The Abyss

#		Title	Length
1		Rollin	4:49	Play
2		Given (All Today)	6:21	Play
3		7th Strand DNA Activation	3:42	Play
4		Pictures	3:16	Play
5		Santa Monica	2:22	Play
6		Train A Comin'	3:00	Play
7		Mantra Song	10:38	Play
8		It's Over	3:02	Play
9		Meth Lab	3:23	Play
10		Holographic Insert	2:54	Play
11		Apology	4:21	Play
12		Broken Glass	3:12	Play
13		Big Wheel	2:27	Play
14		With Love	5:09	Play
15		Freedom Song	3:45	Play
16		Timespell	4:12	Play
			1:06:33

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Description

NUPARIEL CHRIS COMSTOCK writes us from Denver, in color:

we first thank spirit, for providing this opportunity for us to express these pieces of our lives to each of you all out there... thank you.

me and cliff met about 5 yrs. ago when i moved here from my hometown, big-sandy in east texas, to his hometown of denver, colorado. instantly, we connected inside the music...as i recall, i was at a friend's house with my wife (at the time), virginia, and our few month old son, chassan. i was playing 'purple haze' when he walked in, came right up to me and sat down in front of me, full attention on my fingers channeling out jimi's riffs. since then it's been nothin but magical collaboration as we expand each others horizons in the beautiful world of music...

at the time, cliff was taking guitar lessons and was eager to be around other guitarists and soak up whatever he could. the first thing i showed him was that i was moving into a totally different approach in music that didn't involve 'lessons' or 'tablature'. having been self-taught and playing only 'by ear', i didn't know many chord names and still don't. it was a mutual exchange, as he taught me the names of the chords i had been playing and i taught him technique. cliff's mom had recently passed on and i could tell he was takin' on guitar to express the depth of his pain and emotion- this i could see right away... the first composition he played for me- and the first one he had actually came up with was dedicated to his mom and is the music you hear on the first track of this album- 'rollin'. this was also the first song we ever played on stage together (he played rhythm- i played a solo i had come up with to accompany it). this was at a cool little bluez saloon called 'ziggies'. in denver, colorado. i don't know if would have ever gotten up on stage if it weren't for cliff- dragging me up there that night- well that and a few drinks considered... i put words on cliffs' composition after finding myself in a crazy love-triangle with my ex-wife and a girl from work i was dating- all under the same roof... the words rushed to me so fast that night and it was completely finished by the time i was moved out and living in a motel 6 in lakewood, colorado.

ever since that night it seems that's just how my songs come to me- i will usually play the music and then a few days later the words will come- and come fast. this has not ALWAYS been the case, but as of late seems to always be. one instance would be 'intro to foreva' (coming up on the 2nd album). i get this tune stuck in my head and play it over and over. a few days later, we meet our flute player, flee, playing the flute on the beach. he turns out to be a poet extrordinare and i find a poem called 'intro to foreva'. the music gets very synchronistic at times....

i want to give a brief summary of the magic that is contained in this album, in each song...

we went to the depths of our soul to record this album and this is exactly what we express back into this album in each song. i always say we're just now 'crawling out' of the abyss and moving onto our next project, with more leeway this time: 'iceberg'- our second album. it feels like we have so much support on this one and that the hardest parts of being on the streets and homeless recording an album are behind us now.
______________________________________________________________________________

'ROLLIN' took on a more reggae-ish sound when me and cliff were visiting a soulmate of ours, solara, in santa monica. the vibes were so intense and we came out of it all with so many more stories that comes out in our music-- like, 'santa monica', written by cliff and dedicated to solara after i introduced them to each other... 'she said take off all your clothes- every vase has a rose' was the only line i put in this one- which to me captures a lot of what the environment was like at solaras' 'goddess temple'...
while all of this was going on, yet another song was brewing.

we had asked solara to join us in the water by writing a song i could put to music. that evening, laying on her bed chatting with me and cliff, solara jots down a masterpiece in minutes--'WITH LOVE'. i attacked it and have it completed it the next day and later that evening we sang it for some dinner guests. hearing the feedback, we knew it was a hit and we later went on to play it on stage at one of solaras' friends night clubs in LA.

'GIVEN' was born in OB (Ocean Beach) , san diego on the beach after venturing out of colorado to california with cliff. me and cliff ended up staying in california for a year and found our 'big break' when we met our most awesome producers, argen and paul- who both had enuff faith in our music to help us get it laid down. thank you guys.

'the abyss' all began with a little bookstore in san rafel called 'open secret'; and our most awesome soul-sister, cathy who is the owner there. me and cliff spent many days outside this bookstore playing our music for people that walked by. this is where we met our beautiful sister, alleyah, who went on to introduce us to our first producer, argen.

right when we met argen we sat down and showed him who we were. cliff played him 'broken glass' and i played him 'victem', which will be on the second album. he was impressed enuff to take us back to his personal studio that night. we were up all night recording the last 8 songs you hear on 'the abyss'. alleyah jumped in on a couple of songs that night- 'apology' and 'holographic insert'- i only wish it was ALL of them after hearing how nice she sounded on them...

it wasn't 2 or 3 weeks later when we met our brother paul gaffney. cliff met paul at the st. vincent de paul soup kitchen in san rafael and hooked up with him through the help of some brother homeless musician named Rudy. cliff was telling me about this place called 'the chaplaincy' where all these homeless musician cats could record for free. so he takes me in to meet paul and we record the first 8 songs you hear on 'the abyss'. we finish the whole set in just a few days and next thing ya know- me and cliff are back in denver working on a whole album that paul has compiled for us with ALL 16 songs! he had even arranged a whole 1000 CD replication deal for us as well- after getting a couple of good friends to invest in us: dan gudgel and jon klein, whom our most heartfelt thanx goes out to.

we had wanted this opportunity so much after spending month after month performing on the streets in O.B., sleepin on the beach. we had recieved so much of a positive reaction in O.B. from our music that it was frustrating at times: thinking that all of this would happen 'anyday now'- we just didnt know it was all going to happen months later in san rafael...

'GIVEN' to me has the essence of jimi hendrix floating all around it- this is just what i felt when i started channeling the first riff... 'is it gonna be today'... i had just finished doing some yoga on the beach that morning. cliff was walkin around, checkin out the seashells. we had just been there for a couple of weeks or so- everything was so fresh and we were just soakin it all up. i sat with my guitar in a lotus-meditation and went off in an open-eyed trance listening to the waves. it was so magically relaxing. i sat there, just playing it over and over- which is what i do when i receive new material, until gradually all the pieces came together.
'GIVEN' later became known as the 'OB song' by the street kids out there- it being the first song of many that i wrote out there...

'BROKEN GLASS' is a break-up song written by cliff when he was still together with his wife, nellie and kids. was still together with his wife and kids. at the time i was living in my car durring winter in colorado and stopping by cliffs house every now and then to jam out and sometimes play open stages.
as it goes, he was down in the basement where we always jammed at, and a picture on the wall fell on his head and shattered. he was bleeding and nellie ran downstairs to see what happened. with the broken glass all around them, he looks up at her and gets a premonition that she's going to leave him. he writes the song that night and it becomes a prophecy fulfilled after she takes the kids and leaves- 2 YEARS later.
that's just how our songs are- they capture a piece of 'the real' that might be too intense for us to comprehend at the time- but this stuff doesn't exist in time, it can see the whole picture- ANYTIME! a blessing and a curse...

'APOLOGY' and 'mary' (2nd album) are both like my 'broken glass' songs and were written before anything like that happened- 'apology' was written right after i moved up here at my mom's house. i was with my wife and closer than ever with her, very comfortable and excited about our coming son, chassan. it seemed kinda strange that i write a song like this one in the timeframe i was in...

'TRAIN A COMIN' has been played so much on stage and has always been a hit. cliff wrote it after i showed him a david icke video, 'robots' rebellion'. i later put the solo on it.

'TIMESPELL' is one of the most beautiful collab's we have done yet. it was originally a song that was for cliffs' daughter, sunset. the first time i heard him play this one i never forgot it and played it for everyone i met.
he had actually stopped playing it and the song was fading out when in california he heard me trying to revive it.
i tend to never forget my friends songs and usually expound on them to keep them alive: songs are like little babies that need attention.
so 'TIMESPELL' was born at a tweek-party in mission beach, san diego at our atlantean sister, lauries' house. we met laurie one weekend night in O.B. on the beach. cliff told me to go up to her circle and play her 'rollin'.

we both went up and hit it off right away and from then on we had a true sister that helped us out so much while we were on the streets out there. she would take us to her house so we could do laundry and take a hot shower- it was such a break from the streets! when we came back from santa monica to find cliffs truck (our home) impounded- laurie was there for us- that same night even- to give us shelter from the shock of losing our home. thank you so much laurie! and all of the kind people that helped us so much while we were out there.

cliff had written a few lines and showed it to me. that night i added my own lines to it and after getting the 'ok' from cliff the next morning, it was finished- no changes or anything, he loved it. i got the tonation of the chorus from solaras awesome voice, while we were in santa monica...

'BIG WHEEL' was similar to this as cliff came up with the music and first verse in denver. while out in O.B., he told me he had been wanting me to put another verse on it, so i came up with the second verse and it was done.

this song to me is like a shout out to all the people on the streets. its like while we were out there, people treat you so different- so many faces that just walked on by- while me and cliff were singing our hearts out on the streets. it made us appreciate the ones that actually took the time out to listen. the world keeps on turnin- no matter how blind people are...

i wrote 'FREEDOM SONG' the same time i wrote 'VICTEM' (2nd album) - just a couple of months before we left for cali from colorado springs.
i only had the first verse on it when i played it for cliff in O.B., he fell in love with it right away and wanted to be inside it... so he did by putting the first line of the 2nd verse on it:
'this is the rhythm of life in a song' jump-started the second verse and and the rest of it was written by a good friend of ours we met on the ave. in OB. his name was don and he used to bring the party to the beach everyday and every night by bringing us bar-b-que meals, beer, and everything else. he was such a kind and generous man and took care of all of the street kids out there. being a big fan of our music, he showed me a notebook full of his poems- telling me to 'use whatever i could'. that's where i found the second verse for 'FREEDOM SONG'.

'FREEDOM SONG is currently under construction- i have been working on an intro for it and cliff came up with a cool bluezy riff that goes really nice on it. we want to incorporate a gospel choir in the background.

'PICTURES' was written in san rafael right before we recorded the sessions with paul. i wanted to make sure we got this one on there- this is a powerful healing song to me becuz it came to me so fast it almost knocked me down for awhile.
i was sitting at the library playing this beautiful melancholy tune- this is one of those rare ones where both the music and the words came to me at light speed...
there were all these women getting out of their cars- they were all dressed up for a modeling show that was going on across the street. this is literally how it happened: i would write a line, then look up and connect eyes with a different woman every time- it was like they could feel me so much and were sending me energy telepathically for the song.
when i finished i went up to our camp spot where cliff was napping. i eagerly woke him up and played him 'PICTURES'. we both cried and hugged. this is a very special song to both of us and to me it is a 3-stage-relationship-healing-transmission.

i wrote 'ITS OVER' just 2 days before we headed out to cali. we played it on the streets every night for $$ and it was an instant hit. my life was at a point where a lot of things were done and it was time to go learn some more with cliff in california. i'm so glad i went with him and we recorded this album!

we played 'HOLOGRAPHIC INSERT' at a church that one of our fans had invited us to in O.B. his name was carlos and he and his wife would always tip us $20's when they saw us playing at the farmers market on thursdays. it was a hit at their church and we received a warm applause from the congregation. they thanked us with some warm homemade food as well that we humbly took back on the streets with us.
i channeled this one on one of the many journeys i had with my beautiful soul-partner, jodie (who has blessed our album with her artwork). it was somewhere up and down the west coast- she took me out there for the first time of my life- on the streets- and pulled all of these songs out of me- some of my best yet, in my opinion...

'METH LAB' was channeled on a cloudy morning after me and jodie woke up from behind a gas station somewhere in northern cali.
i had been playing this cute little spanish melody for a few days, waiting for the words to come- that morning, they finally did- in like 15 minutes.
i had received the music from this old mans' guitar who lived somewhere up in the redwood forest. our friend we had met at the soup kitchen in san rafael took me and jodie up there to meet him.
so this old man hands me this very old guitar and i instantly start playing this little spanish riff- the first thing i played was what became the music for 'METH LAB'- it was a trip!
it was like he was saying, 'here, get this song out of my guitar- it's been waiting for you!' it was such an old guitar and probably had a lot more in it...

METH LAB was also inspired by a dream i had about a lady who lived way out in the middle of a desert somewhere with a long hi-way going right by her house. she was bakin and sellin tweek and had all these different people that would come by while her husband, oblivious, was at work. she was real cool and would smoke it like weed with everybody. in my dream there were all these cops by the hi-way by her house and it felt like i astral traveled over her house- so it might have an actual event in real life....

'7th STRAND DNA ACTIVATION' i wrote when me and jodie hitch-hiked over to sedona, arizona from bakersfield, california. we camped in the canyons for 2 months a made a big campfire every night. this is where i channeled a few songs- some of which will be on the next album as well.
the energy in sedona is so intense- it felt like a breeding ground for music- plus the songs there were completely channeled, which means a part of me has absolutely no idea where it came from and another part of me is still processing what the message in it truly is.
i have always explained this one as and activation for the 5th, 6th and 7th DNA strands.

the song to me starts in a certain tempo (frequency)- with the 5th strand, jumps up to the 6th, and works its way up to the 7th- gradualy activating the DNA as the music builds momentum. i used to go up to the 8th strand when me and flee (our flute playa) would play it on the streets in OB- it just kept going.

*this song is dedicated with all my heart to my 'best friend' and music advocate, michelle*

i'm starting to understand thru playing the song, just what this entails...

'MANTRA SONG' is a story of my life, a very emotional time of my life in a song.
a lot of people have asked me what the mantras mean so i should include the definitions here...
these are very personal meanings and may not be up to par with the text definitions you may find...
in 'OMNAMHSHIVAYAY', 'shiva' represents the crown chakra at the top of the head. 'OMNAMAHSHIVAYAY means 'i bow to lord shiva', which to me means 'i allow higher-dimensional light to flow through my crown chakra'.
'BARAVA' is the protector form of shiva and 'OMSRIBARAVAIYANAMAH' gives homage to this.
i studied all about barava under a guru and close friend, dorainna. he actually taught me all of these mantras in some very unusual ways- and also how to learn- through my own life- the true meanings of them.
for instance, 'OMMANIPADMEHUM'- i found this one at dorainnas' house- engraved on a card in sanskrit. i was immediately drawn to it and questioned him repeatedly what it was, but it seemed he didn't know. since it was written in sanskrit on bronze, i decided to take it to this tibetan shop in colorado springs, colorado, where i had just moved to.
i asked the guy at the counter if he could translate it. he reaches down under counter and pulls out this little paper slip and hands it to me with a smile. it says: 'OMMANIPADMEHUM'-- the jewel in the lotus that grows out of the muddy swamps in india. a mantra used for transmutation.'
needless to say, when i started using this mantra i was embarking on a whole other dimension of my life...
'OMKALIVUDRANAMONAMAH' was the last mantra i learned and i found it in the backseat of dorainnas' car, while riding with him and my brother, russell. they were having a good conversation going so i took the opportunity to skim through a book he had laying on the floor in the backseat. i almost turned right to it when i opened the book- right when i saw it i started saying it over and over in my mind and memorized it. this mantra summons kali: the destroyer of all ignorance.
all of these mantras are purely for healing purposes and this is solemnly the intentions of all of the music we do: TO HEAL. thank you all so much for taking out time to read and listen. we cast this album on you for light to enter your lives and consume your heart and mind.

BLESSINGS FROM WATER:
NUPARIEL CHRIS COMSTOCK &
CASMUSAPA CLIFF HAMMONS