New album! The Wicked Wonder: A Symphonic Fairy Tale: The King and Queen’s daughter has gone missing and her disappearance has spun the entire realm into disarray and decline. A young shepherdess must become the heroine of the land in its darkest hour (live link in bio).
Featuring Vatchapuj Collective, 13 performers from the US, France, and Thailand. Recorded in all 3 countries, the album is a testament to my many journeys, both geographic and spiritual, and a tribute to the amazing souls I’ve had the honor to play and commune with along the way.
Howard Ashman, the great lyricist and creative force behind Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin, said that a good retelling of a timeless tale conveys to your listeners what your own unique experience of awe was when you heard that story for the very first time:
- The Wicked Wonder is a retelling of The Brothers Grimm fairy tale, The Princess and the Tree, as retold and interpreted by Carl Jung in Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious.
- The Wicked Wonder is a retelling of Dark Side of Oz, the cult classic in which Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is cued up to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz movie.
- The Wicked Wonder is a retelling of Beethoven’s 3rd symphony—the Eroica (“heroic”).
This album is dedicated to my daughter, Luce Sophia DiRuzza, the freshly rooted light of wisdom in my life. Completing this project, I ritually let go of the place of prominence of my solar ego, embracing the lunar web that connects me to every other—my wife, my daughter, my family, my community, my planet, my world. The Wicked Wonder is about how the individualist myth must finally give way to a metaphysics of relationship: “Our lovers and children make us frightened of dying—autonomy eclipsed by communion.” It’s about how the lone hero must finally become a responsible leader and a member of a team.
Give it a deep listen from start to finish (48’) on a nice sound system or pair of headphones, at my website, Spotify, or Bandcamp.
