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From The Dreamtime – 4:29

Written by Jeff Oster and Samite

Published by Retso Music (ASCAP) and Samite Music (BMI)

Jeff Oster – Flugelhorn

Samite – Mbira,Vocals

Michael Manring – Bass

Philip Aaberg - Synthesizer

Derrik Jordan – Djembe, Cuica, Guiro

Engineered by Corin Nelsen

Mixed by Bryan Carrigan and Jeff Oster at Hyperion Studios – Los Angeles, CA.

Recorded at Imaginary Road Studios - Brattleboro, VT October 2006

© 2007 Jeff Oster and Samite

This song began when Will asked Samite to create a basic track with the mbira (kalimba) that you hear at the beginning of this piece. At the sessions, we built the song from that foundation. As I lived with this song as it was being created, it made me wonder where music comes from. How does it appear? WHY does it appear?

Australia's indigenous peoples conceive of all things beginning with the Dreaming or (in some Indigenous languages) Altjeringa (also called the Dreamtime), a 'once upon a time' time out of time where archetypal ancestral spirit-beings formed the World.

For the Aboriginal Australians the Dreamtime is their understanding of the how the Ancestral Spirits created the landscape and every living thing. It is also the beginning of knowledge and the stories of the laws of existence that ensure survival.

Songlines are an ancient cultural concept, perpetuated through oral lore and singing and other forms of storytelling such as dance and painting. Songlines are an intricate series of song cycles that identify landmarks and subtle tracking mechanisms for navigation. These songs often evoke how the features of the land were created and named during the Dreaming.

Music ties us to and comes from “the time before time”. From the dreamtime….