well.

I am really really excited about this project - it has some of the best material I've ever written to date on it, and those who have heard it and given feedback have said such nice constructive things that I have tears in my eyes when reading it. There is enough other material in the hopper still that I could decide to make this a double album, or more likely a follow up new release to the end of this year or early 2021.

Thanks for your support!!!

Update Jan 4, 2020:
I believe I will be taking a slightly different approach to releasing this set of material. The album has enough material right now for a double CD release, so I'm considering releasing this in two parts.
Part 1 - To Sleep...
Part 2 - ...perchance to dream

This digital download wont change - it will still be one purchase and one download, with all the promises of updates as detailed in the last note. As a physical product, it will be split into two CDs with the option to purchase both together as a single package. The end product will likely exceed 80 minutes at this point so 2 CDs of ~40 minutes each will look very much like a classic double album of the past. This helps me to write what I want without the restriction of the physical medium limitation - and you as the patron can decide to buy one, the other or both. Digital downloads will still have the entire project.