Information/Write-up
THE CLOSING OF THE 4th CYCLE – Revelation Rock – Eco Armageddon
Some of my favorite albums have been thematic concept albums, so while considering doing Closing of the 4th cycle I listened to Marvin Gaye’s What’s going on, An American Prayer by The Doors, Contact From The Underworld of Redboy by Robbie Robertson and The Past didn’t go anywhere by Utah Phillips and Ani DiFranco for inspiration.
As an artist I have enjoyed the process of exploring a given theme by reading up on the history of the particular subject and then translating all that information into a series of works. As a painter, photographer and filmmaker this has been my process and therefore on this music/spoken word project I decided to apply the same process. Trying to break with convention I did not want to approach it like other albums so I wrote a series of spoken word pieces and songs and then collaged them together. I then illustrated each song to project during for the performances.
The inspiration for the Closing of the 4th cycle initially came from several books, Frank Water’s The Hopi, Thomas Email’s The Hopi Survival Kit, There is a River (the story of Eagar Cayce) by Thomas Surgue, the ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, and many of Joseph Campbell’s works on mythology.
I must also credit another experiential source and late friend James Nicholas who has since passed on. I began this album after James invited me to a Plain’s Cree sweat lodge, which is a traditional healing and or cleansing ceremony practiced by these First Nations people. I felt that the experience was a great privilege and necessary point of departure to write such an album which is a commentary on the state of the planet and our human condition. After that experience I felt compelled by a calm joy and musical outrage to write about what I saw in the sweat lodge and around me on a day to day basis, perhaps like Marvin Gaye I was asking “What’s going on?” quite literally. I feel this point in history begs the question, “are we really doing the best we can with the planet and as a human race?” I fully understand that democracy is young pupil and a work in progress yet I believe that a shift is needed, and often it is the artists, shamans, great humanists and activists that set things in motion. I am honoured and humbled to be a small part of this shift in thinking and awareness. I credit all of the great teachers and positive influences I had around me that enabled me to get this far.
So this has been a fantastic enquiry and enlightening journey that I wish to share with you the reader and listener. It is with joy and hope that I as vessel give you this work, encouraging all to explore the great mysteries of the Spiritual Ark and celebrate life as it is joy and light that will help put all back into balance before the earth changes bring us into darkness.
G. Scott MacLeod
Montreal, Canada - April 2006
This album is dedicated to the Hopi, keepers of prophecy and the late mountaineer, conservationist, and wilderness educator John Clarke, the Irish-Canadian who taught me how to exercise restraint and the late James Nicholas who introduced me to ‘the way’.
‘’Together with all nations we protect both land & life, and hold the world in balance.’’
MacLeod Nine Productions release 2006 iTunes - CD 2008 Copywrite – © SOCAN
This album is available on Apple iTunes and http://cdbaby.com/cd/macleod9
Contact : MacLeod Nine Productions
Macleod_nine@hotmail.com
(514) 989-9995
www.myspace.com/macleod9
Production team and musicians :
I must give a special thank you to Andrew Middleton at Feeder Studio for giving me the opportunity to work and record with him on all his great vintage analogue gear on the Vancouver East Side. Also to all the great musicians I worked with, percussionist Jeff Brancato principal timpanist with Winnipeg Symphony; who has performed with the National Ballet of Canada, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra http://www.vam.bc.ca/pages/bios.htm, on electric guitar Murray Atkinson from the Murray Atkinson Band http://profile.myspace.com/murrayatkinson, on bass Karl Willems, on fiddle Shannon Saunders from The Paperboys & Sahnnon Sanuders & The Splinters http://www.thesplinters.com/home.html and finally background vocals Kat Brown. They all brought unique and essential skills and creativity to the project. Finally Jamie Hebert for finding the time and space in his single father life to mix and master the album.
The Hopi Prophecy: http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/prophecy/hopi1.html
The title Closing of the 4th cycle comes from the Hopi, it is believed that they are the keepers of prophecy and they have ancient wisdom in their tablets (Tiponi) which prophesize the end of this world (presently the 4th cycle) and a vision of the next world we are soon to enter (the 5th cycle). According to them the earth has been whipped clean 3 times already. First by fire, next by ice, most recently by the flood... approximately 11,000-12,000 years ago. Some believe that the actual date of the flood occured on June 5, 8498 BC. According to the Hopis we are about to enter "The Fifth Age", which they call "The World of Illumination".
According to Hopi belief, the survivors of the Great Deluge (similarly to the Epic of Gilgamesh) thousands of years ago split up into four groups that moved north, south, east and west. Only one group completed their journey -- to the North Pole and back -- under the guidance of a brilliant "star" in which the Great Spirit Maasau traveled. When he landed, he drew a petroglyph on Second Mesa, showing a maiden (with the traditional "butterfly" hair arrangement) riding in a wingless, dome-shaped craft. The petroglyph signified the coming Day of Purification when the true Hopi will fly to other planets in "ships without wings."
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