SUNYATA, formed in a previous century, is a mélange of original Mediterranean, North African and Southwest Saltspring world music served live in a smoldering passion sauce.
“Sunyata has created an absolutely bewitching style of music.. richly textured, rhythmic and skillfully composed.”
Monday Magazine
SUNYATA - corrupting the timeline and lifting spirits for over a decade - A legend of sizzling temporal tonal ecstasy. Not to mention aural hyperbole.
“This group of Gypsy stylists offers an amazing palette of sounds. Only acoustic instruments used-strings and percussion, some of them handmade. Full of soul, Sunyata is never flamboyant. This international acoustic foray left me stunned. Beautiful and encompassing as a painted desert.”
Thomas Schulte,
All-Music Guide
“A unique flamenco hybrid. It's a hypnotic marriage of fluid, dreamy soundscapes and frenzied soloing.”
Victoria Times Colonist
“Sunyata was a mid-summer night's fantasy under the stars. They entertained with absolute abandon...These musicians make music which speaks truth to the heart. Sunyata maintains an incredibly high level of energy throughout every song, which draws the listener towards the Shaman's dance trance of ecstasy. Their intention is the expression of pure freedom and on this magical evening on Saltspring they succeeded.”
Gulf Islands Driftwood
plays what looks like a guitar, but only has 5 strings and is tuned like a mandolin. Let's call it a mandoquela or cinco or just la guitarra bastarda, built by Luthier, Randy Catterall.
Some say as a mandolinist, he has secret guitar-envy. Others say the mandoquela was the result of the acute limitations of the six string guitar. How 5 strings vs 6 is an advancement that bored musicologists of the future will debate.
Jim composes most of the SUNYATA tunes. Some say because he's too lazy to learn other music. Others say it's because there's not much selection in the mandoquela repertoire. We're not sure if even Jim knows. Or cares.
plays Drums, Percussion and lots of it. But he needs more.
Laurent has played various world music variations since the beginning of the world. The late 20th century world. He has performed in many jazz groups, world beat bands, toured Europe, was banned in Britain and lauded on Saltspring Island. He performs with passion, intuition and a drum kit so large that the world is barely able to hold it. Laurent is looking forward to the future of Jupiter music, where he feels his expansive style and expanding drum kit, will fit right in.
brings more than a thousand years of world music expertise. Or at least his Oud does. The Oud is the 2,000+ year old ancestor of the guitar, mandolin and more.
Ken has played in more bands, from Blues to Sufi, than he can remember. He is a master of the guitar and superb Oudist. Some say he's an accomplished Nudist, but what he does on his free time at remote beaches is not our concern. Ken also plays the Nay. No, not the obstructionist political instrument, the Middle Eastern flute. He is a musician's musician. Ken also has co-written/written some songs in the SUNYATA repertoire, usually the more harmonically correct ones.
To liberate the spirit, body, mind and parts in between. Whether they want to be or not.
Why not? Is this a trick question?
Playing beats working
August 28-29 at the Treehouse, Saltspring Island
Live Artistic License
Live at Mobys
A little oud music
Laurent
More Moby Mayhem
Hot tunes
Serious people playing
When you get paid by the note...
Get on a roll
Better red hot than not
Recorded in a previous century when zero budget recording really meant something. Made the top 5 in the world beat charts in Europe, Asia and America. Pretty much the world as we knew it back then.
Now Available as a download.
Another zero-budget production that spared no expense, in keeping with the current extravagant century. The first SUNYATA recording with Laurent and Ken. Featuring guest artist Blaine Dunaway on violin. Entrancing.
CD version available. Contact Us!
Download Coming Soon
Recorded LIVE at the Treehouse on Saltspring Island. It's Ken's fav. Nothing beats the live vibe. Except the studio vibe, but that's a philosophical debate that can only be settled by purchasing the entire Sunyata catalog.
CD version available. Contact Us!
Download Coming Soon
