Gaia Consort was a seminal Pagan band started in 1997 by Christopher Bingham and Sue Tinney. They recorded 4 cds and were critically acclaimed as the "Pagan band of the century, if not the millenium."
Gaia Consort celebrated the natural world, Pagan culture, polyamory, alternative sexuality and lefty politics in a holstic worldview.
Gaia (Gaea) 'guy-uh':
1) The Greek Earth Goddess and Mother of the Titans
2) The autopoietic superorganism that is the living biosphere
consort:'kan-soert:
1) one who shares a common lot
2) a ship accompanying another
3) spouse / lover
4) to make harmony
5) a group of singers or instrumentalists performing together
Gaia Consort sounds like a movie sound track for the gathering of the tribes. Include some intelligent lyrics about evolution, sensuality, engaging the natural world, and then throw in a string trio. Imagine Ian Anderson with Peter Gabriel doing a mash-up between So and Thick as a Brick.
Christopher Bingham and Sue Tinney got themselves booked into Nudestock 97 and announced the new name, played some of the new stuff, and the crowd was on it’s feet . In 1999 and 2001 the Consort released Gaia Circles and Secret Voices to critical acclaim in all the major Pagan magazines and a fair number of “mainstream” music journals as well.
Their next CD, Evolve, was released in April 2004 and it continues Bingham’s musical and philosphical explorations within the framework of an expanding Gaian Culture. Friends and fans donated over $17,000 by “adopting” songs to help Gaia Consort record the disc. Evolve is as much a product of a supportive community as it an individual vision.
Backing Bingham and Tinney are some of the Pacific Northwest’s finest musicians. Gaia Consort’s current line up includes Larry Golding violin, Sunnie Reed viola, TJ Morris on drums, Jay Kenney, keyboards, Betsy Tinney, cello, and Dan Mohler, bass. Bingham is currently recording the next release, "Vitus Dance" due summer or fall of 2007.
Gaia Consort has never been about making it big in the music “industry.” Eschewing the usual venues of clubs and coffee houses, Gaia Consort has managed to quietly build an audience that fills rooms, playing house concerts and self-produced shows in halls around the Pacific Northwest. They’ve built enough of a following to have been invited to play a variety of festivals and events, including headlining the long running Heartland Pagan Festival (2000) in Kansas, and Canada’s Wic Can Fest (2002) outside Toronto, and Faerieworlds Fest (2005, 2006 and booked for 2007) in Eugene OR.Their concert celebrating Evolve filled the 400 seat Meydenbauer Center.
-From http://www.gaiaconsort.com/
