Transcendental Desecration was originally co-founded by Gideon Cissna (aka: Lord Gwydyon, GroundZero, Gridlok) and Kevin Neher (aka: KevCo, Kevlar) in 1991 in Santa Cruz CA. In the beginning the band was an experimental, improv-performance project that tended toward the extreme psychedelic in concept and flavor. It often had an open door line-up policy with regards to jam and recording sessions (similar to bands such as Pigface). Between 1991 and 1997, TD recorded 212 full albums/jam sessions and independently hand-published and released at least 50 of those to local and Bay Area fans and friends. Around 1998, KevCo quit the band which then went on a hiatus. Shortly after that, Gridlok met Maggy Mjolnir who essentially demanded to join the band to play bass and synths. She was enthusiastically inducted into the band, but the band did not officially resume music production until 2000-2001. Transcendental Desecration, now located in San Diego CA, eventually picked up where it left off with an all new studio and all new equipment and tools. This new incarnation of TD also had a new approach and greater level of sophistication than before. By 2004, TD was officially an equal collaboration between Gridlok and Mjolnir and no longer included other guest musicians or performers. To this day, the two are still prolifically producing music and several new albums are in the works.

Br.·. John works in electroacoustic and computer-assisted music composition. His works, composed for traditional and experimental media, have been broadcast and performed internationally. He taught music theory, composition, counterpoint, and electronic music at Miami University and the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. John has over thirty years of saxophone performance experience, including work in blues, jazz, avante-garde, and experimental idioms. He has performed with the US Navy Band, Crane Saxophone Quartet, and The Cajun Connection, and traveled extensively as an instrumental performer throughout the Pacific Marianas and Marshall Islands, Caribbean, and Central and South America. He has studied composition with Salvatore Martirano, C. James Sheppard, Paul Steinberg, G. Roger Davis, John Melby, Paul Martin Zonn, Morgan Powell, and Elliott DelBorgo. John is a level-1 Healing Touch practitioner, and was Director of Pegasus Healing Systems (2000). He also was a s6k producer for Real University News. John lives in a cave in the Shatagee Woods, where he has become transformed into a mysterious Adirondack hermit. He is Founder of The Shatagee Museum of Unnatural History, where he researches esoterika, audio synthesis, algorithmic composition, produces psychedelic techno, develops music composition software, and enjoys the woods.

Steve Cochrane is a self-taught guitarist/vocalist/songwriter who entered the musical arena with grand artistic ambitions. Throughout the 90s, he released a trilogy of albums bearing a trademark epic style. “A kick in the uplifting end of our soul”. “Musically invigorating and compositionally dynamic”. "A symphonic prog lover's wet dream". These were typical comments, along with favourable reviews and considerable airplay throughout Europe, various pockets in the US and in Quebec.

Fast-forward to the current century and a new album called With Or Without, which takes a leaner song-based approach with emphasis on acoustic guitar and vocals. Still, the prog/art rock influences shine through in the intricate arrangements, fluid guitar stylings and in the lyrics, which are often surrealistic and philosophical.

It begins with a brief finger-picked acoustic prelude, then “Key to the Sea” bursts forth with aggressive strumming and a muscular bass line. “The Greatest Since Rembrandt” offers a tongue-in-cheek look at pretense in the art world before surrendering to memories of youthful serenity in ‘Swans”. The final four tracks flow together to create an epic of sorts, including the dramatic “Abandon Ship” and the uplifting closer “Rise Like the Sun”. Unlike most of the CDs that are coming out by the thousands these days, With Or Without is an album that is meant to be listened to from beginning to end.... repeatedly.

If you wish to learn more about Steve Cochane and hear tracks from his first three albums, visit www.spiritcompass.com

•  Rush goes acoustic

Composer, Sound Design, Filmmaker, Songwriting and General Mayhem.

Born in San Diego, California in 1980, Devin Anderson has studied classical piano, composition with Prix de Rome winner Jim Heinke, film music with composer Hummie Mann and attended The Seattle Film Institutes 40 week Total Immersion program. Twice. He also plays bass with former PCP Berzerker members, Eric Hunter and Rod Bailey, in a currently unnamed rock group, and frequently collaborates with his wife, singer and saxophonist J. Marie Anderson.

As a composer, in addition to scoring his own directorial debut, a short entitled ‘Folie à Deux’, he has composed music for several independent pictures, including but not limited to Wisconsin born filmmaker Jack Bennett’s surrealist film ‘Synthetik’ (which received it’s award-winning World Premiere at The Beloit International Film Festival in January of 2008) and Tim Boyd’s film ‘Uniforms’ which starred members of popular group Death Cab for Cutie.

He has provided music for two promotional films produced by The Northwest Film Forum, the regions first and only non-profit organization for the film arts. He has composed concert works in various genres, including solo instrumental works, vocal works, and chamber ensemble, and recently was commissioned to compose for an Art Exhibition of egg tempura painter Nathan DiPietro.

He has just completed musical duties on a short film, again for director Jack Bennett, entitled ‘The Neu Transients’. The picture runs 5 minutes and is a memorial to the City of old now over-run by condos and commercial construction, and uses the Seattle cityscape, the music, and the film’s two lead actors (Benjamin Moody and Astrid Benet) to explore ideas of reflection, space, rhythm and transformation. The work premiered at the Northwest Film Forum as part of their City Symphony program on November 19th.

His score to ‘Folie à Deux’ was awarded the Gold Medal for Excellence at the 2008 Park City Film Music Festival under the catagory Best Original Music - Short Film.

His particular type of electronic-rock (?) songs are strange, somewhat crude, and personal - rough first-take all-to-human vocals, with consistantly surreal lyrics, laid over intricately crafted, orchestral-like backing music and boiled to a simmer.

He hopes to continue being involved in film and music until his death.