IMAGE AND NATION: AMBIENT WESTERN NEW AGE
Glenn Grubbs began playing bass when he was 14. He has since picked up many other instruments. Most of his bands up to this point have been loud, high energy bands of various rock based genres. This project, Image And Nation, is very different from anything else he’s done.
Image And Nation began as a rather humble idea. Glenn thought he'd like to try his hand at creating some New Age music. He thought he'd make a little 5 song EP to sell at his other bands shows to folks who were interested. That humble idea was what he started trying to make reality on Dec 6th 2004. That humble idea grew. Although the original idea was to do a New Age project, it hasn’t quite turned out that way. There is still a lot of New Age influence on Image And Nation, but it has also incorporated elements of World Music, Western Film Score, Ambient Experimental and even a little dance (thus the genre Ambient Western New Age). Besides incorporating genres not always mixed with New Age music, Image And Nation also delves into emotional territory not always associated with New Age. Though many songs are meditative and peaceful, some are melancholy and contemplative. Some are joyful and vibrant. Some are even angry and somewhat aggressive.
Christa Durand and Glenn met when they were both attending Sonoma State University. She has spent her life in training as a classical and opera singer. They found that although they had very different musical backgrounds they shared many common views of music, art, and music as an art form. They have since found that they work very well together, and began collaborating on many of the Image And Nation tracks.
Image And Nation is not a real “band†in the strictest sense of the word. It’s technically Glenn’s side project. As such Glenn is the only real “memberâ€. However, it can not be stressed enough how invaluable Christa has been to the project.
Through many starts, stops, collaborations both failed and successful Image And Nation has been in the process of creating 2 albums:
The first one, “Nomad†shall be released very soon. It will be 2 CDs clocking in at 1:39:11. It will have 16 tracks. Besides the music, there will be a visual and narrative component to the album. That will be discussed more as it comes together.
The tracks on this website that will appear on Nomad include:
Engellar Tems Cella
The Wind Blows West
The Wasted Lands
View From An I
The second, with the working title of “Worlds Apart†will probably be ready in 2010.
The tracks on this website that will appear on that album are:
They Were Dancing As Dawn Broke
My Great Escape
…And So It Goes On.
Besides her work with Image And Nation, Christa frequently performs as an opera singer.
Besides his work with Image And Nation, Glenn is the bassist, keyboardist, and programmer for Tesseract7, the bay area’s premiere explosive cyberpunk mayhem band.
