For Immediate Release Contact:
Steve Creech
Cell 949-436-2489
Email: stevec@wyland.com
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — From renowned environmental artist, explorer, and filmmaker Wyland comes Blues Planet: Sounds , a new documentary narrated by famed oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle. Featuring many of the world’s leading voices for conservation of the planet, including Dr. Sylvia Earle, Chief
Scientist National Geographic, Wyland, world’s premiere marine life artist, Willie K, Singer Songwriter, Larry
Schweiger, CEO National Wild Life Federation, David
Helvarg, Blue Frontier Campaign, Kyle Thierman, Surfing for
Change, Captain Charles Moore, Algalita Marine Research
Foundaiion, Jim Moriarty CEO Surf Rider Foundation, William
Quotable:
“What we humans do in the next ten years will determine the next ten thousand….”
— Dr. Sylvia Earle
Aila, Jr. Director of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural
Resources, Carl Safina, Author, Mati Waiya, Water Keeper, Taj Mahal, The Maestro,
Nick-I, Singer Songwriter, Dr. Guy Harvey, Marine Artist/Conservationist, Roz Savage,
Ocean Rower, and original music from the Wyland Blues Planet Project by Taj Mahal,
Rod Piazza, Steve Turre, Nick-I, and 40 blues icons, recorded in New Orleans on the anniversary of the Gulf Oil Disaster.
Blues Planet: Sounds is a powerful and moving visual masterpiece that sheds light on the environmental challenges of our day and the many people who through art, music, and science are today creating an environmental renaissance.
About the Wyland Foundation
Founded in 1993 by environmental artist Wyland (best known for his series of 100 monumental marine life murals), the Wyland Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization, is actively engaged in teaching millions of students around the county about our ocean, rivers, lakes streams, and wetlands. The foundation's latest project,
FOCUS (Forests, Oceans, Climate – and us) brings together the U.S. Forest Service,
NOAA, and numerous non-profits to teach young people about the future of our water supplies, climate, and global health. www.wylandfoundation.org
Mailing Address: 5 Columbia, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
Satellite Office: 23042 Alcalde Drive, Suite B, Laguna Hills, CA 92653
FID # 33-0543876 www.wylandfoundation.org

Project Background
With 2010 Gulf Oil Spill disaster as a backdrop, Blues Planet: Sounds explores the pressing issues facing the future of our ocean, lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands.
Renowned marine life artist and environmentalist Wyland focuses his artistic lens on the many ways people draw inspiration from music for and about the world around them.
Wyland starts by assembling the Wyland Blues Project, an unprecedented group of more than 40 top blues musicians, including famed bluesmen Taj Mahal and Rod
Piazza, to create an original album of music one year after the infamous oil spill.
Recorded in May 2011 in New Orleans at the famed Piety Street Studios, the Wyland
Blues Planet project explores a new genre of “Global Blues Music for Our Environment” that spotlights Wyland's passion for conservation through the blues sounds of Chicago,
Memphis, New Orleans, Texas and the Mississippi Delta. All music and lyrics for the album were written by Wyland, with appearances by guest musicians such as Steve
Turre, from NBC's Saturday Night Live, who handled horn arrangements, vocalist Nick I,
Delfea yo Marsalis, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s Roger Lewis and Kirk M Joseph, Sr.,
New Orleans Clarinetist Dr. Michael White, Blues Pianist Jon Cleary, Miss Honey, Henry
Carvajal, Rusty Zinn, Dave Kida, Jonny Viau, Hank VanSickle, Andromeda Turre, Willie
K, Mitch Woods, Amy Hanialii Gilliom, Mick Weaver, Joe Sublett, Darrell Leonard, Tony
Braunagel, Jon Cleary, Johnny Lee Schell, and Larry Fulcher.
Blues Planet: Sounds goes inside the recording studio in New Orleans with the musicians for a behind the scenes look at the making of this collection of global blues music. Wyland draws a sharper picture with perspectives from leading environmental activists and scientists, including famed marine biologist and National Geographic
Explorer Dr. Sylvia Earle, who narrates the film and cautions, "The actions we take in the next ten years on this planet, may affect what happens in the next 10,000." “Music and art reflect the times, and sometimes the future,” Wyland says. “Anyone whose read the papers lately knows our planet has the blues. The music in this documentary reminds us in the tradition of the classic blues style that it’s up to us to take care of our world or risk losing everything.”
Mailing Address: 5 Columbia, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
Satellite Office: 23042 Alcalde Drive, Suite B, Laguna Hills, CA 92653
FID # 33-0543876 www.wylandfoundation.org

By placing music side by side with his concern for the future of our environment, Wyland stresses the power of the arts to communicate hope to countless people worldwide, with a special message for the next generation. Blues Planet: Sounds investigates our relationship with the planet we call home – the good and the bad. It chronicles historical accounts of environmental degradation and major conservation breakthroughs with one common denominator – man. Blues Planet: Sounds demonstrates that the human race has the power and ability to create monumental change, for better or worse, to light rivers on fire or to start a global environmental movement. Wyland believes it is up to each of us to care. Thankfully, he says, awareness is growing and people are taking action. Most of us are awakening to the reality that the economy – health – security – our very existence depends on taking care of the natural systems that make life on earth possible.
With this understanding, Blues Planet: Sounds delivers a message of hope. Every creature, every habitat, even the planet itself, has its own unique song. It is a music that fills our soul and allows us to share the majestic legacy of our world for generations to come.
Synopsis:
Blues Planet is a powerful, new documentary film series by Wyland, narrated by Dr.
Sylvia Earle, featuring spectacular video / film footage. The documentaries will include interviews with some of the most prominent environmentalists of our day with an emphasis on the voices, music, and imagery that capture the state of our environment. It is Wyland's effort to put a spotlight on the people and groups who are working to improve the health of our planet.
Mailing Address: 5 Columbia, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
Satellite Office: 23042 Alcalde Drive, Suite B, Laguna Hills, CA 92653
FID # 33-0543876 www.wylandfoundation.org

Distribution:
Blues Planet will be released at film festivals throughout the U.S. and around the world.
Thereafter, the documentaries will be released for distribution on national television, including Discovery, National Geographic and BBC, and available for release on DVD and Blue Ray.
Timeline:
"Blues Planet — Sounds," the first in the series of three documentary films, proudly announces its world premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival at 5 pm Saturday,
April 28.
Total series of 3 films written and narrated by Dr. Sylvia Earle and Wyland
Blues Planet — Sounds (1 hour) 2012
Blues Planet — Hope (1 hour) 2013
Blues Planet — Future (1 hour) 2014
Mailing Address: 5 Columbia, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
Satellite Office: 23042 Alcalde Drive, Suite B, Laguna Hills, CA 92653
FID # 33-0543876 www.wylandfoundation.org