In Philadelphia's Fall season, when our timepieces are turned back one hour (and most of the world returns to Daylight Standard Time) the audience anticipates the protracted span granted annually to STAR'S END. With the clock change of 5 November 2023 came a special "Back in Time" edition. Presenting live Spacemusic studio sets by local talent, with an original performance occurring in each of the six one-hour segments, this extended radio broadcast found multi-instrumentalist Neil Cippon holding down the courageous 4-5AM subsection of the ambitious Wireless transmission. The album Live on Star's End Back in Time 2023 (58:48) exhibits this intrepid artist holding forth before the cosmic abyss. On a shared sojourn through time, night and the FM airwaves Cippon channeled a host of influences. Summoning sonic spaces both tactile and freeform, the focus was on sound, color and design. Ably making his way through his part of this momentous evening of live realizations listeners easily settled in to the distinctive texture and tone of Cippon's nocturnal realm. Dividing the duration into bold electronic fields, passages of pure exploration brought forth an Ambient artfulness enjoyed by few contemporaries. Above soft key arpeggios steel strings picked, plucked, strumed and rose on currents of pulsing percussion and synthesizer chords. Dense as a thundercloud one moment, then billowing blithely the next, this concert drifted readily between interludes of aural innovations and motoring, propulsive sequencer patterns - all in support of Cippon's signature Bass Guitar strivings. Made for those who would receive, achievements such as this are a rare source of renewal. In the dynamic, primal undertow of the seven tracks we find a story of constant and confident searching and invention - an expression of this musician's potent American Dream.
Live on Star's End Back in Time 2023 is released on 12 September 2026 - coinciding with the Neil Cippon event for The Gatherings Concert Series in Philadelphia.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 10 September 2026 |
