Horizon blends organic and electronic sounds: ambient synthesizers meet tribal percussion, and instruments such as Navajo flute, fujara and Aztec death whistle, by Frore and Shane Morris with Mark Seelig, Dirk Serries and Byron Metcalf, mastered by Ben Cox.

The album Horizon is an ambitious exploration of drone meditations and percussion, combining the languages of hand-created beats with soaring electronic atmospheres, a new energy and life comes from the music. It’s a real joy to listen to, feeling the joy of the musicians, the human idea of what the self is, industrial music, dub techno, ragas, history and mythology. The overall experience is calming and inspirational. The talents who originated this journey know the territory of transformative consciousness raising and international rhythm traditions. This music is perfect for creating a positive sonic environment for healing as well as for relaxation. The horizon is vast and the offing is forever distant, bringing a fantastic sensation of infinity.

Five tracks exploring the art of sustained tonal patterns, some with beats from various hand instruments, all delivered with deep inspirational passion, always changing and constantly evolving. You can tell that these musicians are always working with an influence of cultures from around the world, history, and the music from so many different sources, including ambient, electronic, ethnic folk traditions, and sounds from field recordings. Everything comes into play. These collaborative events suggest a mixture of the past and present, ancient and future, influenced by the previous work of tribal ambient pioneers who came before, blending acoustic instruments that are heavily processed, sculpting and carving out sounds. These collaborations provide a look forward into the future, fulfilling the title: Horizon.

The horizon is the distant line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky. In perspective drawing, the horizon is the theoretical line to which points on any horizontal plane converge. No matter how far you travel, the horizon remains expansive but remote, not a fixed location as much as a concept. The Horizon specified here functions as a cosmic foundation, a steady sustained tone pattern, this is vanishing-point music providing a sonorous platform for the instrumental progressions, often with percussion. The instruments heard include Frame Drums, Shakers, Bullhorn, Analog / Digital Synths, Drum Machines, Guitar, Sample Manipulations, Bansuri, Clay Udu Drums, Bells, Donkey Jaw, Talking Drum, Rattle, Bass Ocarina, Overtone Flute, Guitar, Vibraphone, Gong, Fujara, Chau Gong, Rain Stick, Navajo Flute, and Aztec Death Flute.

The eye is a sense organ that reacts to light and allows vision. The eye is also the focus of a hurricane, the point about which the rest of a storm rotates and where the wind becomes strangely calm. The eye of anything is the focus of awareness, the point about which the rest rotates. “The Eye of Everything” (12:09) is a duet by Frore and Morris, emerging from the void, enrolling the elements of electronic sounds and hand percussion.

To be truly inspired, a musician may become one with this inspiration, the inner being and the outer world—along with the very art itself. As a collective of creative types, musicians seek inspiration everywhere, and in everything. Unconditional love, the highest form of love, charity, the love of God for man and of man for God, are all classical definitions of the Greek word “Agape” (10:57), which is performed by the trio of Frore, Morris and Mark Seelig. Featured are the sounds of the Bansuri flute, an aerophone made from bamboo and used in Hindustani classical music. This combination creates a steady universal sound that transcends and persists, it goes beyond just the emotions, employing electronics, breath, and hand percussion; long sustained tones with many subtle variations.

Wide open musical colors and textures, steadily building into a tight energized groove,
interlacing, braiding and intertwining threads or fibers of sound, blending elements of terrestrial ethnic or indigenous musical traditions and pulling from gentle chaos, coming together between the warp and weft of the duo Frore and Morris: “Woven” (12:47).

What does it mean to be lost in something? A sense of being astray in the unknown, a feeling of amazement and admiration, caused by something beautiful, remarkable, and unfamiliar. Dirk Serries joins Frore and Morris, beaming combinations of harmonic relationships, which move slowly from one to the next sustained chord or cluster of notes that linger uninterrupted, the sound of the wind blowing is evoked by a flute. “Lost in Wonder” (8:56) yields a wide variety of musical possibilities, a collection of diversity in styles and collaborative dynamics, from the endless drone of pure bliss to the almost hidden flight of free melodic improvisation.

“Ocean of Fire” (16:34) was created by Frore, Morris and percussionist Byron Metcalf. This final track enters with organic surf, crashing on a pebble beach and builds in stages steadily into a most passionate pace, energy in waves, mixing percussion over sustained tones to produce an ambient, minimalist, and often avant-garde soundscape, while maintaining a tribal house characteristic in the sound. This is a very big ocean.

The music of Frore is frequently played on the Hearts of Space radio show, the Star’s End radio show, and can also be heard on Stillstream.com in the streaming universe. Frore is the ambient music project of Paul Casper, a musician from Virginia Beach, Virginia. “For me this album was about shedding some creative and technical insecurities and learning to look to the future. Hence the title: Horizon. Frore is music that evokes a dark, thoughtful and primitive atmosphere for reflection and/or dreaming. I think it’s music that connects with “something,” but I’ve yet to figure out what that is…”

Shane Morris has roots in the Ozark mountains and two Bachelor of Science degrees in Anthropology and in Music, from Missouri State University, with an emphasis in “Trance” and Electronic music, Ambient, African and Caribbean drumming, Pre-Hispanic music of the Americas, Jazz, Psychedelia, and Folk traditions from around the world. Shane is known for his awareness of detail and dynamics, sound and spatialization, textures and harmonies, creating sonic spaces that blend ethereal realms, polyrhythmic grooves, and tribal soundscapes.

Byron Metcalf has been intensely involved in consciousness research and spiritual development for over 30 years, specializing in the transformative potential of alternative states of consciousness, to support people in developing their capacity for soul-based and heart-centered living as they contribute to the spiritual healing and maturity of humanity. He has been a musician for over 50 years, becoming a professional drummer when he was fifteen years old, eventually playing on several gold and platinum albums.

Mark Seelig received classical training on the violin from age 8 through 14, and then taught himself guitar and vocals. From early on he felt a growing fascination with the world’s spiritual traditions. During a deep vision quest, in 1999 at age 42, his musical focus shifted again, he felt encouraged to take up the Bansuri, which is a North Indian bamboo flute. He is also a Certified Holotropic Breathwork Practitioner, specializing in Archetypal Astrology, and Shamanic Divination Ceremonies.

Dirk Serries began working in the early 1980s in the Belgian DIY industrial tape music scene as Vidna Obmana, which in Serbian translates as “optical illusion.” While his first recordings featured harsh industrial music, his work gradually shifted into ambient music and a primitive tribal sound. His next musical incarnation, Fear Falls Burning, began in 2005, followed in 2012 by his Microphonics projects, with a more improvisational avant-garde jazz feeling.

Morris says their best work comes when they compose without “any preconceived notions of where things should go or what we should do,” and this album embodies that open-minded approach to songwriting. These pieces shift and shimmer, morphing seamlessly from one beat to another. On “Ocean of Fire,” expansive ambiance ebbs and surges over reverberant frame drum before skittering percussion and a modular synth groove ascend to a captivating crescendo. Tension builds on stunning opener “Eye of Everything, ” as a complex tribal beat propels the listener through a cinematic landscape of submerged drones and panoramic vistas. “Woven” is both cavernous and celestial; freeform percussion coalesces into a beat beneath a spacious texture, a sound like surfacing from a subterranean space.

This collaborative spirit extends beyond Frore and Shane Morris as three of their sonic influences join the next evolution of their sound. Shamanic ambient musician Mark Seelig plays the Indian Bansuri flute on “Agape,” shamanic percussionist Byron Metcalf adds frame drum to the beat of “Ocean of Fire” and experimental ambient composer Dirk Serries lends dreamlike guitar to “Lost in Wonder.”

Frore describes Horizon as a mixture of “past and present, ancient and future,” and for all time the stars have beguiled. Ancient cultures looked to the stars for wisdom, for guidance, for signs from the divine. Now, scientists look to the stars for knowledge, for a deeper understanding of our universe, for humanity’s next step. As tribal rhythms entrance the listener, ethereal synthesizers enrapture with the thrill of the unknown, with the promise of discovery—to capture perfectly the essence of the horizon: the place where earth meets the sky.

When talking about the influences for their sound, Frore revealed that “Everything comes into play. The human idea of what the self is, BBC Planet Earth documentaries, industrial music, dub techno, ragas.” Morris adds, “I think we are always working with an influence of cultures from around the world, history, and the music from so many different sources whether it be ambient, electronic, ethnic folk traditions, and sounds from field recordings.”

Horizon was mastered by Ben Cox, and is available for physical purchase in CD format and in 24-BIT AUDIOPHILE, CD QUALITY LOSSLESS, MP3 and streaming formats worldwide. The CD version of Horizon arrives in a factory sealed 6-panel gatefold package that includes vibrant artwork, liner notes, a 4-page booklet, and artful package design by Daniel Pipitone.

Tracklist:
1 The Eye of Everything
2 Agape
3 Woven
4 Lost in Wonder
5 Ocean of Fire