Intro to Dream of Separation CD

By Lawrence App, from The Dream of Separation Website:

The Dream of Separation.

The title was inspired by a concept common to several strains of Eastern thought and religion. In this belief, our perceptions of being an entity separate and apart from the physical world, our fellow humans, god, and even parts of ourselves is an illusion, the 100-year dream of the ego that we call “life.” When we awaken from the dream we see our true nature as oneness, the fullness of god and creation within every creature.

Many of the songs in this collection may seem sad or depressing. The period of time when most of them were written I was coming to terms with my father’s death, my mother succumbing to dementia, estrangement from family and friends due to addiction and mental illness, and a loss of direction in my own life. Grief and disillusion seemed to reign supreme.

But out of all this, this theme of loss and separation, came a new aspiration to awaken from the dream. Often these very painful experiences that I would most like to avoid have helped me to find strength and wholeness that I never knew existed in me. I can still fall asleep so easily, but I hope this album may inspire others to awaken when things seem darkest, and perhaps you can help me when life hits me and I forget all this.

Musically, I wanted The Dream to be pretty straightforward: acoustic guitar and voice; singer-songwriter stuff that I could do live. The songs are still more than “3-chord specials” but I wanted the tunes and the poetry to be the focus rather than a lot of arrangement and soloing. I could cite so many influences: Billy Collins, Richard Wilbur, Rumi on the lyrical side; Kurt Elling, Sting, on the musical side. But my true hero (or heroine in this case) is Joni Mitchell. If I were to dedicate this album to anyone it would be her. I’ve been a fan of her music for many years, but rediscovering the incandescent albums Blue through Hejira opened my heart and mind about songwriting again, and gave me courage to put my own soul out here for inspection.

As far as credits and thank you’s I could go on and on. Special thanks to all the musicians who participated on this project: Peter, Billy, Joe, Scott, Big Al. Thanks to many friends for their encouragement and support, especially Ron, Harry, Anora, Danny, Phil, James, Peetie, Tom and Kathi. And thanks to Patricia for standing beside me through a lot of tedium and frustration. Special thanks also to Ezra and Elizabeth for the verse to “Gatha” and to Ezra for his seemingly endless patience with me.