Edito de Bird Of WoodGAIA is a collection of poems set to music that pairs the meditative soundscapes of Viennese pianist/composer Gerald Krampl with the post-humously published verse of his wife, noted poet Hilde. It is the forth and, due to Hildes demise in 2002, probably last release following LEMURIA, MERLYN and ANGELOS, and completes now their New Age related CD + Book series "MUSIC & POETRY" coming under their projects name AGNUS DEI. "Meditative journeys for the mind", that´s the mostly used description for their works, and often it is stated that the music fits as a soundtrack for the poetry in the extra enclosed CD formated booklets (english/german versions!), and vice versa. The idea for this kind of collaboration was born in the dawn of the new century, when Gerald expanded his musical horizons from former prog rock to recording now piano based, electronically orchestrated instrumental music, influenced by classic as well as by prog rock and his healing practices with Reiki (master degree) and forms of meditations. The same time Hilde, also working with Reiki, Huna, Blossoms etc., made her first attempts to let spirituality influence her writings, and started her first reflections about esoteric themes. So it was a natural idea coming up to try to combine these two skills. It began with LEMURIA, an epic fantasy ballad of the endangered crystal world, and immediately after also MERLYN, a mystic dreamjourney to the inner world and visions of the great wizard was finished both musically and lyrically. That worked so well that Gerald decided in autumn 2001 to take the risk of a self release with his since 1983 owned Indigo Music Production, on the therefor new founded Sandrose label. An internet platform was established - www.indigomusic.at, the name AGNUS DEI was chosen for the project, and the CD graphics were designed. The release was fixed for spring 03, but all the time it became more and more evident that Hilde was getting seriously ill. First the reason could not be named, but in March 03 came the final dignosis - gastric cancer in end stadium. Immediately starting intensive Reiki sessions by Gerald and additional alternative medicine therapies first seemed to be able to change the fate, but though they helped a lot it was finally in August when Hilde passed away in a very light and peaceful way at the age of 45. The two CDs with books had been released in the meantime, very silently, and several weeks after Hilde´s demise Gerald had to decide now how to carry on. Responsible for their little daughter and son, life had to go on, and the decision to try to find a way to complete the series before finishing their Agnus Dei project fell as Gerald remembered one of Hilde´s last written works - ten angelprayers. They had been very important for her, and Gerald had promised to use them for his next musical inspirations and this should become their follow up project. So he fell, despite his sadness he had to return to the piano to fulfill this promise and started composing ANGELOS. Released in autumn 2003, it was surely his most important and difficult work to date. Highly acclaimed by critics it opend many new doors to distributors and promoters, but this should not be the end. There were still so many beautiful poems Hilde had left, that Gerald felt he should try one more work to show also the more earthbound side of both of them, which would finally make a nice completion for the series. So this is why GAIA came into beeing - a more uptempo, percussive and less meditative instrumental love song to earth, paired again with Hilde´s imaginative poetry. Each set contains CD + BOOK!