The most active volcano on Earth, the Kīlauea on the island of Hawai‘i, has been a deep inspiration for my sound art ever since I first set foot on the island back in 2015. In Hawaiian mythology, goddess Pele is believed to dwell in the Halemaʻumaʻu crater at the summit of Kīlauea. Her presence explains volcanic activity — eruptions are seen not just as geological events, but as expressions of her will, power, and emotion: creation, destruction, and migration. These same currents flow through my creative work, portraying an alien in a human spacesuit, reflecting on a fluid Earthian experience.

When Kīlauea started erupting again in early 2025, I was already living on Oʻahu but continued to study philosophy at the University of Hawaiʻi Hilo. One of my professors, Tim Freeman, presented video footage and photos from the eruptions during an Environmental Ethics class. He suggested composing the soundtrack to one of his videos, which fired up my creative flow by presenting an opportunity to reconnect with the volcanic vibes of my beloved Big Island.

At the time, I was invited to play some concerts on the Big Island and combined my travels with a visit to Volcano. Tim invited me to stay at his house, which was built without power tools by beat poet Albert Saijo and is nestled within a native ʻōhiʻa lehua and hāpuʻu fern forest near the summit of Kīlauea. Saijo's proximity to Kīlauea had a profound influence on his poetry. In his collection Outspeaks: A Rhapsody, he reflects on living on the edge of an active volcano, using the setting as a metaphor for existential and ecological awareness. His work often intertwines Zen Buddhist philosophy with a deep reverence for nature, emphasizing humanity's need to harmonize with the natural world.

Despite millennia of accumulated wisdom, we live in geopolitically turbulent times, once again. And the pain of our natural world seems to fade from our awareness as we focus on distracting ourselves with ego-pleasing echo chambers. A me-first ideology fueled by reshaping our brains into TikTok algorithm response devices is on the rise, overshadowing the dangers of an outdated anthropocentric worldview. Armament with weapons of mass destruction, the continuous rape of planet Earth, warring states, and a battle for land gain seem to be the main focus to force a decade-long rotting money-based economy back on its crooked feet, so we can send our exhausted soldiers back onto the battlefields in the illusion of being temporarily saved — once again. Will, power, and emotion: creation, destruction, and migration — letʻs face it: capitalism and a money-based economy are dead, and so is our humanness, as long as we cling to both.

Inspired by the sheer power of an ego-eliminating, untamable volcano, the poetic set and setting, and some wonderful conversations with my friend Tim, I composed Pele’s Fire — A Volcanic Symphony for Peace at the edge of Kīlauea, accompanied by native Hawaiian birds, surrounded by jungle and lava rocks — here and there gently reanimated by a fresh breeze of hope.

Pele's Fire: A Volcanic Symphony for Peace Live Composition on 5-string Electric Violin 3 Pieces | 1 Hour 39 Minutes Recorded near Kīlauea at Volcano National Park, Volcano, Hawaiʻi Artwork by Markus Mars Photo by Tim Freeman UPC 199199789398 ℗ & © 2025 Markus Mars

Video https://youtu.be/yYYUBlN3DME Footage by Tim Freeman, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Hawaiʻi Hilo Edited by Markus Mars

Bonus Content 1. Album Cover by Markus Mars (markusmars.music) 2. Photos from the 2025 Eruptions by Tim Freeman (tfreeman.net) 3. Mosaic Photo Art by Tim Freeman (tfreeman.net) 4. Story by Markus Mars (markusmars.music)

Kava Infused is a live recording from a 2019 concert at the Kava Bar in Hilo. A vibrant space full of vibrant people. Composing all of my music in a live audience setting is the quintessence of my work. While the COVID pandemic left artists around the globe in uncertainty and limited, changed, or even boosted everyone’s creative flow, I joined the bandwagon for a while and jumped on live streaming platforms to give it a shot.

However, I could not maintain the initial energy and soon felt confused about what this digital mirror of our mass consumption world reflected to us.

Content creators create more content for what reason? Influencers selling questionable antidotes to strangers while spreading misinformation anecdotes for a thumbs up? Engagement is everything. Staying on top is key — by all means.

Kava, also known as ‘awa in Hawai’i, is a crop of the Pacific Islands. The name kava is from Tongan and Marquesan, meaning ‘bitter.’ The plant’s root is used to produce a drink with sedative, anesthetic, and euphoriant properties, consumed throughout the Pacific Ocean cultures of Polynesia, including Hawai’i, Vanuatu, Melanesia, and some parts of Micronesia, such as Palau.

Skimming through the recording of my Kava Bar gig made me nostalgic. A flower power environment with zero sorrows, during a time when nobody worried about inhaling each other’s droplets.

I enjoyed a whole lotta Kava love droplets before allowing the magic from within to manifest itself in the form of this extended five-track live composition. I invite you to glide into a liquid trip of warm pads and sync up the pulse of the soul with subtle beats of multilayered echoes to attempt a wake-up call for world peace.

Over the years, I created my unique style of live time-stretching, layering several tempi, and occasionally creating a sometimes more or less gentle distraction from what the mind expects. A wide dynamic range leads to occasional input overdrives, which add scratches of good dirt to the otherwise clean-shaven soundscape of modern-day music production. It is a provocative element you may quickly learn to enjoy as it breathes extra life into the recording.

Mixing and mastering my new album, Kava Infused, gave me hope. The truth is, I became more and more certain that it is possible to conflate the magic of the unknown and the accomplishment of modern-day peer-reviewed evidence-based science. The result could be a delicious love potion that might help us overcome a toxic ego-centric neoliberalistic mindset that birthed Big Pharma and Big Wellness.

One day, we might learn how to let go of false beliefs and telephone-game-based information installed onto our thinking apparatus through the so-called illusory truth effect, to replace them with evolutionary updates as we strive towards a peaceful global family while embracing the beauty of our shared reality of impermanence.

During my DJ career, I learned how to implement my live-looping rig in a club environment and fell in love with extended Minimal and Techno tracks. I started live-remixing them by adding or replacing minor elements with my electric violin, telescopic didgeridoo, percussion, and vocal effects. In 2018, I adapted this technique to a computer-free live-looping environment and started composing everything from scratch in a live audience setting.

I invite you to descend into a meditative, almost psychedelic, trance state. When and where? Yogi’s choice. Some sounds might make you want to dance or enjoy a yoga flow. And some sounds might make you want to mop the floor.

Kava Infused Live Composition on 5-string Electric Violin, Didjeribone, Voice, Percussion 5 Pieces | 1 Hour 20 Minutes Recorded at Space & Light, Hilo, Hawaiʻi Artwork by Markus Mars Photo by Steve Roby UPC 198002406811 ℗ & © 2022 Markus Mars