THE ALBUM'S HISTORY… The Mandala Sessions was a musical adventure that took almost 2 years to complete, from concept to birth, before finally coming to life in May 2000... Since late 1997, I had wanted to produce an album that would mix acoustic, lyric driven songs with a more “trip-hop” or electronic feel, an album that my friends around the world could put on after a hard day’s work, kick back, have a drink (or spark up...), and travel with for an hour or so, loosing the stress of modern day life while traveling through a forest of acoustic and electronic sounds. By the fall of 1998, I had begun writing and re-working songs with this goal in mind but hadn’t yet found the path I really wanted... A few months later, during the summer 1999, my new musical brother Fly and I were playing at our boy Boubou’s restaurant, The Mandala, on the Carribean island of Saint Bart’s (rough gig... really...). One evening, with Boubou on the turntables, we improvised a set that mixed some of our songs with add-libs on samples that Boubou was playing for us. As Fly and I avidly listened to the recordings of the show later that night (4am, to be precise) we realized that the roadmap that we had been looking for had just been sketched. We invited some friends to sit in with us and repeated the jam sessions over the next 10 days... Back in Paris, I re-mixed over twenty hours of improvisation and combined them with existing songs that we re-arranged to create the album. Our road map was the set-list of that infamous first concert. All the new recordings were done in my grandmother’s living room- a magical space with a view on the Eiffel Tower. Luckily for her, Kinkin was almost deaf at the time... a state some neighbours didn’t share... too bad... The whole process took almost 10 months and, finally, a day in May 2000, The Mandala Sessions were born. Enjoy!! Lawrence LAWRENCE COLLINS & Mr. FLY bio Description: Lawrence Collins and Mr. Fly are a Bordeaux (that’s in France…) based duo that was formed in the spring of 1999. Lawrence, born of an American father and an Egyptian mother, was brought up in France, England, India, and the United States. Prior to forming his current group, Lawrence Collins was based in Los Angeles for 7 years where he produced 4 albums, wrote music for various films and commercials, and worked in music video production with artists such as Michael Jackson, REM, and Tears for Fears. He has performed over 1100 shows on both the East and West coasts of the United States as well as France, Australia, Egypt, India, and Nepal. Songs form his various albums and live performances have been played on various TV and radio stations (Europe 1 & 2, NPA in France; 95.5 KLOS in L.A.) and he has composed original music for movies (cinema and TV), short films, and commercials. Marco (Mr. Fly), on the other hand, is a Frenchman through and through and hails from the heart of his homeland, the "Drome" region. Before plunging onto this latest musical adventure, he played in various Jazz and Rock bands in Paris, and concentrated on his other career as sound engineer for the major french television networks (TF1, M6, MCM). In March 2003, they decided to expand their duo by incorporating a rythm section, a saxophone player, and a lead guitarist to prepare for an upcoming festival in August. When asked by a journalist during the festival to describe their musical style, Lawrence & Fly came up with the acronym "Progressive Folk"- to describe their unique combination of Trip-Hop, Acoustic Rock, and Jazz. Since their debut in 1999, Lawrence & Mr. Fly have recorded "EP" (2001) and "The Mandala Sessions" (2000) and have played over 150 concerts in Paris, the south of France, and the French West Indies. Since March 2003, in their latest, "enlarged" version, they've played shows in Paris (House of Live, Opus, La Scène) and participated in Boubou's Music festival in St Barthelemy (Carribean) with The Christians, MC Solar, Paul Shapiro, and Manu Dibango (to name a few...)