Chris Kissel and Chuck Soo-Hoo — Contact Wave w/Michael Stearns (04.03.22)

In Conversation

Co-hosted by Chris Kissel and Chuck Soo-Hoo, the twice-monthly dublab program Contact Wave enthusiastically celebrates the best experimental, avant-garde, psychedelic, and off-the-grid music crafted in L.A. and beyond.

This episode features a conversation with ambient and New Age music pioneer Michael Stearns, who is also a multi-genre composer, sound designer, and soundtrack producer. His credits include music for television, feature films, planetariums, twenty-two IMAX films and seventeen solo albums. As one of the pioneers of American electronic music from his earliest self-released cassette in 1977 up through his 2021 Beyond Earth & Sky collaboration with Steve Roach, Stearns creates engaging textures melding with soaring melodies. He has created music for NASA, Laserium, Disney Films, HBO, 20/20 and the Berkshire Ballet. His award-winning scores for Ron Fricke’s non-verbal global film masterpieces Chronos, Sacred Site, Baraka and Samsara have been heard by audiences around the world. Stearns creates at his The Guest House studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

This year marks the rerelease of Stearns’ groundbreaking and long out-of-print Planetary Unfolding (1981). Featuring the sound of the Serge Modular Synthesizer in 6 movements, the slowly evolving atmospheric swirls of this early spacemusic classic are a journey within inner and outer space.

TRACKLIST:
Michael Stearns – “In the Beginning…” – from “Planetary Unfolding” (Continuum Montage/Projekt) (1981/2022)
**Michael Stearns Interview**
Michael Stearns – As the Earth Kissed the Moon – from “Planetary Unfolding” (Continuum Montage/Projekt) (1981/2022)
Cool Maritime – Temporal Dryft – from “Big Earth Energy” (2022)
Patricia Wolf – Springtime in Croatia – from “See-Through” (Balmat) (2022)
Charlatan – Sinking Between Pyramids – from “Streams” (The Jewel Garden) (2022)
Jonas Reinhardt – Oxus – from “A Ragged Ghost” (Trouble In Mind) (2022)
OHYUNG – tucked in my stomach! – from “imagine naked!” (NNA Tapes) (2022)
Julian Stein – herons at night – from “pattern river” (Self-Released) (2022)
Forest Management – One After Another – from “Palm Life” (Husky Pants) (2022)
MAW – Prophase – from “A Maneuver Within” (Atlantic Rhythms) (2022)
Andrew Bernstein – in flux (excerpt) – from “a presentation” (Hausu Mountains) (2022)
JOYFULTALK – Take It To The Grave – from “Familiar Science” (Constellation) (2022)
Mary Halvorson – Night Shift – from “Amaryllis” (Nonesuch) (2022)
Noah Howard – Olé – from “Live in Europe Vol. 1” (Altsax) (1975/2020)

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