Ex Oriente: Music by GI Gurdjieff

In keeping with the teachings of GI Gurdjieff, the creation of Ex Oriente has been a long, non-linear journey. Gurdjieff was an influential esoteric spiritual teacher from Alexandropol who, before settling in Europe, travelled widely in Asia searching for answers to life's mysteries while collecting melodies from its temples. In his philosophy, which combines Eastern and Western spirituality, sound is a major component. After settling in France, at night Gurdjieff would regularly play – often with a single finger on a guitar, harmonium or piano – the melodies he recalled, as well as new compositions. Russian composer Thomas de Hartmann, who lived with Gurdjieff for a number of years, transcribed many of these melodies onto the piano, developing a musical relationship with Gurdjieff that would create over 300 works rooted in Eastern spiritual sonority, 13 of which appear on this album.

German-Portuguese classical guitarist Gunter Herbig's lifelong interest in the music and teachings of Gurdjieff started as a teenager. However, his attempts to play the music on classical guitar were aborted owing to the instrument's shortcomings. It was only decades later when he experimented with an electric guitar that his transcriptions began to click. The result is a deeply contemplative album. The unadorned guitar with its stark sound and deceptive simplicity only adds to the meditative and transportative quality of the music, which shimmers and reverberates. Look out your window while listening and the world may appear in altered light.