Ethereal Escapes
Merrill Collins

Liner Notes
By Kabir Sehgal

Ethereal Escapes is the musical sequel to Merrill Collins’ Echappees Etheriques.  Performed by the composer at the piano along with flautist Laura Halladay and cellist Maksim Velichkin, the album connects three stories that Collins wrote in 1987 – a time when her birthday coincided with the Harmonic Convergence, one of the world’s first globally synchronized meditation events, which also closely coincided with an exceptional alignment of the planets (August 16-17, 1987).  This production conveys the utter vastness and beauty of the ether – encompassing at once new age, contemporary, and classical styles, with the Baroque forms of unmeasured preludes and ground bass meeting a contemporary melodic language. 

• The Story of the Conductor of the Music of the Spheres – In the etheric realms beyond the solar system, we are met by the Conductor of the Music of the Spheres.  He tells us of his recollection of his work leading up to the Harmonic Convergence from an intergalactic perspective.  He had been dissatisfied with the tunings of several planets in our solar system, and asked the Intergalactic Council in the Pleiades to issue forward instructions for all of the planets to tune themselves so that the Music of the Spheres would be harmonious once again – with just two years to the Harmonic Convergence, the planets were re-tuned just in time to connect directly with Earth and our life forms.

• The Story of the Fountain of Jewels – Venus took great pride in creating beauty, harmony, and expression of unconditional love, and looked toward the planet Earth and its inhabitants as a lesser place of self-destruction and immersion in lower forms of emotion, including violence.  The Venusian Board of Education developed a training system to eliminate its population’s prejudice toward Earth.  By feeling true empathy toward Earthlings in a meditation ritual, citizens of Venus could turn pebbles into jewels.  These jewels – eventually abundant on the planet Venus – were brought to Master Architects of Light and Sound, who were creating a beautiful fountain for the jewels to be blasted off to Earth during the Harmonic Convergence.  Love prevails. The fountain of jewels activated!, with every heartbeat, flowing directly to love., and triumphant upon arrival! tell this story.

• The Story of the Emerald – When the conductor of the Music of the Spheres called for tuning of the planets, the Earth was cited as needing support because of its ecological crisis.  The beings in the Temple of Balance were commissioned to create a restorative healing emerald to be brought into the etheric core of Earth at the time of the Harmonic Convergence.  They gathered daily to re-energize the vibrational patterns of Earth, creating a magnificent emerald.  Remembering the emerald. (dedicated to Avon Mattison), and we are whole together, tell this story.

In our travels, we are greeted also by our musical ancestors, creating a comprehensive narrative that is equally meditative, spiritual, and melodic. Listening with our ancestors and with our timeless elders both observe a “ground bass” from the Baroque, a harmonic progression inviting instrumentalists to improvise over, at once taking on the practice of Baroque improvisation and bringing a fresh perspective.  In the bigger picture, riding on waves of gold, and our ears tingled take on the form of the Baroque unmetered prelude.   Living in harmonious worlds is a dance piece, originally composed by Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann.

Particles in Space is a work that strives for peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons, which, in war, can easily threaten humanity and planet Earth.  This work is a reminder that we must hold love as our basis of civilization and humanity. It is a beautiful and timeless production.

–Kabir Sehgal
New York Times bestselling author
Multi-GRAMMY & Latin GRAMMY Award winning producer