S p e c t r a l  V o i c e s

Alan Dow began harmonic singing with Jim in 1992.  As a child he learned to sing harmonies and play piano by ear, was in rock groups in high school and college, has sung in a capella groups including the Colgate Thirteen, and dabbled in songwriting, arranging, and recording with his brother Larry for fifteen years.  Alan co-produced Spectral Voices' CD's Coalescence and Sky with Jim.

Alan believes he may have been an electric guitar in a former life and lists Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani and other guitarists among his main harmonic influences.   He lives with his extremely tolerant wife Karol and is a practicing Sesquipedalian Sciolist.

Jim Desmond has performed as a vocalist and pianist in a variety of settings and genres. As tenor in the New York vocal ensemble Toby Twining Music, he contributed his abilities with various extended vocal techniques, most notably harmonic overtone singing. He received his B.A. in music at Wesleyan University where he studied choral conducting with conductor/composer Neely Bruce. There Jim also sang with various a cappella groups and studied voice and music from many cultures. Jim currently performs music from the Republic of Georgia, and plays various instruments as a world/folk dance musician. He thoroughly enjoyed singing with Spectral Voices from 1996 to 2001.

"To be able to sing the way we do together -- that is a gift.  We tread the nebulous waves of space and cascade into shimmering realms.   We eclipse the mundane and move past the known into the intuitive.   No words can describe that place or that feeling:  it is like some ancient and eternal understanding for what binds the universe, and what connects us all.  It reminds us that there are other planes to explore;   we see as much or as little as we open our eyes, ears, and heart to.   We are fortunate."                                         ~  Jim Desmond