To enter the world of My House is the Sky is to enter a place of lyrical French horns, strings, Spanish guitars and drums. This is our fourth album, and while we continue to step back in time and connect with more ancient sounds, we also worked on crafting a more defined rock sound on some of the tracks. Also we felt it important to make it an album of contrasts, offering a sense of journey and exploration for listeners.

There are the big sounds of 'The Gathering' and 'Sandansko Horo,' a little bit of comedy with 'The Bespectacled Bears Waltz,' and 'A Cup of Tea with Santiago,' and we finish the album with 'To Morocco with the Stars,' with desert winds, an Arabic oud, a typewriter and folk bass guitar that we bought during a visit to that country while on tour in Spain.

"Virtuoso Thirteen" is an expansion on a mixtape titled "12 Steps to Serenity", which I released on Youtube several weeks before releasing this album. This album omits several tracks with unclearable samples, and also omits several tracks too short to follow the flow of the album. It also includes several extra tracks to replace these tracks.

"Virtuoso Thirteen" is a collection of every track I produced since "Enter Singularity" that is eligible for a Creative Commons license. This album took over two years to complete, and showcases the best production techniques available to me during that time period.

Lisa Lynne and Aryeh Frankfurter perform traditional melodies and original compositions rooted in world folk traditions. This album features the Celtic folk harp and Swedish nyckelharpa, supported by a rich assortment of acoustic instruments to create a graceful and heartfelt collection of timeless music.

Both of us have produced many records and from that we knew and respected each other. In fact, as a teenager playing electric violin in a rock band and just starting Celtic harp, Aryeh had read a newspaper story about a heavy metal bassist who also played the harp. That was Lisa. Both of us spent our early years street-performing with our harps and became recording artists. Our paths however, never crossed until many years later when we teamed up to drive together to present at a harp conference in Montana; a mini tour to include some shows along the way and in which we would share the bill and accompany each other on stage.

It was on that long drive we realized that we both loved all the same unexpected music. Certainly we both enjoyed and revered Medieval, Renaissance, Celtic folk and world music. But it was actually the 70's AM pop and progressive rock - the music we both grew up on - over which we bonded.

So we performed each other's music; each adding distinct musical sensibilities and various instruments to the other. Aryeh had recently taken up the Swedish Nyckelharpa to play on Lisa's tunes and Lisa was playing more mandolin and guitar with Aryeh, on his. There was magic from the very first notes we played together. Everyone who experienced our concerts wanted to have a recording of the music as we were performing it.

So after the tour, with our favorite songs of each other's in mind, we commenced a recording project in Aryeh's San Francisco cottage recording studio. This basement studio looks to be a museum-worthy collection of exquisite wood and strings. Add Lisa's special instruments and you have a wealth of possibility - a veritable troubadour's dream. We embarked to make the best recording we could: one which would be infused with the energy and spirit of our collaborative vision, our two worlds of musical history, a fusion of ancient and contemporary coming together into one...Two Worlds One.

This recording is the result. It's a very honest and sincere offering and we hope we did justice to this music we love. We wish it to bring a bit of beauty and grace into your home and your life, like it has to ours.

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) is regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era. Born into a family that was indifferent to music; his early talent was so pronounced that his father grudgingly allowed him to receive training in his native Germany. His studies took him to Italy as well, before settling in London (1712) where he became a naturalized British subject in 1727. Although Handel is primarily known for his larger creations (operas, oratorios, motets, passions, cantatas) his smaller scale works are greatly admired and often performed by instrumentalists.

Handel and J. S. Bach were both German-born in 1685 and comparisons are difficult to avoid. Bach's work lay in comparative obscurity for half a century, whereas Handel was internationally renowned in his lifetime. One of the curious ironies of music history is that both men would be afflicted with debilitating cataracts in their later years and undergo surgery at the hand of the same oculist, John Taylor. This surgery by today's standards was extremely crude resulting in very little visual improvement, and of course, there was no anesthesia or sterile-technique at that time. Unfortunately, Bach died as a result of bacterial contamination from the procedure at age 65. Handel lived to age 74.

Throughout his life Handel avoided the rigorous contrapuntal techniques of Bach and achieved his effects through the simplest of means, trusting always his own innate musicianship. Both composers often practiced a kind of musical "recycling" where they would take a work composed for one medium and recast it for another. It would not have been uncommon in Handel's day to hear a recorder concerto played as an organ sonata. Such interchangeability was possible in the more abstract instrumental sound of the Baroque. It remained for later composers to create music whose effect depended mainly on the sound of specific instruments.

Cover art image courtesy of Mike Stenhouse on flickr.com

This Grammy-Ballotted and Parent's Choice Award Winning album is a compilation of best-loved songs from the good old days. Grandchildren's Delight offers creative new versions of classic kids songs that critics have hailed as "pitch perfect for the entire family" and "not sugared up or dummied down".

This album includes a beautiful new versions of old-time classics such as "This Little Light of Mine", "Oh Susannah", "Little Liza Jane" and "Akin Drum". Cute and clever, but never cliché are versions of "Playmate", "Do Your Ears Hang Low" and "Be Kind To Your Webbed Footed Friends". "La Cucaracha" makes for a fun bilingual (Spanish/English) nonsense song and "Over In The Meadow" is a sweet version of the age-old counting song with a few new lyrical twists and turns.

If you're looking for children's music that's savvy enough to be enjoyed by all ages and doesn't send older listeners running out of the room - this is it!