"Open Futures" is
an inspirational album, in which Singer/Songwriter Aaron Welsh and I travel to the fragile edge of western religious music. This album follows an inner liturgical structure that is very similar to the traditional stories of pilgrimage. Each song of the 5 songs featured in “Open Futures” evolves this concept through recurring musical motifs that echo and return in increasing harmonic complexity.
 
The opening track “Divinum '' is a word that can be translated to mean the infinite, the space of the divine and incense. The genesis of this song began through a recording made the day before Aarron’s first child was born.
 
“Standing At the Precipice” is a reference to Søren Kierkegaard’s notion on “the leap of faith” and answering the call to adventure.
 
During our recording sessions, Aaron and I would regularly discuss our significant life experiences and Carl Jung’s concept of synchronicity. “Everything Flows' ' captures the spirit of these conversations.
 
'The Road of Trials' is a reference to one of the key stages in Joseph Campbell’s model of “the story cycle” which is an academic study of the concepts of heroism, where the individual perspective is challenged through a universal experience.
 
When Aaron and I began collaborating on these in November of 2018, we left many other works behind
“The Place of No Return '' closes the album with a contemplation on self-transcendence. The song begins with a music motif that echoes the prologue track “Divinum” and bridges the listener to the final chorus, where ascending harmonies and open melodies create a universal story of discovery through surrender.

Jesse Blayney