From left to right: Henta, Marcell Marias, Steve Turnidge and Laz Harris
My journey to write this album began in January 2009 and I would love to share part of that journey with you, or more importantly the people who were part of that very special and challenging experience, without whom this would not have been possible.
The following wonderful and special people make up the force behind this album and who continue to be intrinsically linked to me and the music I would like to share with the world. My aim is to be a sonic nurturer and for people to benefit from the healing vibrations in my music.
Carolyn Shepard
Carolyn is a good friend and neighbour with a wonderful heart. She is a great Esthetician and runs her own practise called ‘The Face & Body Place’ here in West Seattle. She was very supportive of my music, especially ‘Daisy Dancing’ which she would play to her clients during their various therapies and suggested that perhaps I make an album especially for spas. That was the day that the real seed of inspiration was planted and spurred me on to begin writing this album.
Marcell Marias
Marcell is a talented musician, artist, engineer, producer, web designer and so much more. As I was writing the album, he added some great percussion to one of my tracks ‘hello you’ and he also spent many hours in front of the computer with me as we methodically mixed all the songs. He patiently worked his magic in Photoshop as we carefully designed the artwork for the album. The imagery was taken from trips we had made to Florida, Colorado, Arizona, France and here in Washington. Using his web design skills, he then built me a brand new website which would help launch me into the next stage of my earthly and virtual world. I am so grateful to him for all his love and support throughout this exciting and challenging experience.
Steve Turnidge
Steve is a fabulous musician, noted mastering engineer of UltraViolet Studio, digital artist and electronics wizard, as well as being a wonderful mentor to both Marcell and me. Above and beyond the aforementioned, he is also a good friend who I respect deeply. One day in June, as we were listening to some of the songs from the album in his studio, he proclaimed that the music was like a ‘Laserium for the Soul’, as if a light bulb had gone off in his head! He explained that the music had spoken to him to and that he wanted to share his moment of inspiration. Everything about the name felt right and resonated with me instantly, so that was the day the album was named and took on real symbolic energy, as if it had a life of its own.
Laz Harris
Laz is a notorious mastering engineer, musician and a very special friend who intuitively understands my voice and my music. He mastered my album ‘Daisy Dancing’ in 2008 but then moved to Singapore. However, with the power of the internet, we managed to track him down so that he could master ‘Laserium for the Soul’ with a similar mastering treatment that he had used on ‘Daisy Dancing’. With days to spare before the Grammy 2009 submissions, Laz delivered the mastered files to us.
And so the story continues …..
