Dean Evenson is one of the true visionaries of the Ambient/New Age musical genre--a prolific musician and composer, an entrepreneur, media pioneer and the co-founder of Billboard-charting independent music label, Soundings of the Planet. At every turn, Evenson's life has taken bold steps in new and exciting directions. The success and pioneering nature of his creative work attest to a dynamic personality and a life-long commitment to the positive evolution of life on this planet in relationship with the natural and spiritual world. Evenson's story is that of an artist, technological innovator, broad-minded thinker--a modern-day Renaissance man.

Music, nature and spirituality were a part of Evenson's life from a very early age. Growing up in Staten Island, New York as part of a musical, church-going family, Dean learned to play flute and piano, and played and sang in all types of school, church and community orchestras, bands and choirs. His affinity for music also found expression in a deep, abiding love of nature. Borrowing his elder brother's recording equipment, Dean would often place a microphone outside his bedroom window to capture the crash of thunderstorms. While on an early bird-watching trip with the pastor of his church, Dean learned to appreciate the wonderful, musical complexity of bird-songs. "You don't notice those things when you're young unless they're pointed out to you," reflects Dean. "Hearing them for the first time like that changed my whole perspective on what nature was and what I thought about sound." From that point on, music, nature and spirituality became the primary threads with which Evenson wove the fabric of his life.

His interest in nature and a keen analytical mind initially took him into the sciences, where he pursued a Master's degree in molecular biology under a National Science Foundation Fellowship at the University of Maine. At some point during graduate school, however, he realized that he was devoting much of his time to art and music projects on the side. When he completed his degree, his life took a dramatic turn in that direction. "I realized that I had gone into science to find out what science knew about life, but I was never looking for a career," Dean explains. "I was entranced with determining what it takes for us to live as better human beings on this planet." The same quest for spiritual knowledge that brought him to science propelled him toward the arts.

Dean's life has taken many unexpected twists and has led him and his family through many remarkable, ground-breaking experiences. The same philosophy that led to their unpredictable success and vitality in the past is what continues to guide him. Dean explains, "I've always wanted to do the best thing for the planet and what I do is in service. I don't have a lot of projections about what I'm supposed to be doing or where I should be going. I just follow my inner purpose and personal vision. It's the intuition, the learning, the inner knowing of which way to go that is the important pathmark for us." Maintaining that devotion to inner vision and the positive evolution of the planet in the '90s continues to guide Dean and Dudley Evenson and their growing music label.