THE TREES COMMUNITY

The Trees Community biography
We are halfway through the year 1970, at the beginning of a magical decade in the history of music. In an abandoned factory in New York a handful of young people gather, with Shipen Lebzelter as the mover. The gathering begins to grow in size, and soon evolves into a religious and musical community, with the primary goal of finding spiritual answers and truths. This they try to discover through various religious practises - meditation, prayer and musical worship. One their way, the group dip into many different religions and spiritual traditions, but after doing this, they find that the answers they had been looking for is not hidden away somewhere else, but rather is in front of them or already inside them: they embrace their Christian roots. They meet Jesus again for the first time.

After mutually finding the Truth, they began to make music as a way to praise this newfound trust in God and Jesus, and they called themselves The New York Tent City Symphony of Souls in Christ. The symphony varies in size, but at the centre there were seven more or less constant members. The name changes to The Trees Community. With over 80 different instruments at their hands, they compose highly eclectic music, based on various religious themes.

About a year after the first meeting of the group, the factory, which had turned into their Temple, is destroyed, and thus begins their life on the road. With a bus, they travel throughout the country, visiting various churches, monasteries, festivals and the like.

The members of group keep together for some eight years, but then go their separate ways. The only album released during the existence of The Trees Community is The Christ Tree, which was released in 1975. The album was digitalised and released as a four CD box set in 2006. The box also contains some live recordings and other miscellanea.

As far as influences go, here are some of them: The Incredible String Band, Moody Blues, Indian Raga and Balinese Monkey Chant, traditional American sacred folk music, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Charles Ives, Bela Bartok and Claude Debussy.


:::: Bio written by KPP, Norway ::::