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"A new experience of harp and violin
like you’ve never heard before;
this music takes you on a tour of cosmic energies,
expressing universal truths in a musical language
that cannot be described in words.
It’s beautiful, transcendent and uplifting."
Titles and Credits
1. A Place of Forgiveness* – words: Hiromasa Kiuchi / Music :Aska (Amy-harp / Aska-violin,vocals)
2. A Voice Calling Me – composed by Aska (Amy-harp / Aska-violin, rhythms)
7. Calling Forth – composed by Amy (Amy-harp /Aska-violin)
8. Regulus – composed by Amy (Amy-harp / Aska-viola, violin)
9. Acceptance** – composed by Aska (Amy-harp /Aska-violin)
All pieces include improvisation by Amy & Aska
* A Place of Forgiveness
Aska composed this song for “Homura-Tatsu’ a 2014 Japanese theatrical production set in Hiraizumi. In the 12th century this extraordinary city emerged as center of Pure Land Buddhism embodying peace and egalitarianism for friends or foes alike during Japan’s long time civil wars.
TRANSLATION FOR JAPANESE VOCALS:
”罪を許す国” “A Place of Forgiveness”
罪はこの世で 裁かれる Wrongs are of the here & now
ひとは楽土で 許される People are forgiven in the promised land
怒りを 祈りに Stormy anger into (tranquil) prayers
恨みを 許しに Deep hatred into forgiveness
かたきを 家族に Enemies into family
この世を 楽土に This world shall be Eden
English translation by Jeffrey Maret and Aska
** Acceptance - Aska composed this song for "Queen Media" a 2012 Japanese theatrical production.
Co-producer: John Camie, Blue Star Productions, Inc.
Recording Engineer: Adam Long
Mixing and Mastering Engineer: Adam Long
Recording Studio: Shock City Studios, St. Louis, MO
Graphic Design & Replication: Video Services Group Hubble Image: Helix Nebula, NGC 7293 Hubble Image Credit: NASA, NOAO, ESA, the Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner (STScI), and T.A. Rector (NRAO)
Special Thanks
Tsunehiro Yahaba (Pasona)/ Tamiya Kuriyama/Sawako Akiyama (Lyric)/ Mikijiro Hira / Hisao Takase/ All our friends and family
WHO WE ARE:
AMY CAMIE, a 1987 graduate of Indiana University, is a gifted spiritual harpist, award winning performer, composer, recording artist, author, public speaker and Founder of the Scientific Arts Foundation. For the past 20 years, she has been active in the sound healing community with several pilot studies indicating how her solo harp music increases brainwave function, supports the immune system and reduces pain, distress and anxiety levels. She has presented hundreds of seminars and workshops for local, regional and national audiences on the power of music, sound and vibration. Amy is the author of “Loving Life…all of it – A Walk with Cancer, Compassion and Consciousness’ and is a contributing author to two international books, “The Spiritual Significance of Music” and “LOVE LIVE FORGIVE.” Amy is a Spiritual Initiator and Guide of The ORIGINS Process, a multifaceted system of self-discovery and inner connection. Her CDs are used in hospitals, cancer centers, hospices, nursing homes and with military veterans as well as for general relaxation and stress reduction around the world. As one woman once said, "You touch others in such a deep place with your music...because it comes from such a deep place inside of you."
ASKA KANEKO is a virtuoso violinist, composer, musical director, producer and vocalist. Aska was born in Tokyo and grew up among a family of visual artists. Her unique improvisational style arises from her childhood violin practice sessions in natural settings. As a teenager, Aska won the Grand Prize in a prestigious international string quartet competition for young musicians held in London. She later studied at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and went on to direct the Asian Fantasy Orchestra, a 10-year pan-Asian project supported by the Japan Foundation. She also directs, Aska Strings, a string ensemble, which has released 3 albums including a collaborative work with Hugo Fattoruso (Pf). In 1998, Aska won the Bessie Composition Award in New York for collaborative work with “The Unfinished Symphony,” a work by choreographer, Yoshiko Chuma. In Japan, Aska is well known as the musical director of major musical theater productions. She is a member of Gaia Cuatro, a Japanese-Argentinian ensemble that regularly tours Europe and Japan since 2003. Additional projects include, “Pheeroan akLaff.(Ds) & Aska project” and an improvisational duo recording with Scott Robinson (Sax, Bass clarinet) in New Jersey. In 2015 Aska met harpist, Amy Camie, and they began a very unique and spiritual musical collaboration. Aska’s discography includes nearly twenty CD releases in a wide range of genres. She also practices Wu-dang Tai-chi, an ancient Daoist tradition, and is an aspiring vegetable gardener. www.askaviolin.com
Explore more of Aska's Music with Gaia Cuatro (2 Argentina & 2 Japanese band)
Enjoy these videos from a few of our live performances
"Miwaza"
"A Voice Calling"
"Jomon Dream"
"The Moon Washes Away Misfortune"
"Acceptance"
"Winter Reflection"
"The Moon Washes Away Misfortune"
"Acceptance"
"The Dance"
"Spring"
"The Love Song"
“I have been listening to wonderful, fantastic, beautiful music for a long, long time. The wonderful, fantastic, beautiful music is quite rare. So, hearing the music of Aska and Amy was one of those startling transcendent moments. I have known and loved Amy’s harp playing for many years, going back to the 1980’s when she played harp in the Nutcracker Ballet. She was a really good classical harpist.
But in the intervening years she has transcended herself. Her playing has become an improvisational expression that is consistently an amazing musical and spiritual experience.
Enter Aska.
Aska is a truly amazing and gifted violinist. Her technique is flawless. Her sound is smooth and beautiful. And her soul directs every moment of her musical energy.
When I say her technique is flawless it doesn’t begin to describe what she can do on the violin. She plays the softest, most beautiful melodies, creating moments of time stopping beauty, and then, still within the moment of perfect tranquility, she begins an amazing passage of astonishing technical virtuosity that sounds as if it comes from the same serene place, effortless, flawless, totally at ease, then back to the soft place.
Aska and Amy together have created a new and beautiful sound, the harp and the violin blending together, dancing together in a way that I promise you have never heard before. Rarely can we say that music is a new experience, but this is exactly that: a new experience.
Their music takes us on a tour of cosmic energies, expressing universal truths in a musical language that cannot be described in words. And it is beautiful and exciting, transcendent and uplifting in a totally unique way.
When you hear their CD, Nebula, you will realize that this is a new and important music. Nebula is a good name for the CD. A Nebula is the birthplace of stars, the building of our universe. There is a creative energy in Amy and Aska’s Nebula that is building a universe of consciousness, beautiful, transcendent, and above all, enjoyable. After all, that’s what the true artist strives for, to lift the spirit, create the beautiful, enrich our lives. That is what Amy and Aska have done in Nebula.
