My new album! The Wicked Wonder: A Symphonic Fairy Tale, a project nearly 14 years in the making, is a fairy tale set to music: The King and Queen’s daughter has gone missing and her disappearance has spun the entire realm into disarray and decline. Unsuspectingly, a young shepherdess must become the heroine of the land in its darkest hour…
Howard Ashman, the great lyricist and driving creative force behind Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin, said that a good retelling of a timeless tale conveys to your listeners what your own unique experience of awe was when you heard that story for the very first time:
- The Wicked Wonder is a retelling of The Brothers Grimm fairy tale, The Princess and the Tree, as retold and interpreted by Carl Jung in Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious.
2. The Wicked Wonder is a retelling of Dark Side of Oz, the cult classic in which Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is cued up to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz movie.
3. The Wicked Wonder is a retelling of Beethoven’s 3rd symphony—the Eroica (“heroic”).
I am so grateful to our band, Vatchapuj Collective, featuring 13 performers from the US, France, and Thailand. The album was recorded in all three countries and is a testament to my many journeys, both geographic and spiritual, and a tribute to the amazing souls I’ve had the honor to play and commune with along the way.
This album is dedicated to my daughter, Luce Sophia DiRuzza, the freshly rooted light of wisdom in my life. In finally bringing this project to a finish, I ritually let go of the place of prominence of my solar ego, embracing the lunar web that connects me to every other—my wife, my daughter, my family, my community, my planet, my world. The Wicked Wonder is about how the individualist myth must finally give way to a metaphysics of relationship: “Our lovers and children make us frightened of dying—autonomy eclipsed by communion.” The Wicked Wonder is about how the lone hero must finally become a responsible leader and a member of a team.
I encourage you to give it a deep listen from start to finish (48’) on a nice sound system or pair of headphones, above, on Spotify or your favorite streaming service, or after downloading. If you’re into lighting a candle or elevating your mood, it’s surely one of those albums. You can also listen and watch cued up to the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz motion picture.
I would love for you to share this creative offering with your networks. I welcome your responses and reflections!
Wishing you a bright blessed year after the darkest hours of 2020,
Travis
Reality Conspires 