Growing out of a search for meaning within life’s mysteries, and his deep love for the guitar, John Gregorius intertwines the physical and spiritual, a combination that seems to flow naturally from one piece to another. What you will hear are instrumentals focusing on the finger-style acoustic guitar and ambient, processed electric guitar. All of the songs heard on his newest album on Spotted Peccary Music, In Awe, were written, produced and mixed by Gregorius himself, who plays guitars, keyboards, percussion and developed the drum programming. Sean O’Bryan Smith plays bass on all songs, Mitch Ross plays drums on three songs, Benjamin Fleury-Steiner created the synth bed for Everyday Miracle, and Kim Daniels contributes her wondr’us ethereal vocals to three tracks.

Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you’re sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment. Practicing mindfulness can involve breathing methods, guided imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress. Appearances are deceiving, and the truth is that no one is just like everyone else. Our goal, therefore, is to learn. In Awe does not impart a story, the music allows for the understanding of what it means to be human, and everything that we are, every single aspect of creation is sacred, a pathway to the heart of God.

In Awe, John Gregorius’ fourth album for Spotted Peccary Music, is a sonic pilgrimage, a moving meditation, an album of both dynamism and peace. These nine compositions blend sweeping ambience, gentle rhythms and sterling guitar work as only John Gregorius can. An album of personal growth and spiritual discovery, In Awe was inspired by long periods of meditation, and the connection that can be found through immersion in the natural world. A sense of wonder permeates this album through its acknowledgment of oneself as a part of something greater.

In Awe finds Gregorius taking his trademark ambient guitar sound in new compositional directions, using more verse, chorus and bridge structures to evoke a journey through the desert or along the shoreline. On the track “Light,” Gregorius’ guitar glimmers like the silver crests of sun-kissed waves. On “Here Now,” a yearning hook recurs like a question left unanswered. Wistful acoustic flourishes entwine and disentwine from the melody at the song’s stunning bridge. And beneath, drums – like footsteps in sand – march toward realization. “Open,” finds a subsumed kick drum emboldening movement, adventure, and exploration. Then – as quickly as it comes – the kick drum subsides. It leaves an aural clearing, like stepping through overgrown branches to find a sunlit meadow: a place to stand still and marvel.

Appearances are deceiving, and no one is just like everyone else. Music is complex, multi-layered, and different for everyone. It does not fit into neat categories. Some musicians are forever longing to make a real impact, which translates to actively helping others or finding a life purpose that aligns with this desire. People tend to have a very limited, stereotyped view of what it means to be spiritual.

John Gregorius has always enjoyed fingerstyle acoustic guitar and ambient, processed electric guitar, and the idea of universal cycles. His music comes to him naturally, growing out of a search for meaning within life’s mysteries. His deep love for the guitar intertwines the physical and spiritual, a combination that seems to flow naturally from one piece to another.

Listening, one might imagine some consciousness of absolute or divine reality hidden behind the natural world and within the music, and sometimes music is such a subjective experience in which at times an individual’s ego transcends their ordinary, finite sense of self to encompass a wider, infinite sense of truth or reality, paradoxically unfolding like a puzzle being fit together.

The human experience can include a love of certain sounds, and the way that music can inspire a sense of deep inner knowing, understanding, remembering, or unveiling of one’s true nature, as well as experiences of peace and equanimity, bliss, ecstasy and aliveness, feelings of awe, sacredness, gratitude and reverence, and of abundant, unconditional love. Music can be the product of creativity informed by faith, allowing an emphasis on feeling, on intuitive insight, on a true essence beyond the world of appearances, to restore light and life to a dwindling world.

Pay attention. It’s hard to wake up to the inner workings of our mental, emotional, and physical processes, to slow down and notice things in a busy world, the need to let the past go so that a person can move forward. You can try to take the time to experience your environment with all of your senses – touch, sound, sight, smell and taste. Imbued with a sense of freedom, the music on In Awe remains unified and cohesive while at the same time not confined to the boundaries of one sound as it moves effortlessly through styles ranging from ambient to melodic to post rock.

“Spirituality has always been central to my purpose and music. In growing spiritually, I’m finding science and spirituality to be symbiotic and more miraculous with every discovery…” Gregorius continues, “I have no need to defend a specific doctrine anymore, but just celebrate that the same Divine Presence has always been here and available to all.”

What you will hear is a lucid and precise, free-flowing and sincere, set of compositions brought to life by the time-honored ensemble of guitar, bass, and drums, all richly augmented by synth ambiences, electronic beats, and ambient guitar atmospheres.

“The title, In Awe, tells a lot about the story of this record. I wanted it to feel like light through trees, an open vista or evening light intertwined with the inner connection to God. Silent prayer and contemplation are valuable to me, yet a walk in nature moves me instantly in conversation with the Loving Creator. So, it’s a moving meditation which simply says, thank you for the beauty around us, and for the deeper purpose we can experience.”

All of the songs heard on In Awe were written, produced and mixed by John Gregorius, who plays guitars, keyboards, percussion and developed the drum programming. Sean O’Bryan Smith plays bass on all songs, Mitch Ross plays drums on three songs, Benjamin Fleury-Steiner created the synth bed for Everyday Miracle, and Kim Daniels contributes her wondrous ethereal vocals to three tracks. Previously Gregorius has released on Spotted Peccary Heaven and Earth (2008), Still Voice (2016), and Full of Life (2020).

“I think every project has its own voice, often connected with personal growth and change, while building on the past. This record feels a bit bigger and to me, hopeful and positive while still creating a peaceful space. I allowed for more standard verse, chorus, bridge structures to give this feeling of moving through the desert or beside the ocean.”

Concerning influences, “A few writers have had great influence on me: Thomas Merton, Henri Nowen, and Richard Rohr. Recently, I recently found an essay by a Native American named Ohiyesa, which speaks about “the miracle of the ordinary.” This writing has been very powerful and speaks so eloquently and simply to this connection with nature and Creator.” Moving through nature and spiritual connection is the biggest influence on this record. “I do think though, some of my love for ‘80s music like the Cocteau Twins and Peter Gabriel snuck in, along with more minimalist classical composers like Arvo Part and Max Richter.”

Gregorius has found the world to be a deeply spiritual place, finding peace in nature and the wilderness. He explains. “The solitude, openness, resilience, mystery and life in spite of the sometimes harsh and difficult landscape, leads one to contemplation of a bigger meaning and understanding our true selves. This meditation of creation and Creator is the unifying color and design of this recording. My hope is that it brings a sense of being awake and alive…”

These melodic instrumentals are each illuminated and uplifting, with an evident deep moral seriousness and an artistry, a creativity informed by faith, which expresses a very conscious and deliberate assumption of religion, implying a spiritual ecstasy in which our mind is suspended and God’s Spirit takes its place. The sound brings simple prayerful contemplation connecting your mind to your breath, patterns established by lucid and precise fingers on strings or keys, confident and moderately paced.

“For most of my projects, including this one, my music starts with a guitar, a looper and reverb. This record I used a few more musicians’ input including Sean O’Bryan Smith on bass, Mitch Ross added live drums on some of the songs, along with the voice of Kim Daniels.”

The opening and title track, “In Awe” (5:28) celebrates the simple and persistent renewal of our minds each morning, with opportunities for mindfulness of all events as they come to one’s consciousness and leaving room for ecstatic visions of the soul’s mystical union with the universe. The mood and tempo is consistently peaceful, the moving patterns progress and breathe at times, sometimes pausing to soar, then returning to the swaying melodic mode.

What is Light? Light is at once both obvious and mysterious, the bright form of electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by the human eye coming from artificial sources or from energy given off by the sun. “Light” (3:55) gives us insight into the truth of the information we receive for ourselves, enlightened by sunshine from outside. From antiquity it has been supposed that the process of human thought needs to be aided, illuminated by divine grace. There is possibly the oldest and most influential alternative to naturalism in the theory of mind and that everything we know is taught to us. The music sways and slowly spins. The melodies weave and build, then pause and fade, then return.

Slowly a guitar. Slowly a glowing atmosphere. Slowly a melody. “Everyday Miracle” (6:03) is as simple as prayerful contemplation. There is a unique electronic layer, floating somewhere within and without the drums and the guitar notes, a trembling edge that lingers just behind the stereo center. The electronics on this track never emerge to take a voice, the synthetic sound blends and supports, it frames the place where the melody glides.

Gregorius further illuminates, “On (the track) “Everyday Miracle,” I had a synth bed sent to me by Benjamin Fleury-Steiner. After years of recording to tape, I finally am getting comfortable with the computer. My last record, Full of Life was the first I’ve done completely this way and I played or programmed everything. This time, along with my musicians, I used piano and string samples, processed and played drum and percussion loops used various new plugins. For guitar, I used mostly my trusty Ovation 1867, a Paul Reed Smith electric. On “Gratefulness” I used a Telecaster. Sometimes I doubled the acoustic and electric. Much of the background ambiences are guitar loops. I did use more piano sounds on this record. Even though I’m now comfortable with the computer, I still try to keep it organic as well, using takes from beginning to end and editing when needed. Throughout the process of layering and making instrument choices, it really comes down to intuition.”

Sometimes we discover a different understanding of how science and religion should interact, or a different way of understanding what it means to be human. We make cloth out of plants. We eat many things. We like to listen, keeping the secrets or mysteries hidden, locked away in the heart or mind, which might imply that everyone winds up in the same place, except some like it and some don’t.

An acoustic guitar being played with fingers, creating cycles that repeat and sustain. There is a message in the sound, I hear a heartbeat rhythm and feel something about discovery. “New” (5:18) makes a blank slate where the listening individual may grasp and discover the mystical heartbeat that is already alive. Promises of new ways of knowing and loving based on states of awareness, always prepared to reinterpret that tradition in meaningful and sometimes surprising ways.

“Here Now” (4:25) reminds one to try to remember to seek moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness. What I hear are interlocking multi-tracked guitars that meet and cycle through a feeling of the infinite. What we go into life really looking for is love, trying to become better. I think that all of us have somewhere in us an instinct to try and become better. Here Now is a good place to start, thinking about one’s own thinking process such as study skills, memory capabilities, and the ability to monitor learning.

Some might think that there is more to life than what can be empirically measured or scientifically observed; I would like to think that the possibilities are wide and allow access, passage, or a view through an empty space; not closed or blocked up. “Open” (2:59) takes the original melody, repeats and adds new variations to the pattern, and builds, repeating into a calm release, reflecting on one’s ways of thinking and knowing when and how to use particular strategies for problem-solving. Something that we are repeating rather than something that we are.

Climbing persistently, steady steps, circles within circles, building upon a secure foundation, but always lifting. In “Ascending” (4:06) the story I hear suggests a direct and transformative presence, over time suspend judgment and unleash your natural curiosity about the workings of the mind, approaching your experience with warmth and kindness, to yourself and for others.

Now the drums are in motion, throughout this album the feeling has been soaring, slow and inwardly cosmic. On this track, “Gratefulness” (5:39), the pace is a bit more peppy. Giving thanks can make you happier, gratitude is the human way of acknowledging the good things in life, it helps train your brain to notice and appreciate the little things that make life splendid. Gratitude, thankfulness or gratefulness, from the Latin word gratus meaning “pleasing” or “thankful,” and is regarded as a feeling of appreciation by a recipient of another’s kindness, gifts, help, favors, or other forms of generosity to the giver of such gifts. Gratitude is not something we achieve; it is something we receive, and a good practice is to remember to choose gratitude until we are grateful. Simple gratitude helps one to feel more positive emotions, to relish good experiences, improve health, build strong relationships and to deal with adversity.

Bringing it all together on the last track, the consistent dreamy pace and lovely melodic textures extend, I find myself feeling excited by something strange; a mixture of surprise, curiosity, and sometimes awe, the track is titled “Wonder” (4:50) and the sounds are enchanted, not by magic or fantasy, but by an even more startling truth – the universe is a love note from God. Be kind to your wandering mind.

People want many things to be different from the way they actually are. There is a craving for becoming something that one is not and there is a resistance to the way things are. Everyone is moving towards a goal, a destination that is in the future. Going through a spiritual awakening is one of the most confusing, lonely, alienating, but also supremely beautiful experiences in life. To think about something because you want to know more facts or details about it can bring about a feeling of great surprise and pleasure. For example, when you see or hear something that is very beautiful. Spirituality may act as a buffer against stress and improves coping against the depressive effects of stressful events, or when something upsetting happens.

Spending too much thinking negative thoughts can be draining. It can also make you more likely to experience stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression. Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you’re sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment. Practicing mindfulness involves breathing methods, guided imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress. The feeling of peace that comes from certain music is more about the heart than the head, more about our embodied sense of spiritual living, rather than just a set of abstract beliefs or principles that one is supposed to believe.

We are always experiencing personal transformation. The secret I missed the first time is enhanced by learning to rely on poetry and art as well as philosophy or theology to communicate this experience. For me, listening to the music of John Gregorius suggests a sense of transcendence of time and space, as well as an increase in physical and mental sensitivity to internal and external stimuli, including sensitivity to color, light, touch, sounds, and smells, the rhythm is steady, the melody constantly explores and invents new patterns, the feeling is of a non-judgmental acceptance and investigation of present experience. The sound can be a reminder to hear new things, if you are willing to listen and think about what is going on.

What you need to do in a real life situation is to go out and get more clues, with mindful listening the attention skills are cultivated, emotional regulation is developed, and rumination and worry are significantly reduced. Remember, you don’t generally find situations in which you have exactly as much information as you need to solve the thing. Go with your heart and instincts, and choose a path that calls to you. Life decided you were ready to finally wake up. Have a listen to In Awe and remember the simplicity of being grateful and mindful of the world around you.

TRACKS
1 In Awe
2 Light
3 Everyday Miracle
4 New
5 Here Now
6 Open
7 Ascending
8 Gratefulness
9 Wonder

In Awe by John Gregorius on Spotted Peccary Music
SMARTLINK https://orcd.co/in-awe