Meridian Overlook

Meridian Overlook began during a day of exploring the mountain and forest roads outside Ashland, Oregon.

Much of the drive had been enclosed by the landscape. The road wound along steep mountainsides, through mixed evergreen forest, madrone, shaded areas where the temperature dropped noticeably, dusty stretches, small meadows, and trails that seemed to keep branching farther into the mountains. It was the kind of exploration where the surroundings change gradually enough that it can be difficult to notice how much elevation and distance have accumulated.

Eventually the road reached Meridian Overlook.

The view suddenly became enormous. Instead of looking into the forest or across the side of the next mountain, the landscape opened in both directions. Layered ridges stretched across the distance, and Mount Shasta was clearly visible across the valley. The day was somewhat hazy, but the haze did little to diminish the scale of the view. If anything, it made the mountains appear to recede through successive layers of distance.

That transition became the idea for the music. Meridian Overlook was conceived as an ambient journey that begins relatively enclosed and intimate, then gradually opens as though the listener is gaining elevation and finally arriving at the overlook. The destination is not presented as a dramatic conquest. It is a change in perspective, the quiet realization that the world has become much larger than it appeared a few minutes earlier.