MARS LASAR

What if there is a place in the world where all of the knowledge and wisdom of the universe is stored? What if this repository can only be found, the doors opened and the information understood by people whose karma has evolved to a certain level? What if there was music that helped lead listeners down the right path?

On his new Anagram/PGI album, Karma, musician Mars Lasar has created music that delves deep into the inner psyche and touches primal impulses, ancient instincts and universal feelings. "I don't have all the answers," Mars says with a chuckle. "I barely know a few of the questions. But I have tried to create music that might help start the journey toward a better understanding of our place in the universe. These songs are like lamps helping to illuminate the way."

The cover of the album is a painting by Mars that shows a deep, dark jungle that could be either a primeval or futuristic forest with exotic vegetation and a swampy body of water. Rising out of this hidden place are stone steps leading to a set of unusual doors. The traveler is led on this final part of the journey by a series of powerful light sources. "The painting, as well as the music itself, is symbolic," explains Lasar. "It doesn't matter whether this place actually exists somewhere in our universe or simply in our minds. It's a symbolic place with infinite possibilities."

The music -- which presents Lasar's own indelible melodies -- is dense, dark, deep, mysterious and utterly compelling. Karma is an album of modern world music, or music of the world, that draws on ancient sounds from chanting Tibetan monks and Chinese violin to an African chorus and Middle Eastern oud, all intwined with the primal sounds of nature (whales, rainstorms, crickets, a lion's growl, etc.). The music was constructed by Mars using keyboards, synthesizers and samplers. He is joined on a couple of tunes by musician friends Kelly Hansen on guitar and Omar Faruk on Middle Eastern instruments, but Laser's original music also is combined with music and vocal samples from around the world. The resulting mix is a timeless sound story featuring futuristic material tightly woven together with age-old musical elements and sounds of nature.

The song titles describe some of the steps along the path to knowledge. "Great Beast of Wisdom" is about what we can learn from our brothers, the whales. Other information is buried in a "Deep Cavern." It may be the "Seventh Journey" before the right path is found. There will be "Enchanted" moments, but also times of "Sacrifice" before a celebration with "The Holiness." One bit of knowledge will be the realization that it is an "Inseperable Universe" that includes every molecule, ant hill, civilization, galaxy and star cluster.

As a composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist, Mars Lasar has a distinguished career and an impressive list of credits in the music world. Born in Germany and raised in Australia, he began taking classical piano lessons at age 11, studied jazz, and formed a rock band with his brothers as a young teenager (inspired by Rick Wakeman of Yes, Keith Emerson of ELP, Alan Parsons, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd). At age 15 he won the Young Composer Award at The Sydney Opera House with his original classical piano concerto, "Frost Wave," influenced by Beethoven and Chopin. The next year Mars joined the group 10 which became Australia's leading synthesizer and tech band of that time (they opened shows for acts such as Midnight Oil, Split Enz and Mike Oldfield). In 1982, Mars was retained by Fairlight Instruments as creative consultant and in-house composer/producer, working closely with their world-class R&D division on the musical applications of the Fairlight System. His compositions were used to promote Fairlights 1, 11 and III, bringing Mars into contact demonstrating the technology using his own songs for artists such as Thomas Dolby, Herbie Hancock, Kate Bush, Alan Parsons, Mike Oldfield and Duran Duran. Lasar also began doing "sound design" on recordings by acts such as The Divinyls.

One of the movie industry's top film composers, Hans Zimmer, requested that Mars work with him on the soundtrack for the Tom Cruise movie, "Days Of Thunder," which prompted Mars to move to the United States. While working on this project Mars was approached by prominent music producer Trevor Horn, which led to Mars' contributions to the debut self-titled album of Grammy-winning artist Seal.

Mars began his solo recording career with the hugely successful albums Olympus and The Eleventh Hour which both reached the Top 5 on the national radio charts and Top 10 on Billboard's New Age Albums sales chart. Leading up to Karma were other popular albums -- Escape, Olympic National Park, Sapphire Dreams, 1 1 .02 and When Worlds Collide. His music is frequently heard on television ("Baywatch," "The Young & The Restless," "General Hospital," "Hard Copy" and CNN) and in films ("Jason's Lyric" and Disney's "The 6th Man"). Olympus was played consistently during the broadcast of the 1992 Winter Olympics, and again in 1996 when members of the Chinese Olympic figure-skating team performed to two of Mars' songs from that recording. In addition, Mars also has recorded 23 library music CDs from which his soundtrack music is utilized for films, TV shows, documentaries, industrial films and commercials.

His songwriting and production talents span a multitude of genres including pop, rock, metal, jazz, electronica and country. His solo albums cross the borders of adult contemporary, new age, world and electronica. He has even ventured into the realm of contemporary classical music. Mars also is recognized for his interactive compositions having scored and produced six live-action video games including Tomcat Alley, the first live-action game created and subsequently nominated for the "Best Action Adventure Award" by the AAIAS (Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences). In 1994, Mars appeared on The Discovery Channel's "Movie Magic" show, a weekly broadcast dedicated to showcasing cuffing edge creative artists.

Mars has received numerous awards including Platinum Awards for his work on "Crazy," the hit by Seal, and for "Love Is Still Enough," a song Mars wrote and produced with Sovory (the latter tune also was featured on the soundtrack of the movie "Jason's Lyric"). Additional awards have been received for his original music scores on a variety of wildlife documentaries and television commercials. Mars received an award from the New York Museum of Modern Art during their exhibit "The Art and Technique of the American Television Commercial." In 1993, The Eleventh Hour was embraced as "the Earth Day International Commemorative Album" and Mars was named a Goodwill Ambassador for their organization. MTV's Rock The Vote television campaign utilized many of Mars' alternative compositions. His music has appeared on two-dozen compilation albums including one put out by The WAVE radio station in Los Angeles to benefit AIDS research (featuring Mars' "Cellular City").

Mars has also has produced recordings by Jon Stevens (INXS), Liane Foly, Hisham, Jeff Burak, Earthkeeper, Tonia Rose, Trisha, Xavier, Dyna and Big Box; co-produced albums by Herbie Hancock, Sovory, Alisa Carroll, Shahine & Sepehr, and Colette Baron Reid; and played on a rock album by John Sykes (of Whitesnake fame). Lasar also has worked with Steve Balsamo, Erin Williams, and Siedah Garrett (Michael Jackson)- Mars has co-written with Herbie Hancock, Sykes, Foly and Sovory. Lasar also is a consummate painter, sculptor and carpenter. More information about Laser is available at his website, www.marslasar.com,

"Karma," states Mars, "is one of humanity's oldest concepts. It's the balance of all things -- negative and positive -- the universe's way of keeping the checks and balances in order. It can be negative, of course, but karma is primarily a positive reward for things well done."

Good Karma indeed.