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In a bracing largeness of spirit Christian Halten & Michael Stearns cast distinctive spells. On their wonderfully ambitious Sounds Searching for People (49:05) the five tracks move from planar to extra-dimensional, relaying profoundly their fascination with human existence. The joy of listening to this release comes not from its compositional form, but from what it asks of us. Its fantastic realms, that we listeners must imagine for ourselves, hold the faintest of hope for the future. Sounds Searching for People is as richly harmonic and melodic as it is star-kissed and blest. A dramatic dream of an album, its main purpose is truly to maintain the life of the mind. When this duo are not summoning sonic angels or inducing high altitude formations a slowing subzero sensitivity is gleaned from their sobering drones and brooding steelstorms of texture. In an age of archaic modulations this work remains defiantly complex. Sustaining space organ swells in a celestial sonancy as marshaled rumblings and expanding tone clusters shift ever upward - in the certainty that light and beauty will win the day. Layers of synthesizer tones brighten, then turn dark, just as considerable chords climb and recede subtly into the ether. Out of this detailed and fluid movement of sound arises an entrancing atmosphere of mystery. Yet, even though we can barely make out the corners of Sounds Searching for People, we know its shape. A poetic and superbly organized realization, Halten & Stearns aspire to produce a delicately balanced structure - a world that is large enough for everyone.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 20 March 2025 |
