Michael Guinn

I'm an American composer now living in England. Although long ago I made music in a singer-songwriter style with the guitar as my favored instrument, I have in recent years approached composition with a fuller instrumental palette. My sources of inspiration often come from the visual arts or literary works. The Epic of Gilgamesh is one such work. I remember reading the Epic of Gilgamesh as a college student in California, the state where I was born, and thinking that it would make a terrific film. Only years later did I also think it would make a terrific musical stage work. The project is now complete and being prepared for the stage.

Inner Vibration is an album of mainly instrumental pieces, some of which began as intended pieces for Gilgamesh but soon morphed into standalone pieces that took on a life of their own. Others were done as a break from the main project. “Todesfuge (for Paul)” and the title track are award winners. “Murano Dream” became “Siduri” in the Gilgamesh project. For more information and samples, please click on the Inner Vibration link at the top  of the website.

I have also composed a suite of pieces based on Hermann Hesse's magnificent book 'Siddhartha'. You can find an example in the player at the top of this page. These are all instrumental pieces; however, on two tracks I was very fortunate to find in the neighborhood where I lived in Japan a Buddhist monk with a voice that has great power and clarity. He chants in the Buddha's own language of Pali on two of the pieces in vibrant contributions that lend the music an evocative, mysterious quality. It was his essential participation that made the entire project work, in my view. I recall vividly taking a carload of recording equipment out to his temple in the summer. The trees around it were buzzing with cicadas, and there was birdsong everywhere. My first thought was that the recording would not work in such an environment. However, after we got the equipment inside and closed the temple doors behind us, the silence inside was stunning! It seemed part of the magic of the place. And then to hear the rich voice of our monk intoning the words of the Buddha was something that carried me away, and I hope that it will do the same for the listener when it is available.