Stock: 
Format: 
Release Date: 16-08-1997
Label: Hearts of Space
Catalog Number: HS11068-2
Barcode: 25041106825
Musical Style: New Instrumental
Track Listing:
| Disc 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elysian E | 7 | VIcki's Dance |
| 2 | M'ocean | 8 | Jewel |
| 3 | Morning | 9 | Night Currents |
| 4 | Ancient Leaves | 10 | Dragon's Dream World |
| 5 | Subterranean Ambiance | 11 | Desert Moon Walk |
| 6 | Rivers of Rhythm | ||
Description:
As the burgeoning ambient genre begins to discover its forefathers, interest has grown in the work of first generation composers like Michael Stearns. There are two of the 'Collected' series of extended length CDs which compile the best of the first 10 years of his recorded output, all long out of print or previously unreleased.
Stearns anticipated the use of natural ambiences and exotic location sounds beginning in 1979 and specialized in creating mind-bending electronic textures from vintage analog synths. It is all here on two highly collectable discs, compiled, remastered and annotated by the artist.
Biography:
A pioneer of the spacemusic boom of the 1970s, Michael Stearns has continued at he vanguard of sonic invention through a dozen solo albums and more than 20 years of wide-ranging studio work and film scoring. Trained on classical guitar while growing up in Tucson, Arizona, Stearns explored rock and jazz in his teens and twenties. He created and played his first electronic music while studying at the University of the Pacific.
In 1972, he moved to Los Angeles as a composer and sound designer and evolved into what Audion Magazine called the most consistently interesting and intriguing American synthesist. In 1984 Stearns founded M'Ocean, a recording studio in Santa Monica specially equipped for surround sound and electronic music. Over the next decade he designed multi-channel surround soundtracks for IMAX/OMNIMAX space theater films and for Universal Studio's Earthquake and Back to the Future theme park rides in Los Angeles and Orlando. He also collaborated with Maurice Jarre on the feature film Dreamscape and with director Ron Fricke on the acclaimed Chronos, Sacred Site and Baraka. His fascination with the ecology, culture and rituals for the American southwest resulted in the 1994 Hearts of Space collaboration with RON SUNSINGER, Singing Stones (HS11042). In recent years, Stearns has increasingly incorporated into his music sounds and inspirations gleaned from extensive travels in Indonesia, Thailand, Egypt, Costa Rica, Brazil, the Galapagos and now Venezuela.
