The Music

 When you are listening to "Quintessence" by Larry Morrow you are listening to World Music. Music which uses distinctive ethnic scales, modes and musical inflections, and which is usually performed on or accompanied by distinctive traditional ethnic instruments. 

The Concept

 In physics, quintessence is a hypothetical form of energy postulated to exist as a possible explanation of observations of an accelerating universe. It is used in particle physics.

 In ancient and medieval natural philosophy, quintessence, meaning "fifth element", was another term for aether; it is the substance of which the heavenly bodies were supposed to be composed.

 Quintessence and the corresponding adjective quintessential are also used in the figurative sense of "(a thing) that is the perfect example of its kind". 

 The concept of a life-energy inherent in all living beings seems to be a fairly universal archetype, and appears in numerous ancient religions and systems of metaphysics.

The Imagery

 Imagery selected for the CD artwork is an attempt to visualize the fifth element, that invisible substance of which heavenly bodies are composed.  It seemed the best approach was to use  images of  heavenly bodies that are still forming.  Perhaps in there could be seen that quintessential root of all music.

 Some of the graphics for "Quintessence" were taken from actual NASA photographs of the universe.   Others were  taken from NASA images showing small parts of our world that have recently had a global impact on culture as a whole. Still others were taken right here on Earth by earthlings.

 The original images were modified resulting in the composite images used in production.  Here are the original images and an attempt to answer some the questions that fans have been asking about the artwork.

Planet Earth

Carina Nebula

Date: 02.03.2000 
Title: Light and Shadow in the Carina Nebula 
Description: Previously unseen details of a mysterious, complex structure within the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) are revealed by this image of the "Keyhole Nebula," obtained with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The picture is a montage assembled from four different April 1999 telescope pointings with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, which used six different color filters. The picture is dominated by a large, approximately circular feature, which is part of the Keyhole Nebula, named in the 19th century by Sir John Herschel. This region, about 8000 light-years from Earth, is located adjacent to the famous explosive variable star Eta Carinae, which lies just outside the field of view toward the upper right. The high resolution of the Hubble images reveals the relative three- dimensional locations of many of these features, as well as showing numerous small dark globules that may be in the process of collapsing to form new stars. Two striking large, sharp-edged dust clouds are located near the bottom center and upper left edges of the image. The former is immersed within the ring and the latter is just outside the ring. The pronounced pillars and knobs of the upper left cloud appear to point toward a luminous, massive star located just outside the field further toward the upper left, which may be responsible for illuminating and sculpting them by means of its high-energy radiation and stellar wind of high-velocity ejected material. These large dark clouds may eventually evaporate, or if there are sufficiently dense condensations within them, give birth to small star clusters. The Carina Nebula, with an overall diameter of more than 200 light- years, is one of the outstanding features of the Southern Hemisphere portion of the Milky Way. The diameter of the Keyhole ring structure shown here is about 7 light-years. These data were collected by the Hubble Heritage Team and Nolan R. Walborn (STScI), Rodolfo H. Barba' (La Plata Observatory, Argentina), and Adeline 
Caulet (France).
ID: GPN-2000-000880 
Other ID: PR00-06 
Credit: NASA Headquarters - GReatest Images of NASA (NASA-HQ-GRIN) 

Iran, Trucial Coast

Date: 11.13.1966 
Title: Iran, Trucial Coast, Oman, Zagros Mts. and Qiahm Island seen from Gemini 12 
Description: Iran, Trucial Coast, Oman, Zagros Mountains and Qiahm Island as seen from the Gemini 12 spacecraft during its 25th revolution of the earth. Gulf of Oman is at lower left edge and the Persian Gulf is large body of water in upper half of photo. 
ID: S66-63485 
Credit: NASA Johnson Space Center (NASA-JSC) 

Kuwait

M27

Date: 02.11.2003 
Title: Close-up of M27, the Dumbbell Nebula 
Description: An aging star's last hurrah creates a flurry of glowing knots of gas that appear to be streaking through space. This closeup image of the Dumbbell Nebula was taken by the JPL-built and designed Wide Field and Planetary 2 Camera, onboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. 
ID: PIA04249 
Credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA-JPL)