For this album, Desert Dances, I wanted to write music which was a little more approachable and accessible than a great deal of my music of recent years.

Being an experimentalist, a lot of my music is difficult and certainly not easy listening.
At the same time, I had to make sure that I did not compromise my musical language and integrity.
Fortunately, having a background of 20 years as a session musician playing everything from punk-rock to symphonic, I have plenty to draw from, and without design, the end result seems to have fallen into a jazz-rock/world-music area, with a little help from pure electronics.
I leave the listener to decide whether I have succeeded.
Morris Pert - April 2006.

Track notes:

KALAHARI - This is in ABA form.The first and third sections are atmospheric of a desert environment and are free of overall tempo. The central contrasting section introduces a rhythm section overlaid by keyboard soloing.
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BAKTRA - Layers of percussion with electronics and keyboard cluster-work on top.

SONORA - Blocks of contrasting materials, some non-rhythmic, some rhythmic, gently fade in and out against each other throughout the piece.
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TAKLA MAKAN [NO ESCAPE] - The desert's name says it all hence the insistent, inescapable cowbell/drum figure over which hallucinatory sounds come and go. The cowbell eventually gives up having won the battle and the track dies.

TANGIER NIGHTS - A totally different atmosphere,this track is an improvisation by myself on acoustic piano and Gary Kettel on percussion and travels through many moods.

MARRAKESH - At the invitation of Peter Gabriel, I contributed this piece to his first World of Music, Arts and Dance album. Although sounding quite simple, it is multi-layered rhythmically with lots of percussion activity. A soprano sax, played by Tim Holmes, gives this happy little piece a further lift.
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MAMA QUILLA - A harmonic sequence is repeated throughout this piece as a ground, over which 2 keyboard tracks converse.Everything is backed by a simple percussion loop.

KARA KUM - A very heavy drum-track-and-riff pervades this final piece, dominating everything.
Again 2 keyboard tracks have a conversation, until everything decides it's the up-and-out!