From our seating position on the right side of the church, a piece of stage
equipment would obstruct our view of Jeff Pearce's guitar playing all evening
long. We would lose the perspective of seeing the magical transition of
fingers to strings to the most beautiful sound ever to emanate from the
guitar. Still, I would manage to find another rewarding focal point to
accompany the purest sense of tranquility provided by the wondrous sound.

Oh, that which is revealed by looking into the eyes.

Pearce, who has spoken eloquently throughout the three concert performances
I've seen him give, confessed early in his set that much of the material he
planned to play would be difficult to perform. If I had not heard a previous
interview with Jeff, my intial reaction to this statement may have been that
he would be about to perform technically difficult pieces (also, Chuck van
Zyl had also introduced Jeff by saying that his performance contained no
pre-recorded music; a rarity during any electronic music event). But Pearce
would go on to openly explain that the many of the songs he would play, those
in particular from his brand new release, "Bleed," contained music inspired
by the discovery and re-reading of his journals from his youth. Some of
these reawakenings were obviously accompanied by pain.

By looking into his eyes, you could see. The concentration, the care, the
creativity, the longing, the remembering; all casting a spell.

Somehow, on this brisk autumn evening, it was colder inside the church than
outdoors . At first, as we looked around, we thought the chuch half empty,
but then noticed that the Gatherers had altered our normal perspective by
having closed in upon themselves. We guessed that this was due to a
combination of the chill and of the need to be close to the performers. From
my personal experience at the Gathering series, I can say that I've never
been more drawn to an event than this one.
If someone were to ask me to define, or demarcate, maybe, exactly what the
Gathering series represents; I'd have to choose last night's Gathering with
Pearce, Mike Griffin and Dave Fulton as the ideal representation of this.
This was such a magical evening; and probably the finest example yet of the
warm sensation of coming together that occurs several times a year in St.
Mary's .

This would be the night that Hypnos founder and musician Mike Griffin and
Hypnos musician Jeff Pearce, after years of developing a friendship through
correspondence and music, would meet. Gordon Danis, the ultimate voice of
elegance in this genre (I cannot wait to hear his impressions of this
evening), made it to the show. Coming down from his home in New York had to
be a difficult trip for him. Shaking his hand tonight filled me with
warmth. So many hard core fans traveled great distances to be there last
night.

Ultimately, though, it's the sharing of the music that draws us. Pearce's
set consisted of a half dozen shorter pieces from "Bleed", which surrounded a
sublimely beautiful ambient drift that seemed to last nearly a half hour.
This extended flow was highlighted by movements from "Bleed" as well, but at
one point sequed nearly invisibly into and out "Beyond and Within" from "To
the Shores of Heaven", maybe Jeff's most beautiful composition, Praise,
too, deserves to be heaped upon Griffin and Fulton's opening set; a
continuous, mostly low-key affair that eventually evolved into an energized
sequenced movement. Mike and Dave are celebrating the release of a brand new
CD of their own, called "Imprint". Our smooth host, Chuck van Zyl, would
comment after this opening set on the contrast of styles of these two
musicians, individuality of form that combines into a unique and entertaining
sound. As well, van Zyl mentioned the contrast of instrument both artists
perfromed upon, describing Fulton's homemade, and rather huge, modulator and
compared this to Griffin's state-of-the-art laptop. Visuals were captivating
during this set. Grid evolutions of computer graphics; from flat planes to
vortexes to some truly far out stuff; seems I imagined things like mollusks
and there was obviously an American flag.

After the music was all said and done, I was in St. Mary's parish hall,
standing in line at the men's room door (doing a unique "man, I gotsta go!"
Mummers-like strut). This is where I met Mike Griffin. Standing there in
line, we spent our time chatting about the evening that had just transpired;
but mostly about the music of Jeff Pearce. During a warm and amusing portion
of Pearce's set, while introducing the first piece from "Bleed", it's called
"Autumn and Regret" (and, like every other piece on this CD, is magical and
stunningly beautiful), Jeff mentioned that throughout the creation and
recording process of "Bleed" that Griffin had heard this particular song
hundreds of times. "Mike got so sick of this song that he made me promise
never to make him listen to it again", Jeff said into his microphone. Jeff
then shot a wink in the direction of Griffin's position seated out in the
church; and commenced playing the gorgeous song. Sorry, Jeff. Mike loved
it. :)

The last piece of music we heard was an encore with all three musicians; ten
minutes long; of sights locked, of music to our ears, and history in the
making.






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]