Last spring I released a alternative piano rock CD under the name Ace Noface. It was produced by session musician's Ian Nashville. I wrote the music and lyrics, and programmed the MIDI data for the piano parts. The lyrics on this CD were rather negative, dwelling on guilt, disease, crime, emotional fragility, anger at God, ex-girlfriends and intolerance. Writing this music was a cathartic experience, helping me deal with emotions surrounding my diagnosis of ALS, and other major life experiences. I started a PR campaign with ariel publicity, with a tepid response.

Even during the PR campaign, I lost confidence and I lost interest in the piano rock music. Not that I had processed all of these negative emotion, I was ready to turn over a new leaf. I decided I wanted to produce my own music. I latched on to female vocal and electronic music with slower tempo. I recruited my massage therapist to be the voice of the project. I also recruited a university professor of jazz piano and my first guitar teacher. I didn't want to take the chance of writing my own lyrics for this project for fear that I might get sick of them like the last time. I asked my mother, an English professor, for some ideas for poetry I could set to music. She suggested Rumi. I instantly fell in love with the medieval Persian mystic poet. I became Sufirumi. I buried Ace Noface.

Over the last few months, I have been refining the Sufirumi sound. Each song has a nice downtempo drum and bass groove, synthesizer pads, electric piano and female vocals, along with a smattering of guitar, percussion and other instruments. All the lyrics are based on Rumi poetry. The chord progressions are a lot more complex than most downtempo music.