This album captures a range of moods that one can experience within a large body of trees – sometimes peaceful and refreshing
and sometimes perhaps foreboding. It also takes us on a journey of the imagination such as can be discovered in the books of J.R.R
Tolkien [the Ents of Fangorn forest] and C.S. Lewis [the Dryads of Narnia].
In terms of musical themes I have stuck to my heartlands of progressive rock and a little jazz – when I listen to the tracks I have
composed I can hear influences from Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Wishbone Ash, Peter Gabriel, Pat Metheny, Soft Machine,
Hawkwind, Tony Iommi, Horslips and Thin Lizzy.
What do you hear? Tweet me your thoughts @HoustonAyre
Oh, and I also reprise some of the guitar themes from ‘the Maze’ on my first album
houstonayre.bandcamp.com/album/the-parables-of-the-maze

In relation to the mixing and production I have created a much sparser sound and recorded as much as I could with ‘live’ takes
rather than over-production resulting in an authentic representation of the ‘live’ sound I had intended.
To appreciate the ‘silence of trees’ is something shared with many others but I am also intrigued by the use of tree metaphors in the
bible to represent some of the experiences of our life here on earth and beyond - both the material world and our eternal existence.

Genesis 2
8. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made.
9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.
16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—
17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

1 Chronicles 16
33 Let the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth.

Psalm 92 v12-14
12 The godly grow like a palm tree; they grow high like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Planted in the Lord’s house, they grow in the courts of our God.
14 They bear fruit even when they are old; they are filled with vitality and have many leaves.

Isaiah 65
22 Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses and confiscate their vineyards.
For my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains.

Jeremiah 17
7 But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.