"As a teenager in the late 1960s I wrote for the rock group Egg, one of the bands now described as 'prog' by students of the era. In the mid-1970s I forswore the genre of rock music altogether - even the experimental variety! - and began to develop an interest in folk tradition and, increasingly, non-western music. Starting with the Balkans and moving through Greece and Turkey into the middle East, and then India and the far East, I gradually discovered a vast Aladdin's cave of entirely new musical ideas and instrumental sounds. Since that time I have been learning and gestating these various forms of musical expression, for no good reason except that I find them fascinating? and because they are not dependent on electronic technology, but produced by means of human skill acting on the acoustic properties of natural materials, something which we may have to learn to re-evaluate in the coming decades."
"Walled gardens are common in England, there are a number in the town where I live. They are also common in the middle East and in Moorish Spain. Perhaps further afield too. A walled garden symbolises a place where knowledge and understanding are acquired and useful results produced. The classical Sufi writers Saadi, Shabistari and Sanai all used the image as titles for their work."
"Walled gardens are beautiful, enjoyable and often inspiring places. I enjoyed writing the music and I hope you enjoy listening to it."