Guiding listeners from the safe place of what they know to an active awareness of what can be is the job of a good DJ - and a good musician too. During his ongoing 40 year tenure as host of the weekly radio program Star's End, Chuck van Zyl has been commissioned with the task of leading an audience - the proficiency of which may also be found in his musical realizations.
So inspired by the music he was spinning on-air, Chuck van Zyl began making his own Electronic Music works - with a synthesizer he still uses to this day. Live on Star's End 10.06.19 (75'22") is the second in a series of live-to-air radio concert releases, and features over 75 minutes of the live Spacemusic he made in the WXPN performance studio during the private Salon Concert and live-to-air broadcast of 5/6 October 2019.
In this music Chuck van Zyl gives voice to the character of his existence. It is a proclamation of his alive-ness, by way of an in-the-moment inventiveness. A complex multi-leveled album Live on Star's End 10.06.19 utilizes the full dynamic range of sonic possibilities. Moving truly between an electric unrestrained intensity on down to shivering chill currents, the juxtaposition of the primitive and the delicate lends tension to the drama. Working the dials, searching out the sound, groping for the pulse - in whirlwinds of intertwining sequencer lines, and the gorgeous exploration of tone color, form and atmosphere - he coaxes magical moments into the sound space.
Chuck's live concerts show the identity of his instruments as equally as they do the identity of the artist. Making music in an enormous present, his live improvisations find Chuck attempting to transcend, not an instrument, but a system of instruments - a constellation of synths, sequencers, echoes and reverbs all in service to a potent musical vision. An expressive power, the right situation of the venue and the heedful is capable of releasing unsuspected energies. With the body activated and central nervous system firing the joy of playing this music is unmatched.
If the moral track of the Universe arcs upward, then this music must be part of that eventuality. Just as the optimism of the weekly broadcasts of Star's End (in contrast to the present moment) seem a notion leftover from the previous century, so will albums like Live on Star's End 10.06.19 chip away at the inherent dissonance at the heart of modern life. Although the subject of this album may be specific, its implications are cosmic.
- Press Notes/STAR'S END 20 February 2020
