LuxMusica - Expressions of Essence

Welcome to the web's most unique collection of music, art, books and other indispensible tools for illuminating the journey of life.

We feature work by remarkable people who have mastered their chosen means of expression. Items in this ever-growing catalog are chosen for their appeal to the thoughtful, aware person.

So take a breath, sit back, explore and enjoy these treasures, and let's see where the road leads...

GreenArtPrints
The Illuminated Art of Michael Green

Giclée fine art prints in open, signed and limited editions by celebrated artist and author, Michael Green.

Featuring works from the books The Illuminated Rumi, The Illuminated Prayer, Unicornis as well as the series, American Zen; Art, Science & Religion and The Afterculture. In all, more than 100 prints are available from six galleries.

Green's work is deeply spiritual and is a reflection of the marvelous journey that is his life.

Wynne Alexander
Knowing Love By Its Absence CD

This compelling singer-songwriter has spent a lifetime looking beyond the obvious. She's probed the true nature of things and now she's forging that experience into a stunning body of work. It's the kind of vision that makes her a genuinely unique performer. And as people discover her songs, they simply want to hear more. Wynne calls her sound "Cosmopolitan Rock." It's a term that neatly sums up the delicate balance she achieves between sophistication and unvarnished emotion.

The Threshold Society
Books & CDs

THE THRESHOLD SOCIETY, rooted within the traditions of Sufism and inspired by the life and work of Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi, is a non-profit educational foundation with the purpose of facilitating the experience of Divine unity, love and wisdom in the world.The Society represents the Mevlevi Order in North America, and offers training programs, seminars and retreats around the world.

" Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, idolator, worshipper of fire,
come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
Come, and come yet again.
Ours is not a caravan of despair."

The Mevlevi Order is represented in North America by Kabir Helminski, appointed to this position by the late Dr. Celaleddin Celebi of Istanbul, Turkey, head of the Mevlevi Tariqa (Order) and direct descendant of Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi. Under Kabir's direction The Mevlevi Order is working to apply traditional Sufi principles to the conditions of contemporary life.

Bob Gold
Departures CD

This album began as a collection of my own written compositions mixed with those of several composers I’ve been inspired by. As the recording evolved, though, I began to realize that I was missing a level of intimacy that I had developed with my Steinway Model D. There’s a musical connection that can happen while the rest of the world is asleep and the tuning and hearing and even the humidity seem to come together. I then adjusted my sights on capturing those very late night moments, free of sheet music and performance notes.

Most of these performance/compositions were of the moment, recorded in two weekend sessions in August of 2001.

Down Eastern Hymn was a second or third improvised attempt at capturing the mood of a painting done by my father, and White Sands, New Mexico was one of several passes at capturing the open feeling I had traveling in the Southwest.

Easter Parade is from the evocative first album by the group Blue Nile from Scotland, A Walk Across the Rooftops. Time Remembered is one of Bill Evan’s compositions, now a jazz standard, in which I improvise over his harmonic outline before stating the melody. Musica Callada is a set of four books of “silent music” by the Spaniard Federico Mompou. His piano works have a freshness and brevity that give me the feeling of an immaculate improvisation somehow preserved. This first piece of the Musica Callada, with its performance marking “angelico,” has a vanishing open door quality, which I can never leave without improvising on. This work was also chosen as a vehicle of improvisation on several occasions by pianist Richie Beirach.

My approach to improvising on this album had some relationship to the film soundtrack. I wanted the music to relate to image and feeling without concern for musical categories, even though I can hear elements of jazz and classical styles, and even folk in the result. On some of the improvisations, I had put photographs and old lobby cards on the music stand, which helped to distance me from an awareness of notes and keys and microphones. A hopeful goal was to capture that elusive moment when a musical idea comes alive in the playing, which I think is also something close to a self-portrait.

Part One and Part Two are my nostalgic reference to the LP, where the listener was forced to take at least a short break between gulps.

"CRAIG URQUHART is a truly gifted composer... his tonal approach is not merely 'sincere,' but genuinely moving, with a private beauty of its own."
---LEONARD BERNSTEIN