Raised in Detroit and introduced to music as a 1970s rocker (with the Stooges and Ted Nugent as models), but also influenced by the other genres popular in the city, from rhythm and blues to jazz, from soul to funk, all genres united by their African origins, Aura changed course after meeting Paul Horn, who had gone to play in the pyramids and communicated to him his longing to make contact with ancient and distant cultures.

Aura then devoted himself to the study of Indian music, and with the group Heartspace he began playing a kind of world music that, after a few years, became a local phenomenon. When new age exploded, Aura found himself at the forefront of a movement with his pan-ethnic and electronic sketches, entirely unpretentious and promoted as a panacea for stress.

Heartspace (1981) contains only two long tracks, Wings of a Dove and Euphoria, with Aura on guitar, David Thomas on synthesizers, Richard Tibbitts on flute, Tony Karasek on bass and Indian instruments, Floyd Fronius on violin, Stephanie Gudeman on oboe, Gerlando Compilati on Cuban percussion, and Chip Hancock on drums.

The second album, Lovely Day (1981), consists of two great sonic frescoes. Seascape fuses the sound of waves with guitar chords that imitate the reflections of the moon on the water, and intertwines tender melodies on electronics and flute to evoke the sensations of an evening spent on the beach watching the birds and the sunset. The psychological depth and descriptive ability of the piece immediately placed it among the great "Impressionist" masters of electronic new age. The cornucopia of melodic ideas poured into this suite (which is in fact a sequence of romances separated by the sound of waves) and the crystalline calm of the performance established a standard against which all competitors would have to measure themselves.

The orchestration of English Meadow includes (in addition to electronic keyboards, acoustic guitar, flute and grand piano, that is, the ensemble of Seascape) the sitar and Indian violin: the atmosphere is immediately more ecstatic, first with the piano marking out a prayer in crescendo, then with the electronics simulating a pipe organ floating through solemn chords, and finally with the violin weaving an intense "hosanna mantra." This time it is birdsong that serves as the separator between one "movement" and the next of the suite.

The long suite that occupies the entirety of Timeless takes its cue from the splendid intuitions of Seascape and English Meadow, especially from the latent mysticism of the latter. The orchestra once again includes Richard Tibbitts (flute), David Thomas (piano), and Tony Karasek (Indian percussion), but also adds Pepe Anton Estevane (harp) and Marta Talavera (tamboura). The music struggles to make its way forward, as if groping through a labyrinth of harp chords, and only toward the end do the piano's romantic figures manage to give a minimum of substance to the slow, dreamlike drifting of the chords. Aura's melodic talent remains somewhat in the background, as do the electronic keyboards. Aura uses the sonic capital at his disposal sparingly, focusing almost entirely on mystical trance.

In this kind of evanescent chamber music, Aura would later write more concise and organic pieces, such as the impalpable Within, for flute, piano and zither (from Aurasound II), and the bucolic New Dawn, for flute, zither and natural sounds (from Paradise).

The quintessence of Aura's more sophisticated style can be found on Dreamer, a collection of virtually flawless "songs": airy melodies, majestic rhythms, lush arrangements. Thomas's grand piano and Tibbitts's flute are once again the protagonists of the romantic flights of Daydream and Dreamer. Aura is unusual in his willingness to give the stage to his supporting players, in this role of orchestra conductor who almost incidentally also lays his hands on the keyboards and guitar, without considering himself the leading actor of the symphony. Watersong, on the other hand, returns to Seascape, to the fusion of natural landscapes (and sounds) and free improvisations for a small ensemble; and Serenity to the blinding spiritualism of Timeless. Having abandoned his youthful enthusiasm for extended suites, Aura nevertheless begins to retreat toward the fragment, the shard, the sketch.

Fantasy is in this sense the last gasp of the conceptual Aura (the pieces are once again exhausting in length), but its sound (extremely modern, lush, jazzy, rhythmically poised) simply lays the foundations for a simpler and more immediate song form. If Infinite Love and Visitation retain the metaphysical yearning of the early albums, indeed pushing it toward cosmic depths with distant synthetic choirs, it is the sensual ballad Fantasy that triumphs, with a cocktail-lounge theme (repeated by a saxophone) and electronic flutterings serving as elegant makeup.

By the mid-1980s Aura had, in short, gone through an identity crisis: after abandoning his ethno-electronic explorations, he failed to find a genuine reason for being in the already crowded universe of electronic sketch-makers. With Half Moon Bay, Aura attempted to merge the two approaches of his previous albums (the contemplative and the danceable), but only Mirada (for four keyboards) and a few others manage to hit the mark. World Keeps Turning adds little to this confused program. By shaping the timbres of zithers, guitars, flutes, pianos, percussion, and synthesizers into an organic, hypnotic, velvety stream of sound, Aura had in fact coined a Third World version of venerable kitsch.

Another turning point came in the 1990s, when Aura met the Africans of Soto Koto and learned from them how to emphasize the space between the beats rather than the beats themselves.

Every Act Of Love marks a new direction, less world music and more jazz fusion, less meditative and more danceable. The glacial quality of the production and the elegance of the arrangements allow the most disparate musical ideas to merge into a pleasant and harmonious stream of sound, effortlessly alternating the solos and counterpoints of the various acoustic instruments (flute, saxophone, zither, piano, guitar, percussion) with the keyboards. The instrumental themes, from the airy and rhythmically poised Brighter Day to the exotic and majestic Spiritual Hunger, from the lively refrain of Maya to the spirited samba of Twilight Touch, from the driving vertigo of Spirit Rising to the austere hymn of Deep Within My Heart, display an exuberance that brushes against Spyrogyra's baroque jazz-rock and Brazilian popular music. The ballad Stay With Me enters his repertoire of cosmic cocktail lounge music. The cosmic trance of Whispers From Eternity and the crystalline melody of the title track, meanwhile, are added to his more classical repertoire.

But Aura is now an established producer, and no longer has either the time or the inclination to compose music. On Third Force, he therefore enlists two young partners through whom he attempts to integrate hip-hop with new age, the "groove" with meditation, along with the usual Latin, African, and jazz inflections. The "groove" is interpreted as a means of healing the spirit, of creating the altered state of consciousness necessary for anyone who wishes to communicate with their own consciousness. The album's ten strongly rhythmic songs feature guitar, keyboards, flute, and saxophone.

It is Craig Chaquico's guitar that embellishes the best track, Gift; but the stylistic innovation is more evident in the orchestral funk of You Know My Heart and the ambient techno of Towards The Light. Exoticism reaches new mannerist heights in the tracks decorated with horns, Full Circle (with flute) and Third Force (with saxophone).

Chaquico also lends himself to the brilliant theme of Forever Yours, on the subsequent Force Of Nature, increasingly stuffed with funky saxophone fanfares (Listen To Your Heart, the title track, Third Force Party) or piano and flute (Sundancer). The romantic pieces (Here Comes The Night) and atmospheric ones ('Til We Meet Again) are now peripheral episodes, also revealing how Aura has less and less control over the compositions.

Force Of Nature continues in the vein of its predecessor, but is assisted by several special guests, who are called upon to improvise on some of the tracks.

The jazz component is even stronger on 3rd Force's Vital Force (1997). William Aura's and Alain Eskinasi's third-world passion meet Rick Braun's flugelhorn in In The Full Moonlight. He is only the first of many distinguished guests that turn the album's eleven vignettes into high-class jam sessions that mix thick rhythms and jazz baroque. No Doubt boasts a funky horn section and a petulant trumpet that duels with each of the other horns. Romantic saxophone solos lead the Caribbean fanfare of Give It Up. Keyboards set the pace for the smooth talk of the shuffle I've Got To Know. Aura, Craig Dobbin and Eskinasi (3rd Force's new line-up) take turns at the electronic keyboards and the rhythm programming, penning invigorating groove-oriented arrangements, dance-music for mystics (although sometimes it sounds like an instrumental version of Stevie Wonder's funk-soul, as in Set Yourself Free). Their symbiosis peaks with Echoes Of A Dream, a surreal jungle watercolor. Aura's melodic gift surfaces in the acoustic guitar and accordion parts of the pensive You Gotta Be Real, in the piano-based prayer of Lift Me Higher, and in the nocturnal piano-based lounge-music of Thru The Shadows.

Force Field (Higher Octave, 1999)

Collective Force (2000) is a poppy effort that relies mainly on impeccable melodies (Dance With Me, In The Full Moonlight, Coming Home, Bridge Of Dreams).

Gentle Force (2002) includes the more sophisticated suites Journey to Now and Aquamarine, while Driving Force (2005) is like the high-energy version of it.