Music and Poetry of the Kesh is the documentation of an invented Pacific Coast peoples from a far distant time, and the soundtrack of famed science fiction author, Ursula K.

Le Guin's novel Always Coming Home. In the novel, the story of Stone Telling, a young woman of the Kesh, is woven within a larger anthropological folklore and fantasy.

The ways of the Kesh were originally presented in 1985 as a five hundred plus page book accompanied with illustrations of instruments and tools, maps, a glossary of terms, recipes, poems, an alphabet (Le Guin's conlang, so she could write non-English lyrics), and with early editions, a cassette of "field recordings" and indigenous song.

Le Guin wanted to hear the people she'd imagined; she embarked on an elaborate process with her friend Todd Barton to invoke their spirit and tradition.

For "Music and Poetry of the Kesh", the words and lyrics are attributed to Le Guin as composed by Barton, an Oregon-based musician, composer and Buchla synthesist (the two worked together previously on public radio projects).

But the cassette notes credit the sounds and voices to the world of the Kesh, making origins ambiguous.

Barton's crafting of original instruments lends an other-worldly texture to the recordings of the Kesh, not unlike fellow builders Bobby Brown and Lonnie Holley.

Both Barton and Le Guin are sensitive to the sovereignty of indigenous Californians and were careful not to trample the traditions of the Tolowa people who lived in the valley long before the Kesh.

"You research deeply, and then you bring your own voice to the table," said Barton. Within the Kesh culture, the numbers four and five shape the lives, society and rituals.

Barton composed loosely around these numbers, patiently listening to the land of Napa Valley for signs and audio signals from the natural elements.

Todd incorporated ambient sounds of the creek by Le Guin's house and a campfire they built together.

The songs of Kesh are joyful, soothing and meditative, while the instrumental works drift far past the imaginary lands.

"Heron Dance" is an uplifting first track, featuring a Wéosai Medoud Teyahi (made from a deer or lamb thigh bone with a cattail reed) and the great Houmbúta (used for theatre and ceremony).

"A Music of the Eighth House" sends gossamer waves of the faintest sounds to "float on the wind." Like the languages invented in the vocal work of Anna Homler, Meredith Monk, and Elizabeth Fraser, the Kesh songs and poems play with the shape of voice.