MUSIC, MESSAGES & THE MEDIUM
The music and the messages on this 14-song record couldn’t have arrived at a better time. Music can heal and inspire us to find our way through life’s challenges, and help us create a more ideal future.
A very unique aspect of this project is the 12″ Gallery-Quality Record Jacket with 16-Page Full-Color Book and Compact Disc inside. You get the visual and tactile experience of a beautiful album package with the clarity and convenience of an exquisitely-produced recording.
This album fits perfectly on your prized vinyl collection shelf (though you may want to place it on your living room table as a conversation starter). Immerse yourself in the music right at home, take the disc on the road, and/or listen to high-quality digital files courtesy of Bandcamp when you purchase this record.
“The Writing on the Wall” is a true stereophonic HiFi experience. Steve Sharp has written and co-produced a collection of powerful songs that resonate with today, and open the doors of tomorrow.
Get your copy (or give a gift) of this limited edition collectible right here, right now!
For a limited time, Free Shipping in the U.S. when you order “The Writing on the Wall” Limited-Edition 12″ Album & CD for yourself or as a gift (a savings of $8!).
ALBUM ARTWORK & AUDIO PREVIEWS
A PLANET DIVIDED
Authoritarian regimes dot the globe, creating distrust and fomenting hatred, setting groups of people against each other. There are those who suggest that peace and love are weak, and the strength of the bully is on the ascendant, and that somehow this is right or at least inevitable. And yet, there remains the dream of a planet that thrives, where problems are identified and solutions proposed with a rational brain and a compassionate heart. There is only one human race. There is only one Earth. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln and the Book of Matthew, “A PLANET DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CANNOT STAND.”
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?
We each live in our own unique universe. Of course, the earth and its environment, as well as the entire physical realm of stars and interstellar space are a given. However, the subjective part, wherein we experience and analyze, wherein we set goals and encounter pain and pleasure, where there is a god or gods or no god, angels and/or demons, wherein life can have meaning or be filled with despair, is equally real. Life is ephemeral but it is not a mere epiphenomenon. Every person’s experience and beliefs, as well as the way they experience meaning, is personal and existential. And just as space and time are connected, consciousness can effect spacetime. We proceed to encounter the world based on individual beliefs informed by the confluence of nature and nurture and mere happenstance. Within this universe we are capable of creating a world together, one of separation and despair or one of understanding and caring. You can change your beliefs, and thereby change the culture of the planet. We do so whether we believe it or not.
“Your album is a magnificent work of art. We listened and read your words and were enchanted. It’s what the world needs. The entire project is glorious and a gift to all humanity.” — M & S
ONCE UPON A TIME
When I was about 10 years old, I came upon a mouse in the grass outside my home. A mouse, a rodent, filthy vermin. I knew the doctrine. And so I took a baseball bat and with one blow, I killed it. Immediately, I felt a sense of horror. The mouse had done nothing to me. It was so small, and I, so powerful. Since that day, I slowly began on a path towards what I later learned the Hindus, Buddhists and Jains call ahimsa–harmlessness. Some years later, I became vegetarian and determined never to kill another breathing thing. I’ve done many things in this life of which I’m not proud, but I feel lucky that I’ve always come out ahead. I know a musician who, though he has a full head of hair, always wears a hat. So the story developed that whatever we do, we can maybe push our karma in a better direction using a commitment to love.
SOME DAY
All things are possible, only believe: so goes the hymn. Heaven is possible or hell is possible. Unfortunate accidents happen. We hear of dramatic changes coming in the environment, of lunatics terrorizing their neighbors, we see officials sowing discontent, fear and division, characterizing those who oppose them as intent on destroying civilization and so worthy of annihilation themselves. We can live in constant unease or we can start to live as though somehow, we can change the direction of the planet by attempting to tune in to something that permeates the universe. Love. And with love, we can literally change the world for the better.
“Love, love, love the album! I love the variety of music styles. It’s in the rotation in my car CD player! Also love the 12″ package; super creative!” — John
EVERY BREATH
I learned techniques of meditation in my twenties. Focusing the mind, slowing the chatter, observing without comment; and over time this practice has led me to understand a profound sense of peace. A deep place of awareness. The depths of the ocean as opposed to the clamoring brook. As I continue this inner journey, I experience what I call Grace. It is a sense of trying to tune in to vibrations that I as yet cannot feel, an attempt to merge with some universal consciousness permeating and underlying all. Each person’s god is personal. But the universal is immense with possibilities, with or without a god. Grace is the natural outcome of going with the flow. We realize it in human terms, with or without some aggregate conscious entity. Grace is a universal attribute. And meditation on the breath can calm the tyrant called the Mind, leading to a sense of compassion for all.
GRATITUDE
My mother died at age 95 in 2013. She had a massive stroke while working in her garden and left us a couple days later. I had a chance to fly home and see her in Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, where she lay struggling to communicate. I stayed with her overnight and she died quietly in the early morning as I lay next to her. I imagined her lifeforce gradually dissipating as her consciousness merged into the abyss of universal vibrations. And yet, for now, I still exist on this plane. For that, and for the formative part she played in my life with such humility, I am deeply grateful.
“We listened to your album yesterday and liked it very much, as well as the deluxe full size package so professionally designed. It was good to be able to look at that and read along while listening, like in the old days. Very impressive all around, production, singing and song writing, top notch professionalism. The thematic approach is interesting too, and resonates in this day and age.” — J & S
IT'S ONLY MONEY
We are all (or most of us are) one unfortunate incident away from financial distress. In this cautionary tale, I imagine a guy living in the laid-back milieu of a bucolic Caribbean island, eking out a daily existence on next to nothing. But his wife becomes ill, requiring expert medical attention–something he can’t afford. So he has to go and find a source from whom to borrow. I won’t say that he made a deal with the Devil, but here’s his story.
JESUS WAS THE MAN
Jesus was a complicated fellow regardless of your religious affiliation. Part gadfly, part teacher, part healer. In His story, He overthrew the tables of the moneychangers in the temple; He delivered the Sermon on the Mount with its sublime list of Beatitudes; He accepted the prostitute; He healed the man cursed with demons. He also knew how hard it is for the rich man to curb his privilege. Jesus wasn’t against anyone. He loved the government tax collector, the blue collar fishermen, the doctor, the soldier, the immigrant, and of course, the sick. If you ask “What was Jesus’s message?”, you might say this: “All you have to do is love.”
“I greatly appreciate your Science of Compassion Project album. It is so impressive in every respect: theme, design, packaging, musician roster, production, recording quality, vocals, song composition, everything, on and on… Congratulations and thanks!” — D.B.
HYMN TO THE ROOSTER
These lyrics comprise a sort of hymn to a godless universe. That is, of course, unless you count god to be Σconsciousness + space + time. In a conscious multiverse, where each individual’s nonmaterial universe is inhabited with a unique mixture of conjured entities, vibrational sensitivities, and situational meanings, love is a healing lubricant between seafarer, mountaineer, desert nomad, and jungle hunter, each with their own gods; between so-called races and creeds, religions and infidels; between man and woman and animal and plant. It’s all one huge pulsating wave function, poised to collapse. Our egos are simply a result of the packaging, so to speak–the ever-evolving realization of consciousness. What a wonderful thing to be alive. Each day dawns anew. Hear the rooster. An era begins.
TO EMBRY - MAY YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE
This combination of words and music developed as my granddaughter was gestating. If consciousness is fundamental, then it can in subtle ways alter space and time. We’re not sure what dreams really are, but maybe they are not mere fragments of nonsense related to waking states, but maybe they could be more. This is another of many mysteries still remaining in our supposedly rational world.
“Yesterday we received Steve’s album and I can’t tell you how impressed I am with the packaging, music, words and ideas. All of the songs were so unique but had this undercurrent of hope and gratitude. What an amazing body of work! I thought the song to Embry was so sweet and the lyrics so touching. My favorite song was Knight Damsel Dragon Kingdom because it must have touched on some ancient memory from another life.” — J
DO YOU REMEMBER CHILDHOOD?
Childhood. Do you remember? All those things you believed as you started to school. The sensations—colors, sounds, and smells. The strange ways the universe seemed to distort in your immature mind? Remember how real those made-up stories seemed?
KNIGHT DAMSEL DRAGON KINGDOM
Knight Damsel Dragon Kingdom is an adolescent fantasy, wherein a gallant knight vows to protect a fair damsel, and to slay the greedy dragon. He pledges that only he, shielded by his heart-of-gold, and wielding mighty lance and sword, can slay the beast. With the dragon gone, the land will unite and build an inclusive realm of people helping people. Greed will end. As I said, a fantasy.
“It’s brilliant, beautiful and profound. I shall treasure it.” — Dan
WHAT WILL THERE BE? / PRIMATE TO DINOSAUR
This is a prehistoric love song from a lovestruck primate in a land ruled by dinosaurs. He and his love are small and weak, in society of predators. Their existence seems doomed, their love all for naught. But after millions of years, dinosaurs become trapped in the goo and go extinct, while the lowly mammals evolve to take their place to rule and threaten the planet.
SPINNING
The act of spinning creates a magnetic field. Our lives spin in or out of control and we become dizzy. Infotainment outlets spin the news so that two such outlets can seem to reach diametrically opposed conclusions based on identical input. Spiders spin webs to trap flies and other unfortunates to be swaddled and saved for later meals. Dreams spin our nonwaking thoughts and experiences into fantastic adventures. And the secret to successful spinning is simply this: Stay centered. Don’t wobble. And things just might work out.