Read the story of Eurasian, The Liberty Project and The Human Zone

The Story of EURASIAN

I felt that I had to make a move in the summer of 1995. My work as a musician had lost any of its creative emphasis and, more to the point, the working opportunities were becoming few and far between. What had I become a musician for?, was the question I was often asking myself. The answer was, of course, to embark upon my own creative odyssey. I had, I concluded, lost my way.

I had had a lot of fun: recording albums and singles for major and minor labels; touring Europe, North America and Japan; playing in front of 28,000 at Berlin’s Wald Bühne. But none of it was completely ‘mine’. Time for a new direction. But first, time for a change of location.

I signed a contract to play flamenco guitar in the United Arab Emirates (The fact that I had never played that genre before I saw as a minor obstacle). The contract work itself was not particularly inspiring, but it gave me a chance to collect my thoughts and listen to some new music in my time off. I got into a kind of Arabic vibe due to the local music and the surroundings. This was further enhanced by the Moorish thread running through the music I was playing.

On my return to London I invested my hard-earned cash in some studio equipment and an MA in Politics: a long held passion of mine. The main outcomes of the study were that I became a more competent writer and thinker, and the philosophical and intellectual material I had gathered provided the conceptual underpinning of my music during the time that followed. One might ask how instrumental music can be conceptualised in such a way. Of course it’s a very personal process. So much so that an outsider could viably question its very existence. That’s OK - I like to be mysterious.

Regardless of my new experiences, musically I was still a rocker. Deep down I wanted to be a Satriani or a Vai, but came quickly to the conclusion that the World was already over-laded with that type of player. I didn’t think I was that technically gifted in any case. So I decided upon an overall album concept (a guitar album but not - if you know what I mean) which I called Eurasian. I set about creating a personalised musical story which would focus the whole project and give it an underlying theme. The next paragraph is where some of you may think I’m disappearing into my own posterior (if you haven’t already).

Eurasia is the great land mass which stretches from the West European Coast to the Pacific Ocean: the theatre of History. I wrote some of the tunes to depict certain historical characters. Such as Natalia (Leon Trotsy’s wife) and Man Of Steal (The translation of the adopted name ‘Stalin’. Yes it really was a case of the lunatic having taken over the asylum). I also took the opportunity to show off my nascent German language skills in the titles Für Die Liebe Einer Frau (For The Love Of A Woman) and Schlangenbiß (Snakebite).

The album took the best part of a year and received some critical acclaim. The title track was to be included in the 2004 compilation Fuel on Chromium Records. Eurasian is my rock album, drawing largely on my pre ’77 influences (I had difficulty getting into a punk band as my potential collaborators seemed to object to the fact that I could actually play the guitar).  Top

The Story of THE LIBERTY PROJECT

Still with the underlying need to shake off the stifling effect of years of collaboration I embarked on my second album: The aptly titled The Liberty Project.

I decided to find my niche, so to speak. I found that I was good at the chordal arrangement thing and could write some interesting tunes. I rocked my head off on the opening, title track and then went into a quasi-Latin vibe. There are some epics here, which contained some very dynamic musical arrangements. I used some cleaner guitar sounds in places in order to let the other instruments breathe. I was also in danger of becoming a competent keyboard-player (although many would argue with that statement).

Platonic (as in Plato - Politics again you see) was structured as a steady Latin chill, which culminates in searing rock guitar. Wonderful Life is just a happy tune. In fact it is “guaranteed to make you smile” (Tony Currie, Radio Six International). I  was now receiving top-notch reviews from other revered critics such as Lord Litter in Berlin and Don Campau in San Francisco. It was now time to put my music through the acid test: of a live situation.

It was strange how the shift from side to centre-stage proved to be so nerve wracking. After all, I was merely doing what I had done effortlessly for years. Rarely had I experienced nervousness but now, I suppose, it was personal: the music was all mine, and it defined my life. We were almost one and the same thing. However, from the delivery of the opening chords of The Liberty Project everything changed. All of my apprehension vanished. The band was great and the audience loved it. My tunes had proved themselves on stage which is where, in my opinion, it matters.

The titles track of The Liberty Project is currently being used as the theme to the Friday evening rock show on Radio Six International and the plaudits continued to flow. Despite all of this, however, I felt that I had not yet peaked. There were certain areas of Liberty which I was less than happy with. A well known producer once said to me that anyone who doesn’t doubt themselves is a fool, and I have certainly met a few of those. Being one’s own greatest critic is, in my opinion, an artistic imperative. How else could one improve? I decided to take it a step further.  Top

The Story of THE HUMAN ZONE

It was in a Central London bar that the seed for my next album was sown. I was mellowing to one of the Cafe del Mar albums. It was then that I decided to write a collection of chill-out tracks which would draw loosely on that genre. I felt that The Liberty Project contained a few stocking fillers: tracks which I would not have included in hindsight (don’t let that stop you buying it though. Almost everybody disagrees with me). There is only one track on my third and latest album that I’m not reasonably happy with (and I’m not telling you what it is). Ironically, many people pick that one as their favourite. This is a perfect exemplar of the dangers of subjectivity.

The album title The Human Zone depicts my growing despair at the socio-cultural conditioning of humanity. Where, in Britain, people seem to have learnt their social graces from the crass vulgarity of TV soaps such as Eastenders. I had been thinking for some time how pleasant it would be to uproot and build my own little musical oasis in the wilds of Scotland or somewhere. A place where the people one did have contact with would be polite and courteous. Maybe I’m mellowing with maturity. Oh sorry!, we were talking about my third album.

Welcome to the Last Hotel, the opening track, was inspired by Fukuyama’s hotel at the end of History from his book The End of History and the Last Man. I would strongly recommend that those of you with an interest in such things read it: it’s very entertaining. I continued the historical titular theme with titles such as Twilight in the Modern World and Road to Evermore.

Overall, I didn’t really end up with a Cafe del Mar type of album, but a halfway house between that and my natural propensity towards incessant guitar soloing: perhaps, though, it’s something original. The Latin vibe was still there. So much so that someone later described me as the cockney Santana - I can’t remember if I punched him or not.

So there you have it. A reasonably substantial analysis of my first three guitar based instrumental solo albums and not a single mention of a guitar string, plectrum, scale, amp, effects pedal or any of the other techno-jarg’ with which others indulge themselves. I once heard a photographer say that the camera gets in the way of the art. I would agree with that particular thesis. I find the philosophy behind people’s work far more inspiring than the tools they use in order to create it. Technophiles would disregard the wonders of the Mona Lisa and embark upon an in depth study of da Vinci’s paintbrush.  Top

Terry Munday, London, July 2005

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