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Michael Stearns
Michael Stearns' excursions into sophisticated electronics, acoustic sounds and original instruments can summon feelings and images from the deepest wellsprings of human experience; sadness and joy, rapture and melancholy, comfort and lonliness. The album is comprised of eighteen parts. Most of these individual pieces opens with slow, subdued harmonies that linger in the borderland between melody and pure ambiance, and gradually develop into a huge, almost solid presences of sound. Each track unveils a message of harmony and peace from our distant past and brings us up to our troubled present times, yet releases a most comforting feeling while listening. Michael Stearns still reveals a huge and mystifying universe of sound that appears all but minimal at times. Naturally, it is the art of the magician to make his most difficult feats and manipulations look matter-of-fact and easy. As the last notes of "Sealing the Door" are heard, thus ends the voyage, as the music slowly fades, leaving behind a slipstream of images, and memories stirred. The cover art is as incredible as the music within. After a long hiatus from recording, the three new albums Michael Stearns has released this summer, ..his first in over three years are well worth the wait. Highly recommended. Review by Ben Kettlewell information: |
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This
new album, the third released by Michael Stearns this
summer, features Michael's score to Anna Sofaer's
documentary "The Mystery of Chaco Canyon". Growing up in the
southwestern United States, Michael has been fascinated with
the mysterious ruins of the ancient Native American cultures
that came before. He was first introduced to Pueblo Bonito
and Chaco in a lucid dream in 1977. Over the years he has
spent much time in Chaco and developed a special
relationship to the place. While the film documents the
recent discoveries that deepen the mystery of Chaco, the
music speaks directly to those mysteries.