***CAUTION! THESE DEMO TRACKS ARE UNMASTERED. THEY HAVE VARYING SOUND LEVELS AND TRACK 1 IN PARTICULAR IS PRETTY LOUD. PLEASE BE CAREFUL AND LOOK AFTER YOUR HEARING AND YOUR AUDIO EQUIPMENT!!**

This EP is a kind of appendix to ADAMTHOLOGIA. Originally these tracks were going to join "Rushing Over A Formless Void", "Eden" and "The Fallen" as single releases. Later I thought I might do a second volume to ADAMTHOLOGIA, but then I went into a depression, which deepened with the loss of my Grandmother, and so I shelved the tracks.

As a way to try to bring something out of how I was feeling, and also using music to try to help myself, I recorded the "Songs of Lament" EP under my An Arresting Strangeness persona, and although not a WindHymn release, I consider "Songs of Lament" as falling under "The Book of Adam" umbrella.

Anyway, I'm currently working on something completely different at the moment, music that will quite possibly never be released, and I just can't see that I'm going to continue with "The Book of Adam" project now, so I needed to clean house and decided to put these stray recordings out there for the sake of completeness if nothing else.

"Hiding" and "Looking For Adam" are companion pieces, which follow after "The Fallen" as the soundtrack to the scene where Adam and Eve realise what they've done, and so they try to hide from God. Which is kind of impossible when you think about it, seeing as God is Omniscient and Omnipresent - yet don't we attempt to do the same thing in our own way? "Hiding" is Adam, representing all of humanity, viewing God as Judge.

So while that track attempts to convey their terror, "Looking For Adam" shows things from God's perspective - He calls out "Adam, where are you?" not because He doesn't know - God is Omniscient, remember - rather He gives Adam - and us - the opportunity to come to Him willingly, as people created by Him out of love, and created with free will. This piece is the loving Father calling out to His children.

Do you see the difference? We think we know God, when in truth we don't know Him at all, even though He became human and walked among us about 2000 years ago, to show us what He is like.

This goes back to something I wrote in the notes for ADAMTHOLOGIA - I've changed my views on a lot of things over the years; I'm constantly debating myself and always trying to understand opposing views, so I'm always learning. If you've read the notes to my earlier releases, you will see this evolution in my thinking. I was tempted to go back and change those earlier writings, but that wouldn't be honest for one thing, and it's nice to have this kind of journal of where I was at when I made a particular piece of music or art, because that goes a long way to giving some kind of context to the work. During the making of "The Book of Adam" project (which begins with "Rushing Over A Formless Void" and ends with this newest EP) I began to study Christian Universalism. I've touched on this in the notes for ADAMTHOLOGIA. If you're not a religious person, and depending where in the world you are, the only kind of Christianity you might be somewhat familiar with quite possibly holds to a view that only a fraction of the people who've ever lived will go to Heaven, while the vast majority of humanity will be tormented in Hell forever. I used to believe this. I thought that's what all Christians had always believed. However, I began to do some research and I discovered this isn't quite true. Some of the earliest Christians - including some pretty important people known as the Church Fathers, believed in the "Restoration of All Things" - that the Incarnation of Christ, and His death and resurrection didn't only accomplish salvation for a chosen few, rather He completely restored everything, by undoing the curse that Adam brought into the world by his disobedience. The Apostle Paul, in the Book of Romans, puts it this way: "Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous."

What he is saying here is pretty clear, I think. Christ's Incarnation, perfect life, death and resurrection not only undid the curse, it actually makes all of humanity righteous, and puts us back in right-standing with God. Does that mean we're all righteous right now? I know I'm definitely not - not yet - but I believe it set off a chain reaction where God's purposes are being accomplished in the world, even 2000 years later, and one day His plan will be complete.

And I don't believe that God is only at work in a person's life while they are alive on this earth - I believe that He will carry on working even after death, which is why I pray for those who have died.

The final track on this EP is the demo version of "He'd Witnessed Endless Beauty" The version on ADAMTHOLOGIA features poetry recited over it, this demo is instrumental. This is Adam lamenting what he had lost. This is the one guy who saw the beauty of his Father and Creator face to face, and he also saw the earth completely unspoiled and perfectly beautiful. Yet he also sees this perfect communion with God broken, and almost as tragically, his perfect relationships with the rest of humanity, with the creatures and with the earth - his Mother* - tarnished. *Some early Christians obviously had a better relationship with the world around them than many of us today - they called the earth our Mother and believed that it and all of the other planets have a soul - understanding that they are also created beings, like us, all bearing witness to our One Creator God.

If you've been put off by Western Christianity - I get it - same here - but don't confuse the message of Jesus Christ and what He has done for us, for you, with what you see in Christian Fundamentalism or much of what is labelled as "Evangelical" today, both of these are very different to what I see when I read the Bible and learn about the early Church.

In closing, as I mentioned in the notes to ADAMTHOLOGIA - may I leave you with the story of the Prodigal Son:

"Then (Jesus) said, “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to feel it. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corn-cobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.

That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father.

When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’

But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a prize-winning heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.

All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’

The older brother stomped off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’

His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’” (Luke 15:11-32, The Message)

The Father in this story is what God is like - not some angry Judge who is waiting to throw us into Hell - no, He is waiting for you and I to return to Him. It doesn't matter what we've done, He is like the Father in this story, waiting and watching for us. *Please see my notes for ADAMTHOLOGIA for more on this.

I'm what you might call a "Hopeful Universalist" which means while I can't claim to know that this is how things will end (and indeed, I could be completely wrong - only God knows). I cautiously hold to what I'm about to say. **Before I do so, however, please don't take my word for any of this, I'm just some guy on the internet, so make sure to do your own research, and remember, there are a lot of charlatans peddling a lot of nonsense. I've had a long and varied spiritual journey so far, and I've eventually come to the conclusion that the Catholic Church is the true Church, so if it'll save you a lot of the wrong turns that I took, I'd recommend to start there. I was extremely anti-Catholic until I actually decided to find out for myself what it teaches, rather than parroting stuff I'd learned from Protestants, and I was shocked. It took me about 3 years of prayerful study before I finally admitted to myself and to my wife that it was time for me to "come home" to the Catholic Church. I hope and pray that you will too.

I don't believe God will be truly happy until He has all of his children perfectly reunited with Him, and also like Him - including Satan in a shock twist - yes, I believe EVERYTHING and EVERYONE will eventually be redeemed one day) - and I get this from the preceding stories in Luke's Gospel - I'll leave you to read them for yourself.

It really comes down to this: I believe that God is able to save everyone, and I believe that God loves ALL people, and He wants to save everyone. And I believe that in the end...

God wins = God is Love = Love wins.

Peace & Love