Escape

On his third solo album, Mars offers a fantasia of "visual" music. Mars has blended his trademark dynamic sounds with subtly mysterious effects and softer rhythms to create a labyrinth for the mind and heart. So appropriately titled, this album offers a true escape into the unfettered realm of the imagination........"

A note from Mars:
After the release of my first record, "Olympus", I wanted to create something a little more inventive. The "Eleventh Hour" came about after many hours of research into technology-based sound manipulation. I have a huge library of sounds I'd always wanted to use but never seemed to have the right reason.
I mixed drum loops and sound effects (sound design) together and fused this with my songs. In one case (Cellular City) I needed some dialogue from the telephone, so I called a friend and asked him to call me back and leave a message about the state of the air in town on my machine. I then took the answering machine tape and record it into my song (you can hear this at the end of Cellular City).
So then, how about 3D sound? Q-Sound brought one of their machines to my studio - in those days they were the size of a wardrobe (now it's a plug-in for your computer), and I programmed the 3d moves into the song. If you listen to "Cellular City", "Geronimo", and especially "City Jungle", you will hear the effect. Meanwhile, my very trustworthy Fairlight Computer was on its last legs and needed some help. "MAC to the rescue"! This is when I first started using the Apple Macintosh Computer. In tandem, they worked well together but the new features on the Mac encouraged me to retire the Fairlight once and for all. I had had many great years with Fairlight, but now sequencing and sampling technology were well and truly in the mainstream and Fairlight was outdated.
"Amy's Lullaby" was created for my daughter 'Amy', and really depicts the miracle of life. I am now up to "Amy's Lullaby V". I write her a new lullaby on most of my records and someday will probably release an "Amy's Lullaby Collection".
The subject matter can get serious at times, so for an intermission, I wrote: "Live at the Eleventh Hour". This gives the listener a chance to come up for air.