George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was an Armenian philosopher, mystic, spiritual teacher, and composer of Armenian and Greek descent, born in Alexandropol, Russian Empire (today: Gjumri, Armenia). Gurdjieff taught that most humans do not possess a unified consciousness and thus live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to awaken to a higher state of consciousness and achieve full human potential.

From 1923 to 1929, Thomas De Hartmann worked closely with Gurdjieff at his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man outside Paris, translating into European notation the music Gurdjieff composed from his travels. As for the instrumentation, the performance is stripped down to nothing more than a single piano. De Hartmann uses the negative space between notes to revel in resonance, in turn capturing remarkable depth and meaning.

Dutch pianist Jeroen van Veen, a pioneer of unusual repertoire, recorded the complete piano music of Gurdjieff/De Hartmann, 6 CDs of extraordinary, meditative and deeply spiritual music.