| STAR'S END Fundraiser - 7 February 2016 | ||||||
The relative age of an object may often be ascertained by the appearance of weathering, or by observing its diminished capacity. A wall calendar seems completely inadequate to measure the age of really old things - such as the radio program STAR'S END. Airing continuously in its time slot on WXPN since 1976 STAR'S END has now been offering its unique and consistent presentation of innovative music for 40 years - the only sign of age being its inherent optimism and outlook. What with its weekly radio transmissions emanating throughout the cosmos for four decades, it may now be considered a permanent fixture of The Universe!
STAR'S END contradicts reality, in that this kind of program is presently unheard of in all of public radio. It still approaches each episode with delight and discovery - the music always equaling the capacity of the listener's imagination. At 40 years old, STAR'S END still feels like the future - the enlightened future we're heading towards.
Spacemusic's radical days of the 1970s may seem long over, its bold ideas tamed as much by its overuse in TV commercial and video game soundtracks as by monotonous dance club mainstreaming. Still, part of the joy in each edition of STAR'S END comes from our engagement with the continuum of artistic currents still in operation - however distant they are from their origins.
In making a contribution you are living up to your responsibility as a listener. Please keep this wonderful thing going - and in your listening space every week. Sincere Thanks to those of you who tuned in, and then phoned in with a donation to the WXPN/STAR'S END Winter Fundraising broadcast of 02.07.16. Thanks to your generosity and support, a substantial $5350.00 was raised from 55 callers. Many Thanks!
Thanks also goes to: Ken Anderson, Art Cohen, Walt & Cindy Crowder, Joe Salopek and Jeff Towne for their great volunteer efforts in handling phone room duties throughout the 02.07.16 fundraising edition of STAR'S END. -Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END - 7 February 2016 | ||||||
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Thank You Gifts
Special premiums were available for those donating by phone on the 02.07.16 broadcast of STAR'S END, including albums from labels/artists DiN, Saul Stokes, Wayfarer Records, Slobor Media, Bryan Carrigan, Hollan Holmes, Airborn Music, Stephen Parsick, Ombient and Relapse.
The CD premiums pictured were donated by the artist/label and available (in limited quantities) as thank-you gifts to those making a credit card pledge by phone during the 02.07.16 fundraising broadcast of STAR'S END. More traditional premiums furnished by WXPN will also be offered during this broadcast and throughout the Winter 2016 Fund Drive.
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| STAR'S END 30th Anniversary Anthology CD | ||||||
To mark 30 years of continuous broadcast of STAR'S END, WXPN released the STAR'S END 30th Anniversary Anthology CD. This double CD contains over 120 minutes of live music from 11 renowned artists. The unique performances were culled from on-air in-studio radio concerts by some of our community's greatest talents. Included on the disc are previously unreleased live selections donated by: The Ministry of Inside Things, Orbital Decay, Ian Boddy, AirSculpture, Radio Massacre International, Robert Rich, Rudy Adrian, Jonn Serrie, Jeff Pearce, Saul Stokes and Steve Roach.
The STAR'S END 30th Anniversary Anthology CD was thought to be out of print. However, a limited number have recently been discovered, and made available to STAR'S END donors.
• STAR'S END 30th Anniversary Anthology CD - double CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge
STAR'S END 30th Anniversary Celebration | ||||||
| Eight CD Set - 'ramp (Stephen Parsick) | ||||||
 
Music by Stephen Parsick is of a machine-hewn darkness, roiling in a dense electronic atmosphere of doom. More difficult to know is from whence this intensity emanates. His albums, released under the more well-known name ['ramp], includes all components of the Spacemusic musical form - technique, sound, color, nuance, phrasing - come together in service to expression. In a kind of self-communion Parsick's richly imagined soundscapes make for moving electro-drama. His sequencer work avoids the obvious motorized pulse of his contemporaries - as the rhythmic lines of blasting bass and metallic interlocking tones better conjure the approach of a leviathan than an optimized stardrive engine. In other places the terrain becomes so alien that the listener will give up trying to grasp something familiar and just trust the composer to lead us safely through the work. This dark music affirms Parsick as one of the bright lights of his generation. He possesses a keen sensitivity for the complex weave of afflicted feelings embedded in this musical genre. Heard separately his albums are compelling works; collectively, they are an electronic masterpiece. Like the light from distant stars, Stephen Parsick's music has existed for some time, but is only now reaching us on Earth.
• 'ramp Eight-Pack includes one copy each of Hollenengel, Cambrium, Trace of the Past, Looking Back in Anger, Debris, Astral Disaster, Return and Ceasing to Exist by 'ramp as a Thank-You for a $300.00 or $25.00/month Credit Card Pledge
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| Sectio Aurea - Space Patrol by Ombient | ||||||
 
The CD
• Ombient - Sectio Aurea single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Cub by Steve Moore | ||||||
 
Synthesist Steve Moore is perhaps most well known as one half of the noted 70s-inspired, synth/prog duo Zombi. In addition to their several albums, Moore has a prolific and thriving solo career - releasing music that ranges from electronica/dance to trance music, movie soundtracks and Sequencer Spacemusic.
Although Steve Moore makes Spacemusic from 30 years ago sound new, maybe we should be listening to this work on its own terms. He hears his world through fresh electronic ears, and has plugged into the adventure in a way few synthesist have. For those of us sentenced to live inside of our own heads, we might as well keep the space sharp - and filled with music of this kind.
• Steve Moore - Cub single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge
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| Sleek Nucleus by Saul Stokes | ||||||
Saul Stokes makes Electronic Music that sounds like it is coming straight out of the wall outlet. Over the years he has become known for his concerts of sonic improvisation and albums of complex atmospheric energy. His work has always been, and continues to be, based on crafting original sonic elements and forms into beautiful realizations of texture and consonance. More recently Stokes has been embracing his internal contrasts. On Sleek Nucleus (54'42") he produces music that registers in both the body and in the mind. Sleek Nucleus is front-loaded with catchy, engaging tracks - but although this CD's songs may be easier to grasp, this accessibility in no way represents a scaling back of ambition. While overlapping rhythms push Sleek Nucleus to the dance floor, for all its heat and beats the most interesting elements transpire quietly. His one-of-a-kind aural ideals bring a unique aesthetic to the field. This album is full of infectious rhythms, kinetic throbbing and subliminal pulse, but the thoughtful listener will also find grainy tones, chirping modulations and fascinating timbres amidst Stokes' melodic sound designs. Never succumbing to formula, Stokes uses ideas and imagination as maps. He is the musician who speaks most directly to our contemporary condition, but has always been too far out there and unclassifiable to gain the following he deserves. Not one of his works are less than perfect.
• Saul Stokes - Sleek Nucleus single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge
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| Awaken the Electric Air - Convocation - Matt Borghi & Michael Teager | ||||||
 
There is more than one reason to take part in a live to air broadcast concert on STAR'S END Ambient Radio. Most participants think that it is a good way to get their music out to thousands of radio listeners, which it is - or that this activity is just the thing to do after a stimulating performance at The Gatherings Concert Series, held earlier in the evening within the nearby church sanctuary of St. Mary's Hamilton Village. But Matt Borghi & Michael Teager used their late-night session to further explore and build upon that which was presented on their studio album Convocation. This activity surprisingly yielded the quite magical Awaken the Electric Air, an album from the recording made on STAR'S END of 20 October 2013. Borghi & Teager were the third of three distinctive live sets produced on STAR'S END that night (also appearing were Dave Luxton and Vic Hennegan). Tasked with filling the 4:00AM to 5:00AM hour Borghi & Teager's music created the perfect atmosphere and mood to compliment this most deep and searching zone. Routing his electric guitar signal through a myriad of delays, reverbs and effects Borghi strummed, plucked and rubbed the strings of his instrument into a vast wash of gently undulating sound. Through this timbral front Teager contributed various saxophone and flute lines, beautifully reverberating into the soundfield and providing a sparse melodic narrative to bring the listener back from the slow thoughts of dreaming reverie. No synthesizers or computers were used during this realization, therefore Awaken the Electric Air possesses a rare textured density, unusual compared to the flattened spaces of digital music. In their serious play Borghi & Teager lift the audience to a different place. A night time companion, small of gesture, large of heart, this album is subtle and in places moving - as it rescues us from the darkest corners of our own being.
• Borghi & Teager - Awaken the Electric Air single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Soul Ascending - Light Music by George Wallace | ||||||
 
Soul Ascending feels like a window into a realm we all too often neglect to notice. The 12 tracks on this CD span an interesting range of styles and intensities. There are wonderful passages presenting a relaxed and unpressured atmosphere. Ceremonial synth chords, atmospheric lead lines and ringing bowls offer subtle depths and graceful stillness - yet there are other areas where thunderclaps, chanting monks, primeval rhythms and overdrive guitar heighten our attentiveness to new ideas. As diverse as it is, the pieces on Soul Ascending all flow together powerfully.
Wallace incorporates his freshest discoveries into
• George Wallace - Soul Ascending single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Elemental by Ian Boddy | ||||||
Ian Boddy's music consistently sounds fresh; seeming to exist in an eternal now. Continually coming up with new ideas and approaches on each release he is involved in, Boddy is always redefining his relationship with Electronic Music. His innovative contributions to Electronica retain fragments of a time gone by and make for a daring and passionate vision of a present constantly slipping into the past. His album Elemental (52'11") possesses more than just the tricks and technology of its time. Its eight songs of innocence and experience cast a wide resonance - one that speaks from the past to the present. This work emits a significant amount of energy by way of swinging drum grooves and throbbing electro-rhythms. Boddy's deliberate and dramatic pacing construct these forms gradually, adding layer upon layer of enticing arpeggios and coarse-grained loops to a point just prior to where production and tech power would outshine the subtle emotion of this disc. Separating the power tracks are ambient stretches of stark intimacy. In these regions Boddy sets an altogether different mood. Complex synth modulations and uniquely manipulated sound samples lead the listener to a cool introspective space. From these chilled out regions the listener may notice the many peaks and depressions on Elemental, and how Boddy, using a keen musical sense fueled by pure curiosity, ably navigates.
• Ian Boddy - Elemental - single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Conundrum - Praposition - Moire by Berhnard Wöstheinrich & others | ||||||
  
Good collaborations can bring out latent voices. On Conundrum (56'43") the duo of Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock and Bernhard Wöstheinrich speak in a language of unexpected affinities and easily traced influences. For Hoffmann-Hoock it is Eastern thought and 60s psychedelia while technology and abstract expressionism inform Wöstheinrich's contributions. Working together on Conundrum the duo manages to combine their individual musical traits into a cohesive sonic statement. Electronic beats, pops and squeaks drop in hard, then relax beneath ethereal guitar leads. The cerebral energy of the rhythms activates the mind as languid melodies play to the heart. Prog-Rock influences inundate Hoffmann-Hoock's guitar riffs. Drifting glissando clouds, slow E-bow solos, breathing chords and straight-ahead liquid leads flow amidst Wöstheinrich's electronica flare. With their hot beats and cool guitar this duo conjures up multi-faceted inventions both cosmically abstract and molecularly detailed.
• Conundrum - single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Fuzzy Music by Dave Luxton | ||||||
Dave Luxton provides great music for mind travelers. Fuzzy Music (50'34") contains 12 small tracks about one big subject - The Cosmos. Often thought of as a vast unfeeling infinity The Universe as portrayed by Luxton becomes a salvational force. Fuzzy Music offers fresh testament in a genre continually thought to be ten years ahead of its time. Exploring the strange magic at the heart of the listening experience Luxton crafts subtle nuance then summons stratospheric power. Choosing dark soundscapes loaded with intriguing textures he moves the mood to a purer plane - with passages so soft so as not to ruffle the vulnerable listener. Overtly electronic Fuzzy Music's synthesized chords move wondrously outward. We hear its foundational drones supporting twinkling effects and vaporous melodies. Along with pushing the keyboard based sounds through space Luxton also plays electric guitar - his fluid leads ringing through the backbone of night. The atmosphere lightens and darkens as the listening experience extends into dramatic sonic imagery and tender elegiac laments. A moving tribute to those of us in tune with forces bigger than ourselves, Luxton's music is a celebration of the wonder of existence.
• Dave Luxton - Fuzzy Music - single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| The Spirits of Starlight - Incendescent by Hollan Holmes | ||||||
 
While
• Hollan Holmes - The Spirits of Starlight CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Five CD Set - Hollan Holmes | ||||||
  
Phase Shift (64'20"), the third album by Hollan Holmes, more than lives up to the burden of high expectations. A spiritual sequel to his CDs A Distant Light (2011) and The Farthest Fringes (2011), Phase Shift journeys along the strange, twisting paths of a spacey and intensely ambiguous digital landscape. Utilizing great dynamic range variations, crescendos and diminuendos, as tools to create a deeper spatial dimension and psychological impact, Holmes makes music that seems to hang and yet resolve all at the same time. Phase Shift travels from the rhythmically interlocked intensity in the first two tracks, to the slow moving and harmonically complex remaining three movements with some ease. The opening two sequencer pieces risk overload. Brief works of cycling electronic patterns grow in an uncommon hushed intensity. Drifting through the echoing pulsation is a soft reed-like melody. Synthesized to counter the machine precision of the sequencer the wandering lead line rises and softens the minimalistic logic of these pieces. From motion filled music Holmes moves to works with a slowly building sonic range - upon which to rest our thoughts. The remaining three realizations are seemingly tranquil, somnolent ambient meditations. From dreamlike stillness, to fierce brilliance, to pure seduction, Holmes locates new paths and branches of sonic exploration. His music acknowledges the physical power of sound without forgoing the chance to stimulate intellectual responses. • Hollan Holmes Music Five-Pack includes one copy each of The Spirits of Starlight, Phase Shift, The Farthest Fringes, A Distant Light and Incandescent by Hollan Holmes as a Thank-You for a $240.00 or $20.00/month Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Five CD Set - Bryan Carrigan | ||||||
    
Have we ever been to a grand exhibition of paintings? of sculptures? Probably. But what about a grand exhibition of sound? Probably not. But the CD Inspired (45'07") may be just that. Realized by Bryan Carrigan, a studio artist with a winning way, this work professes substance over process. Each of the 12 tracks are profoundly thought through yet the full flower of each composition seems a spontaneous arrival. In achieving this tricky task Carrigan makes the listener really want to find out where this music is going, and go along for that ride. Exploring the more refined and elegant timbres of the synthesizer, Carrigan displays his sophisticated compositional sensibilities in the slow and somber followed by tracks full of bright tones, majestic harmonies and jaunty rhythms - a signal of reassurance after periods of beautiful contemplation. Carrigan easily makes Inspired a diverse work. The compositions are ruled by the power of sensual detail so close listening is rewarded with pleasant and unique synthesized sounds, realistic samples of exotic instruments and lovely combinations of the two - which yields lead melodies and harmonic progressions as imaginative as they are expressive. Full of clarity and concision this confidently cool music plays with unforced tenderness and warmth. Inspired is not for a later age but for us right now. • Bryan Carrigan Five-Pack includes one copy each of Inspired, Below Zero, Windows, Focus and Passing Lights by Bryan Carrigan as a Thank-You for a $240.00 or $20.00/month Credit Card Pledge
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STAR'S END broadcasts every Saturday Night/Sunday Morning from 1:00AM til 6:00AM (ET) on:
and live on the world wide web at: http://xpn.org | 
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