This music marks a reunion of two friends and collaborators picking up where they left off… Filmmaker Jan Nickman and I met in the early 1980’s and came together as part of a successful Seattle based video and record company. Along with our friend, music producer and musician, Paul Speer, we helped forge a body of work as a creative team for this young, innovative company and collaborated on several landmark video music albums. These included Natural States, a study of our lush Pacific Northwest, and the contrasting Southwestern visual and musical odyssey, Desert Vision. With those days well behind us, and after much success in our respective fields, we fast-forward nearly twenty years. Jan approached me to create the music for his concept of capturing the American Southwest in a more meaningful and intimate way; a “visual music” project to be filmed in the High Definition Video format. And we agreed it would be great to work together again! In the early stages of the production, Jan and I seemed to anticipate each other’s flow and rhythm; the visuals and music developing and growing together gracefully. This is not to say that a tremendous amount of time and energy wasn’t expended to make this vision come to life. However, in the end the artistic goal was accomplished. The music and pictures had fused into a cohesive and satisfying statement. We are honored to have been part of this production and very grateful for all the talented musicians, technicians, and cast and crew who contributed to its creation. Our hope is we may now share with you this vision of the Great American Southwest; this mysterious and cherished land that is surely one of our Earth’s Living Temples. In Peace, David Lanz