Ross Daly has traveled the world, mainly in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, studying various forms of local music traditions.

In 1982, he established an educational institution called Labyrinth Musical Workshop,[2] in the village of Houdetsi, Crete, twenty kilometers south of the capital city of Herakleion.

He organized and artistically supervised 15 concerts with the participation of 300 musicians from all over the world, including Jordi Savall, Eduardo Niebla, Huun Huur Tu, Habil Aliyev, Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan, Mohammad Rahim Khushnawaz, Chemirani Trio, Adel Selameh.

[1] Ross Daly is the originator of the term Contemporary Modal Music, which refers to contemporary compositional works which draw their influences and inspiration from the broader world of Modal musical traditions which are found primarily (although not exclusively) in the vast geographical region between Western Africa and Western China.

Ross Daly himself disputes this notion, believing instead that the epithet "traditional" implies above all an element of timelessness in which the contributions of the past, present, and future are equally important and relevant to the creative process.