IntroductionSome say that over 900,000 years ago there existed a civilization predating Atlantis in the Pacific Ocean. This lost continent, now buried in the ocean depths was called Mu or Lemuria. Some people claim that it may even have been the Garden of Eden. But for me, my brother Mick and our good friend Don, Lemuria has a more direct and personal meaning which has cultivated itself into a huge body of musical expression and creativity.
The LemuriaMusic Story
Back in the early 1980's, I was returning home from a peaceful day of playing acoustic guitar out in the woods by my home town in New York State. I was walking along some old railroad tracks that were surrounded by woods and swampland. All of a sudden, I heard a loud, piercing cry in the woods to my right. I stopped and looked and saw a creature hanging upside down in a tree. The creature was quite large with brownish-orange fur and a lengthy furry tail. It had these piercing eyes that seemed to look right through me and I had the feeling that it wanted me to see him. The encounter lasted for what seemed to be about 20 to 30 seconds and ended with the creature meandering down the tree, reaching the ground and giving me one last glance over the shoulder before disappearing into the brush. For years I pondered the encounter and was often compelled to return to the exact spot where I saw it.
Some ten years later, while reading the morning newspaper, I came across an article about UFO sightings in the New York area during the 1980's. The article mentioned animals called Lemurs. Not knowing what a lemur was, I opened my dictionary and discovered an illustration of an animal that looked exactly like the creature I had seen ten years earlier. That day then triggered a whirlwind of related profound experiences which has become the inspiration for many of my musical writings, including naming our trio Lemuria.
The works on this CD (our debut) hope to express our feelings about nature, our hopes and fears and the future of ourselves and our planet. Lemuria, for us, is an infinite time line with infinite possibilities that connect the past to the future and reveals itself in the truth of the moment, where all of life and creation come full circle. We hope you enjoy our mission.
God bless,
Jimmy Kopchak