All India Radio - Afterworld (2021)

Thanks to Hilary Smith, Anna Waugh (AKA Sasquin), Ben and Paul Mitchell, Devin Townsend, Gareth Koch, Helena Papageorgiou, Jake Fried, Leona Gray, Josh Roydhouse, Dylan Anderson, Gilbert Williams, Crystal Williams, Rik Nicholson, Robin & Elizabeth Smith, Jen Dan.

Afterworld was written and recorded during Australia’s coronavirus lockdown. It was a chance to do something different and take some risks. I wanted to create something with a bit more depth than my previous album, Eternal, which, in the spirit of fun, was thrown together quick and dirty. With Afterworld, I wanted to slow things down, breathe in the air, let the guest artists do their thing without interference and hopefully create some music that moves people. I hope I’ve succeeded.

To my ears, this album is unlike anything I’ve done since maybe Echo Other and Fall in the 2000s.

The album art is by Gilbert Williams, one of the pioneers of the 1970s visionary art movement which evolved hand in hand with the New Age music movement before it went ultra-cheesy. His art has graced the covers of many New Age albums as well as Crosby Stills & Nash and his artwork is again in demand with a new appreciation and reissue of many classic electronic New Age albums. The stunning 2014 double album release, I Am The Center (New Age Music In America, 1950-1990), from Light in the Attic records put both New Age music and Gilbert back on the map. I was thrilled that Gilbert let me use his magnificent 1989 painting ‘Homeward Travelers’.