Inside the Great Pyramid

Paul Horn - Inside the Great Pyramid

Flute player Paul Horn recorded this album in three rooms of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh (Cheops). Sides one and two were recorded in the King's Chamber and side three was recorded in the Queen's Chamber. Side four was actually recorded in the Burial Chamber of another pyramid (Kephren). Horn was attempting to obtain a spiritual experience from playing in the pyramids as well as record his playing including the unique echoes, in the pyramids' rooms, generated by his playing.

Previously, Horn has played and recorded inside of a structure. In 1968, he recorded his playing from inside the Taj Mahal. The tape of the results were released as the album Inside. Afterwards, Horn would go on to record the "Inside" series of albums including this album, Inside the Cathedral, Inside Canyon de Chelly and Inside Monument Valley.

Horn started out as a jazz musician playing mainly what is described as "cool jazz" then went to India in 1967 to study trancendental meditation. This experience would mark a new direction in his career as he started to create more new age or meditative style of music starting with his Inside album from Taj Mahal.

In the first week of May 1976, Horn went to Cairo with his recording engineer. Horn and his recording engineer accompanied a group touring the pyramids and other Egyptian ancient structures and monuments. Horn only had a few days available to get permission to play in the Great Pyramid after closing hours. Horn eventually was granted permission to go in the Great Pyramid on the evening of May 6th, 1976 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Horn's recording engineer had one tape recorder and a microphone which were used to record Horn's playing. The music Horn created that evening was totally improvised. He interacted with the echoes as if he was playing with another musician. The next evening Horn and his recording engineer were granted permission to go after closing hours in the pyrmaids Kephren and Mycerinus and Horn's playing was recorded in these pyramids.

Inside the Great Pyramid was originally released as a 2-LP album with a booklet that was used as a source to provide some of the information in this post.

Tracklisting:

Side One - Initiation

1. Invocation {0:41}

2. Psalm 1 {4:06}

3. Psalm 2 {2:10}

4. Psalm 3 {2:18}

5. Psalm 4 {2:49}

6. Psalm 5 {3:18}

7. Psalm 6 {2:20}

8. Psalm 7 {4:04}

Side Two - Meditation

1. Psalm 1 {3:45}

2. Psalm 2 {1:17}

3. Psalm 3 {4:55}

4. Psalm 4 {2:57}

5. Psalm 5 {2:59}

6. Psalm 6 {5:08}

Side Three - Enlightenment

1. Psalm 1 {4:01}

2. Psalm 2 {4:07}

3. Psalm 3 {2:28}

4. Psalm 4 {3:04}

5. Psalm 5 {4:26}

6. Psalm 6 {0:53}

Side Four - Fulfillment

1. Psalm 1 {5:07}

2. Psalm 2 {3:21}

3. Psalm 3 {1:52}

4. Psalm 4 {3:43}

5. Psalm 5 {2:11}

6. Psalm 6 {1:24}

7. Psalm 7 {2:15}

8. Psalm 8 {1:21}

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