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If words are latecomers to truth, then Darrell Burgan must make music. Under his Palancar alias he has long displayed an adventurous, innovative spirit. Music for Stargazing Vol One & Two (159'01") offers another call to adventure for the imagination. Luring us into a nomadic journey of heart and mind Burgan provides electronic wonder in every single note. Inspired by cooly distant images from out of the night sky, this Music for Stargazing series plays perfectly - even when encountering radiation from outside our solar system. Evanescent as a flicker of starlight traveling vast distances to reach us, track after track exude power in their boldness - only to swiftly veer off in passages of delicate invention and sonority. Warming the breast and focusing the vision, well-crafted sounds stagger around their meanings. Beneath a series of intersecting aural planes we find clarity and momentum, while further in finely tuned balances diminish in tension and improbability. Within this zone the more abstract pieces exhibit an elevated separateness. Marvels of continuous transformation, colossal themes reveal in atmospheric textures, then take full thundering flight. The terracing of dynamics seems expansive and transparent - on a shared quest into vectors of nowhere. From Prog sparked bluster to glossy New Age sonics of space and romance, to the propulsive rhythms, shifting harmonies and conquering melodies of a more galactic drama, this diverse work courses across Burgan's inclusive growth mindset, and on into the interstellar realm. The result is an extraordinary listening experience, a remarkable two and half hours realized by a charismatic Electronic Musician who knows how to hold his listeners. Music for Stargazing, from the electrifying to the tenderhearted, will have you feeling like the first person on planet Palancar - or maybe the last. As the scene darkens around you, in the midst of this music it should be easy to remember that no matter how far you travel, or under what sun, you carry with you always the light of the divine and the flame of the human.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 29 December 2022 |
