James Asher launched a music career that extended across three decades by first devoting many years to crafting non-commercial scores for soundtracks and library collections. Once he chose to pursue more ambitious original works, he unveiled his first commercial release, The Great Wheel, in 1990. That album climbed to number 13 on the new age chart and stayed there for roughly two years. Following the 1993 appearance of Globalarium on Silver Wave Records, he moved to New Earth Records, the label that handled most of his output through the rest of the decade. His catalog divided into two distinct streams: rhythm-heavy ethnic fusion, showcased on the albums Feet in the Soil and Feet in the Soil 2, alongside softer pieces in a traditional new age vein, such as the 1995 release Ocean of Stars. Two years afterward he brought out Pemulwuy, a project titled in tribute to a formidable, legendary Aborigine. Asher revisited Indian world rhythms with 1998’s Tigers of the Raj, while 1999’s Coulours of Trance reflected his admiration for the verse of Madeleine Doherty. In subsequent years he twice remixed and reissued Tigers of the Raj, produced another installment in the Feet in the Soil series, and issued his initial joint effort with Indian drummer Sivamani on the 2002 album Shaman Drums.
