John Goldrust 2000 – “Rainbows & Rivers Meditations One”
John Goldrust 2000 – Rainbows & Rivers Meditations One: A Sonic Exploration of Musical Consciousness
With Rainbows & Rivers Meditations One, John Goldrust 2000 delivers a strikingly original instrumental piece that challenges both sonic conventions and the boundaries of modern music theory. Composed, performed, and produced entirely by Goldrust in his home studio in wintery Adelaide, this meditative track is the first in a planned series that fuses progressive rock sensibilities with a philosophical, almost spiritual approach to composition.
Rooted in a rich lineage of 1970s guitar greats—think Hendrix, Gilmour, Page, and Santana—the track draws on their emotive phrasing and expressive force. But Goldrust takes a different route: this is no mere pastiche. His work ventures deeper into abstraction, mirroring Bach’s mathematical precision while rejecting the rigidity of contemporary music theory. The piece began as a piano composition but evolved into a guitar-led journey, painstakingly recorded in 432 Hz to evoke a more natural resonance—an unusual choice that required retuning each instrument and MIDI sample manually.
The result is a lush, immersive soundscape that flows like a river—sometimes calm and introspective, other times rising with expressive intensity. Orchestral strings and ambient piano provide the bedrock for Goldrust’s expressive guitar, which carries the melody like a wandering spirit through layered, ever-shifting terrain.
But beneath its sonic beauty lies a deeper mission. Goldrust sees this piece not just as music, but as a vehicle for expanding human consciousness. He challenges the inherited limits of musical structure, aiming instead to tap into something elemental—something that transcends tradition and connects with a more intuitive, universal form of expression.
Rainbows & Rivers Meditations One is both a bold artistic statement and a gentle invitation—to listen more closely, to question musical norms, and perhaps to awaken a dormant part of ourselves along the way.