Secret Voices

CD Details

About the Artist

Gaia Consort Gaia: (Gaea) ‘guy-uh’: 1) The Greek Earth Goddess and Mother of the Titans 2) The autopoietic super-organism that is the living biosphere
Consort: ‘kan-soert: 1) one who shares a common lot 2) a ship accompanying another 3) spouse / lover 4) to make harmony 5) a group of singers or instrumentalists performing together
“Gaia Consort makes music that celebrates the Earth, the living planet. We have so much to celebrate – our job is to get people look up from their tarot decks, or their computers or televisions long enough to sense the great cycles, the seasons, maybe just a wonderfully starry night. We make music that takes people out of their usual venues.”
So said Christopher Bingham when he and his partner Sue Tinney resurfaced from a year long performing hiatus at Nudestock ’97 as Gaia Consort. In the spring of 1996, they returned from an admittedly disastrous European “tour” that left them deeply in debt and forced them to literally face the music – to figure out what was important in their lives, and to make music that reflected their values.
Gaia Consort grew out of that inner focus, and people who celebrate Gaia around the world are finding that Gaia Consort’s first (Bingham’s third) CD Gaia Circles has a habit of staying in the CD player. Enough so that Gaia Consort will release their next CD, Secret Voices this summer.
Released by the Seattle, WA based Suddenly Naked Arts Collective in December 1999, Gaia Circles is an “out of the broom closet” collection of celebratory songs about the Earth and our relationship with Her. Guests include Heather Alexander, violin, Dan Ochipinti drums and percussion, Jay Kenney, keyboards, Betsy Tinney, cello, Dan Mohler, bass and Jennifer Kay on backing vocals. Secret Voices continues the tradition with the classiclly influences violin work of Matthew Weiss and Ed Davis.
Gaia Consort have played a variety of festivals and events, including headlining the long running Heartland Pagan Festival (2000) and word is getting out that something interesting is going on in the world of pagan music. Folks who like Sting, Bruce Cockburn or Crosby, Stills and Nash will feel right at home with these dynamic performers.
Christopher Bingham is no stranger to Pacific Northwest audiences. He left his hometown of St Louis to study jazz at The Evergreen State College in Olympia in 1979, fell in love with the Pacific Northwest and stayed. Before Gaia Circles he released two CDs, The Burning (1993) and Angel and the Hanged Man (1995) Several cuts on both CDs have received airplay on a number of college and commercial radio stations across the US and in Europe.
Sue Tinney has a special gift for picking out the perfect harmony line. She’s been singing alto parts all her life and it shows. She’s also co-produced all of Bingham’s Suddenly Naked releases. Growing up literally in the Olympic National park, (Kalaloch and the Hoh river valley) the spirit of the rainforest is imbued in all her work.

Product Description

Secret Voices is Gaia Consort’s second release, and is an interesting step forward for their songwriter Christopher Bingham. Secret Voices rocks a little more and mixes some classic string quartet arrangements with African rhythms. The lyric imagery is drawn from the cycles of nature. Pagans, Gaians and Freethinkers get the music right away. Excellent musicianship has some listeners calling Gaia Consort a “jam band” but the music strikes a solid balance between solos and composed sections.