“I could not be more pleased with one of my best efforts with this new music video from a track off my new recording ‘Moonlight Meditations’ combining Stevin’s ethereal guitar work and the haunting low tones of the silver bass flute. This piece brings the spirit of place alive Cape Alava on the Washington Coast. Great effort by Peter with his footage of Cape Alava, a magical place. For me, i have re-traced my early roots of recording ambient music inspired by the sea. ‘We always return to what works best it seems’.” –Gary Stroutsos

Live performance at the Vashon Center for the Arts- Vashon Island, WA

Vashon Center for the Arts

Cloud Heavens is a new genre of film best described as Easy-Viewing. Cloud Heavens features music from Gary Stroutsos, world-renowned flute recording artist, and acclaimed Hopi singer & songwriter Clark Tenakhongva. Stroutsos plays from one-of-a-kind Hopi-made long-flute replicas based on original Hopi flutes created in 620 - 670 AD. These ancient long flutes, the oldest known wooden flutes in North America, were made from materials found in the Grand Canyon. According to the Hopi tribe, these flutes were played to the "Cloud Heavens" or "Cloud Gods:" played for "purpose" not simply "entertainment." Mysteriously, these ancient flutes were left behind in the Prayer Rock district in Northeastern Arizona; re-discovered in 1931.

Having previously collaborated with Gary Stroutsos and Clark Tenakhongva on a documentary film production Ongtupqa, the Hopi Tribe's name for the Grand Canyon, filmmaker Levi Davis set out to create Cloud Heavens after discovering a very unique connection to the power & purpose of the Hopi long flute. While editing Ongtupqa, upon every segment's completion, within the 48-minute documentary, rain would fall upon the editing suite: located in desert Southwest Phoenix, Arizona. Although Davis and Stroutsos are not Hopi, Cloud Heavens is a collaboration to acknowledge the Hopi long flute's very unique connection to nature and Hopi culture.