Poetic dream worlds and alternate realities converge as Haynes’ mystic theater-of-the future unfolds. Haynes is a shape-shifter and dramatic story-teller, personifying the cast of characters who populate her songs: An alien child from the future who sends a comet of love and awakening to earth (“The Love Comet”), A voodoo high priestess performing a soul retrieval (“Your Wonderland”), and a robot shaman priest preaching the ways of the new humanism (“All Are One”). Tackling themes such as death of the ego, globalization, oneness, rebirth, and hope; Haynes carves out the template of her brave new world. Disillusioned with dystopia themes in pop culture, Haynes sought an alternative vision. She delved into the writings of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Bucky Fuller, and mystics Rumi & Aurobindo. Haynes explored music’s ancient roots as a medium for enchantment, magic, worship, and exorcism. Following her intuition, Haynes found further inspiration in the Northern lights, DNA, light through a prism, stars and planets in space, and the music of the spheres. The end result portrays Haynes’ vision of a world where the unity and oneness of all life is perceived. Album Art The album’s cover features the work “Frequency of Flower of Life” by Swedish artist, Emily Arnold. Arnold crafted the ideal symbol to illuminate Haynes’ musical and lyrical vision: The Flower of Life is said to be the blueprint of the universe, containing the basis for the design of every atom, molecular structure, and every life form in existence. It is a visual expression of the life force connection that runs through all sentient beings and depicts the fundamental forms of space and time. Album Credits To record “All Are One,” Sophe Lux & The Mystic’s Gwynneth Haynes teamed up with up with co-producer/engineer Larry Crane, (Elliot Smith, She & Him, Cat Power, Pavement, The Decembrists, Jenny Lewis, Sleater Kinney). Co-produced by Haynes and Crane, the album was recorded at Jackpot Recording Studio in Portland, Oregon. Haynes wrote the songs, sang lead and backing vocals, composed string and operatic arrangements, played pianos, B-3 Organs, synthesizers, and vintage drum machines. Crane created psychedelic sound collages and backwards synths to create surreal sonic nuances. He also laid down bass lines, programed drums, and played Fripp and Eno inspired e-bow guitars. The album’s sound was created organically and intuitively, primarily using analogue instruments. Paul Pulvirenti (touring and session drummer for Elliot Smith), came in one day and made drum loops. These live drum loops were mixed with the programed drums. Dan Lowinger (Western Centuries) played some of the guitars on “Love is Waiting” and “Your Wonderland” Highlighted Tracks The album opens with “Your Wonderland.” Amidst a gentle riot of disco glides, R&B vocals, 80’s beats, and operatic overdubs; Haynes pulls you into the underworld, turns you inside out, pulls out your ghosts and spits out your demons. She commands you to call your power back from the ephemeral world of illusion and risk everything for love: “Don’t you go to your grave with your song unsung.” In “The Love Comet,” against a landscape of funerary organs and lonely whale calls, the narrator delivers an epitaph for humanity as seen through the eyes of an empathetic alien child from the future. The alien child sends a comet of love back in time to earth in hope that it will get to us before we blow it. The comet that is sent by the alien child in “The Love Comet” resurfaces in some of the other songs to connect the themes of rebirth and awakening. “The Infinite Colors of Desire” begins with a prog-rock infused pastoral introduction. As the song unfolds, our longing for the earth and the earth’s longing for us is explored against a soul-infused landscape of swirling synths and funk-inspired bass lines. In “The Earth Breathes” backwards synths, etheric vocals, and radio waves rise like a dream state: As the Comet has arrived on earth we see the dawn of a new era rising. Haynes asks us to think about what would happen if the earth woke up. The ending line “All of creation is waiting for you to be married to yourself” symbolizes the integration of the shadow and light: An invitation to integrate the opposites within to help build a world beyond good and evil. In “All Are One:”The robot preacher shaman sings about the birth of a new world. The song ends with an operatic-fueled, climactic crescendo as the futuristic robot preacher and his choir of angels offer up a cosmic call and response sermon: “We need your love! To help us find our way! To earth’s destiny!”