A Produce

A Produce has been exploring the vast realm of trance-oriented musical expression for several years in rock formats and other styles. In the early '80s, he established the Trance Port label for a series of cassette-only releases, to document the growing local trance music scene. Of the nine releases, three were compilations of local musicians/artists working within the realm of modern-day trance music. Now out of print, the L.A. Mantra series of tapes documented the early-'80s trance scene in Los Angeles. In 1988, A Produce's interest expanded to modern-day synthesizers as they offered a richer palette of sounds, and his first solo album, The Clearing, was released. Self-described as "an album of conceptual space," it featured contributions from several former Trance Port artists. In 1992, he followed with Reflect Like a Mirror, Respond Like an Echo which, like The Clearing, almost defied categorization, neither falling neatly into the new age category nor into the realm of space rock. Rather, both works blended the complementary aspects of several realms of modern-day trance music: ethno-ambient, electronic, new age, and space rock; the ideal vehicle for relaxation, contemplation, even movement. In 1994, an extended three-track EP entitled A Smooth Surface was released with the intention of exploring the realm of more meditative trance music, taking the ideas first presented on The Clearing and Reflect Like a Mirror to an even deeper level. Later that year, A Produce released Land of a Thousand Trances, his most complete artistic statement to date in the realm of trance music. Joining A Produce on several cuts are former Trance Port artists: processed pedal-steel artist extraordinaire, Chas Smith; Harold Budd associate Ruben Garcia; and synthesist Pierre Lambow. The...