Wayfarer is a project name Andrew Souter uses for the deepest of deep ambient space music. This is music that is meant to invoke a sense of traveling without moving to remote and unknowable reaches of outer and inner space. Wayfarer projects are more sound environments than music in the traditional sense. They are intended to invoke a sense of ineffable awe at the magnificence of the universe, and give a fleeting sense of connection to some form of universal non-human intelligence. Despite, or rather perhaps because of, its humble abstract nature, this is meditative music that implicitly asks big questions, and hopefully inspires big ideas.

"Whitespace" is the first of the Wayfarer series. This two hour sonic odyssey is a collection of thematic and textural ambient deep cruisers that are certain to be the impetus of a myriad forms of outward journeys and inward discoveries. The atmospheric, mood-inducing soundscapes of Whitespace make a perfect compliment to mediation, relaxation, deep concentration, lucid dreaming, quiet introspection, various spiritual practices, star gazing, and various other formative life experiences. To borrow words from Stephen Hill, founder of Hearts Of Space, this is "slow music for fast times".

The origins of Whitespace go back to 1999 with the start of the Galileo peice. Galileo was an unmanned NASA spacecraft named after the astronomer Galileo Galilei and launched ten years earlier on October 18, 1989, which studied the planet Jupiter and its moons, as well as several other solar system bodies. The Wayfarer Galileo piece likewise takes us on an imaginary journey of discovery through new and unimagined reaches of deep space, some of which quite alien, others strangely familiar. Galileo was composed and produced using field recordings and entirely custom sound-design created with UI Software's MetaSynth. Harmonically it is based around a Just Intonation version of an ancient pentatonic scale from Chinese mythology ascribed to Ling Lun. Its macroscopic structure follows a poly-rhythmic construction of repeating sections of uneven period lengths which shift in and out of phase with one another to create an evolving minimalist fugue-like effect. Custom spectral and harmonic tunings are used to create various aural sculptures that follow this framework while adding significant intrigue and a sense of some form of intelligent design that is just out of reach of our familiar perceptual experiences. This gives the sense that there are some form of organizational principals at work, but they are foreign to us, much like an alien life-form, or the universe itself.

Prana is the Sanskrit word for life-force or breath; in yoga, Oriental medicine, and martial arts, the term refers to a cosmic energy connecting all elements of the universe, responsible for a body's life, heat, and well being. The Wayfarer Prana piece imagines the universe itself as a single life-force with its own breath and rhythm. It was created in 2005, and again all sounds are completely custom sound-design employing mirco-tonality, spectral constructs, and image-based compositions created with MetaSynth. The first third of the journey functions like a guided mediation or breathing exercise in which consciousness is entrained into a deeper state of focus. We quickly find ourselves stepping though the doors of perception into some form of out-of-body experience, where unbound by time or space, we are free to explore the infinite unfolding. Gradually our moment of awakenedness subsides and we are gently lead back to sleep, leaving the ineffable safely locked in the previous domain.

Life is persistent. Life is everywhere. Life is the rule, not the exception. Explore the most extreme environments on Earth and beyond, environments where the temperature is only a few degrees above absolute zero or as hot as the surface of the sun, environments with no sunlight, environments with an extreme pH, environments with no carbon, perhaps even environments with no water. Look close enough and you will find life. Life is persistent. This Persistence is innate to the design of the universe. Life is a consequence of the universe, not an anomaly. Life may even be the cause.

Precedence: the fact of coming earlier in time. What came before shall come again. We are much older than we care to remember. We know well who we are and where we must go, but we all play a collective game of Maya, forgetting our inheritance and instead embracing materialism and valuing ignorance over wisdom. Throughout history civilizations build great sand castles towering towards the heavens, only to tear them down again and again. Technology now connects everything and anyone. The world turns faster. Information is freely available to those who would seek it, yet wisdom and restraint have been lost. All things are possible, but all not all things are profitable. Discerning which is which is not an easy task to accomplish when the connection to what has come before has been lost. We must remember the past to create a better future.

The If You Would Only Let Me Wayfarer Remix is an ambient remix of the neo-classical solo piano composition also by Andrew Souter found on his The Idea Of You album. The harmonic and melodic contents, to the extent that these are discernible in the ambient remix, are identical to the solo-piano version. Tempo is slower, various synthesizers have been used to replace the solo-piano instrumentation, and liberal amounts of 2CAudio B2 and Aether have been applied to create the dream-like atmosphere. All combined, the effect is a powerfully emotive soundscape that is well suited for introspective reflection.

The name "Nani Nani" comes from an old traditional lulliby sang to small children in Romania. The Wayfarer piece is likewise a very peaceful ambient atmosphere designed to help people of all ages relax and wind down at the end of long day full of the stresses of the modern world. This is a minimalist piece created entirely using only two 2CAudio products: B2, and a soon-to-be-released sound-design product.

The Ancient Ones is a thematic and textural ambient work composed and produced in 2013 employing a hypnotic and meditative blend of custom sound-design, mirco-tonality, spectral constructs, image-based compositions, code generated synthesis, procedural mathematics, granular synthesis, analog synthesis, minimal acoustic piano, and lots of reverb and spatialization from 2CAudio B2 and Aether . The Ancient Ones imagines a time long before humanity as it exists now and vividly paints a mesmerising aural landscape of this fantastical vision.

A collaboratively edited version of Wayfarer's The Ancient Ones is being used for the 2014 feature film Mandorla directed by the incredible Roberto Miller. The primary composer and music director for the project is American ambient music legend Robert Rich. The film also features music by Michael Stearns, AES Dana and other ambient music leaders. It's truly an honor for Wayfarer to be included in this project, as many of these pioneers were early influences on Andrew's work and interest in electronic music. He comments:

Somebody mentioned Hearts of Space in the SoundCloud comments... Well to me, Robert and Michael, together with Stephen Hill, are HOS! These guys are more directly responsible than anyone else on the planet for my initial interest in electronic and electro-acoustic music. Throw in Steve Roach, and these guys pretty much invented American ambient music. They are true heros of mine, and it is a true honor and privilege to work with them. The film looks like it is going to be incredible also!