A Roadmap to Our Hearts!
Check out the Digital Lyrics Booklet! (Click menu on bottom of graphic to view full screen or download pdf)
MEET THE TEAM!
WHAT IS THE GRIEVING PROJECT?
"I immediately saw the work as a live multi-media production with musicians, dancers, actors, and projections. The work is meaningful, powerful, and beautiful artistry!"
"Brave and cathartic work!"
"You're a great artist and an amazing human being. Thank you for putting your pain into art and healing."
"I think people need to hear this, and it is wonderfully done."
"What a powerful idea for an album. Surviving to thriving - that's what we're all going for right now! I love that you go beyond the first difficult stages and into all those great positive phases beyond acceptance too."
"This is absolutely inspiring and breathtakingly beautiful... fantastic and extremely relevant project. I am certain it will inspire many. I loved listening..."
"So engaging, creative, honest, contemporary… I love the sound track to your poetic voice and story!!"
"...Made me feel like I was listening to a mini musical production. I was sucked right into it from the moment I pressed play… it really takes you on a journey from grief to joy from the perspective of these people who are living with said illnesses."
"Loved being able to experience the evolution of emotions through the combination of music and words. Raw and uncomfortable feelings that we all go thru at some point."
"[It] should be required listening in the schools!"
"...deep and synergistic; a treat for the mind, the ear, and the heart."
"Appreciate the way you bring vulnerability to your work."
"...so deep and I can totally see it as a play. It reminds me a bit of Hamilton and dear Evan Hansen- with such important content and actors acting it out! This is amazing!"
"It's raw, painful and deeply poetic... so courageous, but also so compassionate...this is setting the bar for what the Spoken Word genre can and should be."
"There is a national need for the roadmap to the heart that Sniderman/Aoede has produced... Not only does Sniderman/Aoede deserve a music award for her creativity, but she deserves a humanitarian award for turning her creativity into a pathway to thriving for the nation in a time of grief." Patrick O'Heffernan, Indie Pulse Music
The Grieving Project is a powerful and inventive spoken word audiobook that sets the stages of grief to music to help us move from surviving to thriving… the entire audiobook-all 22 tracks-is spoken over original musical compositions.
Four different young adults. Four different chronic illness experiences. Plunging through 14 stages of grieving and thriving, through a melding of words and an emotional orchestra. Taking us on a moving journey from surviving... to thriving.
What can you do when you struggle with an illness or disability that doesn’t go away? You can deny it. You can suffer from and live in fear of it. You can scream at it and demand to know why it’s there. You can come to terms with it. You can feel sorry for yourself. You can make friends with it. You can learn to live your life with it. You can grieve. And perhaps if you grieve, you can awaken, express, rejuvenate, activate, connect, shine and thrive, not only despite, but because of it.
During the 12+ years I’ve lived with my rare progressive muscle weakness disease, dermatomyositis, I forgot to grieve. Or perhaps, like many of you, I didn’t ever realize I needed to grieve an illness… In The Grieving Project, I’ve invited myself to grieve and thrive; to express and feel in all the ways I’ve intentionally avoided, and from my own experiences, created seven new stages of thriving that pick up after grieving.
Though presented as separate stages, grieving and thriving do not follow not linear timelines; they are a roller coaster with myriad twists and turns, and an intense jumble of simultaneous physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual feelings and reactions. I adapted the seven stages of grief from Elizabeth-Kübler Ross.
The Grieving Project is a road map to our hearts, an invitation for you to grieve your loss, your change, your unexpected and unwanted transformation, and the inspiration and encouragement you need to awaken, express, rejuvenate, activate, connect, shine and truly thrive!
The Grieving Project
Producer
Angelo "Scrote" Bundini
Engineers
Myles Boisen, Angelo "Scrote" Bundini
Additional Engineers
Lisa Sniderman, Harriet Tam, John Finkbeiner
Mixer
Bill Mims
Mastering Engineer
Rainer Gembalczyk
All music by Angelo “Scrote” Bundini / Teddy Spunko Music BMI 2020 except “Hand I Was Dealt” by Lisa Sniderman (Aoede) and “Thrive” by Lisa Sniderman (Aoede) & Angelo “Scrote” Bundini.
All arrangements by Angelo “Scrote” Bundini except horn arrangements on Don’t Tell Me This Is Happening, Make A Deal To Heal, Where To Begin, and Tell Me What To Eat.
Edited by Angelo “Scrote” Bundini.
Recorded at Guerrilla Recording, Oakland, CA. Additional recordings at New, Improved Recording, Low Overhead Studios, and Live From Blackbird Studios.
Mixed at Alpha Road Studios, Glendale, CA.
Concept by Lisa Sniderman. All lyrics by Lisa Sniderman.
Musicians
Orchestra Nostalgico
Chris Grady - trumpets, flugelhorn
Rob Ewing - trombones
Phillip Greenlief - tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, Bb clarinet
Sheldon Brown - bass clarinet, Turkish G clarinet, Db piccolo, alto flute, bass flute, tenor saxophone
Lewis Patzner - cello
Myles Boisen - guitars, pedal steel, lap steel, electric bass
John Finkbeiner - guitars
Joshua Raoul Brody - piano, accordion, keys
Lisa Mezzacappa - acoustic & electric bass
John Hanes - drums
Angelo “Scrote” Bundini - electric & acoustic guitars
Tim Lefebvre - bass on Go Girl Go
Ben Peeler - 12 string acoustic guitars and banjo on Risky, 12 string acoustic guitars on Stars Wrapped In Skin, 12 string acoustic guitars on Live In The Grey
Ron Dziubla - baritone sax on Don’t Tell Me This Is Happening, Let The Good Ones Fly, Make A Deal To Heal, Tell Me What To Eat
Sound Effects
David Sands - Make A Deal To Heal
Vocals
Lisa Sniderman – vocals
Rachel Fulginiti - (voice of Danica) vocals on Don't Tell Me This is Happening, Make a Deal to Heal, Undiagnosed, I Chose You, Live in the Grey, Tell Me What to Eat, Go Girl Go, MS: My Story, Stars Wrapped in Skin, Thrive
Lauren Freedman - (voice of Charli) vocals on Make a Deal to Heal, Live in the Grey, Tell Me What to Eat, Risky, Go Girl Go, Stars Wrapped in Skin, Thrive
David Francisco - (voice of Brandon) vocals on Pain, Make a Deal to Heal, Three Things, Where to Begin, Stars Wrapped in Skin, Thrive
David Sands – (voice of Buzz Becker) vocals on Make a Deal to Heal
Album Artwork
Jasmine Raskas (unusmundusart.com)
Special thanks to: Marsha Slomowitz, Glen Abrahams and William Bower-Leet
Additional Artwork
Sam Brown Art (https://www.ceruleansam.com/)
© 2020 Lisa Sniderman/Aoede
Angelo "Scrote" Bundini has worked as a musician and/or record producer with Grammy winners, Oscar winners, legendary performers, cultural icons, and world class artists alike including Sting, Seal, Todd Rundgren, Adrian Belew, Gary Oldman, Ewan McGregor, Rumer, Jackson Browne, No Doubt, Darren Criss, Simon Le Bon, Puscifer, and Daniel Johnston. He has produced and/or collaborated with Aoede on many of her albums (Affair with the Muse, Skeletons of the Muse, Is Love A Fairy Tale?, What Are Dreams Made of? Do You Believe In Magic?)
I was immediately drawn to the artist, Jasmine Raskas’s painting on the album cover (originally titled “Entanglement”) to embody The Grieving Project: the spirals, the play of light and dark, the bold colors and textures, the messiness, the frenzy, the expressiveness. Jasmine herself is no stranger to chronic illness, having faced life altering complications of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) for many years. I asked Jasmine to integrate into her painting, 14 elements representing the 14 Stages of grief and thriving. She responded by painting her grief: 14 individual paintings! Each one expresses in paint one of the 14 Stages. Then, she shrunk them to fit on the painting! What I also love is that The Grieving Project wasn't limited to the spoken word and music, but extended and crossed into the visual art!
BEHIND THE ALBUM COVER ART!
(Click on photo gallery and click on painting above to see corresponding locations)
Sam Brown a visionary artist from New Mexico known for his spiral paintings, also contributed to The Grieving Project, inspired to paint this evocative piece:
"Keep Shining" shares my struggle with rare illness and disability as well as my recovery and is a powerful reminder to never give up. I've included it here both to share some of my story and because it was a spark... when I shared this video with a nurse during one of my monthly infusions, she told me that my video and song could help patients get in touch with feelings around their illnesses that they may not otherwise be able to access. The impact of her statement stayed with me... and sparked The Grieving Project.
BEHIND THE MUSIC!
BEHIND THE VOICES!
50% of all proceeds from the sale of The Grieving Project Audiobook will be donated to Myositis Support and Understanding Association (MSU), a patient-centered, all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization empowering the Myositis Community through education, support, awareness, advocacy, access to research, and need-based financial assistance.
Having lived with dermatomyositis, a form of myositis, for 12 years, improving the lives of those living with myositis is near and dear to my heart. Further, my personal experience with MSU has shown that they go above and beyond to support their members, as well others in need, and do so with enthusiasm, determination, compassion and passion. Gratitude to MSU for also graciously offering to share The Grieving Project with their members and others who might benefit, recognizing how art and music can be an opening to help us process grief and loss from our illnesses.
BEHIND THE PARTNERSHIP WITH MSU!