The Great Mystery

The Great Mystery is the latest full length album by the Desert Dwellers, and it is truly a jet setting piece of work. The 12-track collection was predominately recorded on the road, in airports, airplanes, and hotel rooms and finished in multiple studios in multiple countries. Even the live recordings were done with various musicians and singers from around the world in rooms ranging from Berlin to Santa Cruz over the past 2 years. This release is a special one, because it’s the first fully realized album of all original music that Amani Friend and Treavor Moontribe have produced together, even though it is the 8th full album in the Desert Dwellers catalog, along with countless singles, eps, and remixes. The title of the album is derived from a Terrance McKenna quote, “Life is like a moment, we’re born out of a mystery, and we die into a mystery.” The duo notes, “Life and Death are great mysteries and we felt that was a pretty amazing theme to go with.” The album also features a talented cast of collaborators including Rick Hunter playing Oud, singer Megan Chandler, violinist Hannah Thiem, Ixchel Prisma, Anuradha Genrich, and a host of others. The duo also worked with notable engineers including Torin Goodnight (Bird Of Prey), Benjamin Last (Temple Step Project), Yulu Fershtat (Perfect Stranger), and James Lumb (of Electric Skychurch Fame) who did analog summing that really transformed the sound quality of the album. The diverse recording locations are just as mixed as the albums vast range of musical inspirations. The pair’s musical palate spans from classical world music to psychedelic rock, all forms of hypnotic deep electronic music, reggae and dub, to pop and everything in between. The duo enthusiastically state, “Its always been a dream to create an album that embodied many of the styles we resonate most with, and The Great Mystery is that album!” They add, “When it comes to electronic music we have always refused to be ‘genrefied’ and this album goes on the complete journey from our classic tribal downtempo grooves to tribal techno, psychedelic trance, dubstep and ambient, all under one unified sound.”