The Leaving Time

This is the innovating and deeply inspired lost collaboration album I created with legendary Santana drummer Michael Shrieve (from Woodstock to albums with Klaus Schulze), released in 1988 on a major label soon after Dreamtime Return. This album also featured storied guitarist David Torn, who had just completed sessions with David Sylvian. Also a guest on 2 tracks is bassist Jonas Hellborg, who was on tour with John McLaughlin at the time.

After the foundation of the album was tracked in the Venice, CA Timeroom, I was off to Australia for the Dreamtime Return project. Upon returning from down under, I flew directly to Millbrook, NY for the final tracking of drums, guitar and more synths. Soon after we were off to San Francisco for the final mixes at Different Fur. This was the studio of electronic music pioneer Patrick Gleeson. Exciting times to say the least!

This music defied many genres and still sounds like it’s from the future. Cinematic and heroic, the epic themes reach towards the sky. Michael’s incredible acoustic drum performances were recorded in a large reverberant room at the upstate NY Millbrook Sound Studios with the spirit of going for the big John Bonham sound.

This all combined to forge a release without comparison still to this day. Ultimately the genre-defying music bewildered the promotion department of the record company and never found the audience it deserved at the time. Meanwhile this is a special very lost release for you here and now!