| STAR'S END Fundraiser - 6 October 2013 | ||||||
Spacemusic is the music of the future, and it always will be. It's more than mere entertainment, listening is an enriching experience. The works broadcast on STAR'S END may be used in the background, but there is a depth and complexity to them - and active listening is meaningful.
Every week STAR'S END fills your listening space with a continually satisfying experience - at least offering the comfort of continuity since it first began airing on WXPN in 1976. STAR'S END deals with a subject as vast as The Cosmos, set against the speck of the individual soul. Each broadcast seems to put us in an unfamiliar place, for which we instinctively long. We are drawn to this music for what it inspires us to think about through the world it creates. The essence of this music may not be had by lecturing, it is only understood through the process of self-discovery. Since 1976 STAR'S END has been presenting works by the most unique and creative musical minds of our time. This music has a rich past, but will it have a rich future? While most musical forms seek to embrace the world, Spacemusic embraces The Universe. Our wonderful community of artists is backed by a wonderful community of suporters - and the success of STAR'S END hinges on everyone doing their part. On Public Radio we are doing things found no where else in broadcasting. With a contribution you are doing your part to keep this wonderful thing going - and in your listening space every week. Thanks for tuning in, and then phoning in with a donation to the STAR'S END Fundraising broadcast of 10.06.13. You're the difference between having STAR'S END merely survive and making it thrive. Thanks to everyone who tuned in this past weekend and made a pledge! The show goal was surpassed with a new record high of $5700. Thank You for your record breaking support! Thanks very much to phoneroom volunteers Ken Anderson, Art Cohen, Cindy & Walt Crowder, Mark Dickson, Dan Marsh and Chuck Nixon! There were Special Thank You Gifts Available to those calling in with a donation. Thanks to everyone who called in to pledge, and to the artists and labels who donated albums! -Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END - 10 October 2013 | ||||||
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Thank You Gifts
Special premiums are available for those pledging by phone on the 10.06.13 broadcast of STAR'S END, including albums from labels DiN, Manikin, Northern Echo and Projekt.
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 10.06.13 fundraising broadcast of STAR'S END. More traditional premiums furnished by WXPN will also be offered during this broadcast and throughout the Fall 2013 Fund Drive.
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| City 21 by Radio Massacre International | ||||||
Radio Massacre International is a trio of English musicians (Duncan Goddard, Steve Dinsdale, and Gary Houghton) known for their extended concerts of epic aural excursions. Over the course of their career they have developed a distinctive style set on transcending individual consciousness. Their performances are largely improvised and often veer off into areas dictated by mood, circumstance or whim. RMI's recorded output reflects the diversity and complexity of this work, which is often compared to that of the Berlin-School of cosmic music that emerged in Germany during the 1970s. But RMI is not simply re-creating the music of this era, they are further exploring and contemplating the expressional mode and the instruments that made it possible - in hopes of realizing new ideas. Their album City 21 is for the most part a studio realization and used as the soundtrack to the film of the same name.
• Radio Massacre International - City 21 single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge
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| New Church - On the Other Side - The Vast Key by Steve Dinsdale | ||||||
   
On the Other Side (47'46") is (among other things) a tribute to the single-mindedness of the solo artist. Although Steve Dinsdale continues to be a significant part of Radio Massacre International, his artistic vision must disappear against the immensity of the trio's dense free-form concept. With this, his second solo CD, Dinsdale probes deeper into his own ideas about music and sound. His determination to be a part of something creative every single day is Dinsdale's ideal and his audience's delight - as this CD is the result of many a day's creative encounter with music. We hear a mood of celebration in these tracks, along with a healthy dose of 1970s German Space Rock. With Dinsdale playing drums and percussives beneath cycling sequencer patterns and lilting synth melodies, the first few tracks from On the Other Side gently propels the album through the Prog era and on into the 21st century. These pieces are tightly arranged and unfold in a friendly way out into the listening space. The last four of the eight tracks make up the title work, and an interesting suite of music it is. Dinsdale does give this collage continuity, yet the music remains open and spacious. More atmospheric and textural than the previous songs, this area and its easy kinetic flow engage the listener with dancing arpeggios, breathy chorus, ethereal flutes, synth strings and a pleasing melodic confluence. On the Other Side will seem familiar, but not at all derivative. It is nothing less than a true expression of Dinsdale's being - which means that this music was not learned, it was lived.
• Steve Dinsdale - New Church single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Silent Currents - Erik Wøllo | ||||||
Over the years STAR'S END has hosted many live to air concerts, usually with artists fresh from The Gatherings Concert Series stage. The act of playing a second more intimate concert after a public event provides a sense of summation to a powerful experience. But the unique radio venue also offers musicians a space for discovery, as they turn from focused music for The Gatherings community to atmospheres for an audience each in their own dream space. Erik Wøllo enthusiastically embraces this idea, using his on-air concerts to explore moods and zones only found in the late hour and unconventional situation. With each amazing performance in Philadelphia his art advances. Every outing seems to raise the music to a new plateau. There is an interesting energy arcing through Silent Currents. During his STAR'S END sessions Erik descends into himself, realizing music completely in the moment. The resulting new works are wonderful expressions of ambience, texture and this artist's potent sense of drama - as Erik Wøllo creates space, then fills it with ever evolving sound.
• Erik Wollo - Silent Currents double CD $100.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| The Wind Blows Summer From the Trees - The Glimmer Room | ||||||
 
UK synthesist Andy Condon releases music under the name The Glimmer Room. Those familiar with his work know it to always be full of interesting musical ideas, a variety of energy levels and an excellent narrative arc. On
• The Glimmer Room - The Wind Blows Summer From the Trees CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| The Passage by Sam Rosenthal | ||||||
The Passage is a foray into the realms of pure ambient from Black Tape for a Blue Girl founder/songwriter Sam Rosenthal. The two pieces submerge the listener in a sustaining environment of warm electronics, minimalist proceedings and a yearning string theme. The vast field of harmonious resonance moves gradually and languidly, time stretching and evolving, rolling back in on itself. The Passage also features violinist Vicki Richards.
• Sam Rosenthal - The Passage single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Long Distances + Blue + Level Four by Broekhuis, Keller & Schonwalder | ||||||
   
Rather than be intimidated by the spirits of Spacemusic master's past, Detlef Keller and Mario Schonwalder are encouraged by their ghosts. Derived from the same structure as the classics their live CD Long Distances (74'55") indeed may be just simple melodic improvisations atop a composed repeating bassline - or could it be a metaphor for the inner workings of the Universe? Either way, it is obvious by this duo's vast musical output that they are playing something out of their own lives - filling the vast emptiness of space with their active imaginations. Whether it is a warm lead line swirling back and forth along the keyboard or icy chords slowly changing and holding, the open structure of Long Distances works well due to a casual intimacy between each musician. The music ramps up and winds down in wonderfully dramatic cycles. With its harmonic waves of pastoral synth strings and celestial choirs drifting along at the pace of the cosmos, to expressive keyboard solos hovering above mechanized sequencer patterns, the three tracks on Long Distances whirl in a pool of rhythm and sound. With a constantly shifting interplay between the parts Keller and Schonwalder have found that there is no predetermined way for this kind of live music to play. The process may best be described as devising a dream, then asking the listener to step inside.
• Keller & Schonwalder - Long Distances single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Momentium - Luminosity - Quadranteon - Jeffrey Koepper | ||||||
   Renowned for his technical abilities and restorative powers, Jeffrey Koepper is distinguished for his work in maintaining and reviving vintage electronic music equipment. His music is realized through a mastery beyond the technical side of his craft - and alternates between analogue bubbles and digital ice, and bright, smooth, spacious tonal landscapes. Applying his vast technical knowledge of music making equipment towards programming evocative ethereal sounds and strong rhythmic designs, Koepper produces music of impressive depth and rare intelligence.
• Jeffrey Koepper - any single title for a $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Elemental - Chiasmata - Pearl 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.
• Elemental - single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Lithosphere - Outpost - React by Robert Rich & Ian Boddy | ||||||
   
For Robert Rich & Ian Boddy, their third collaboration is the result of their first live meeting. React (63'52") is a document of this duo's performance at the STAR'S END 30th Anniversary Celebration Concerts held in Philadelphia in June of 2007. The 11 tracks include live versions of pieces from their two earlier studio CDs Lithosphere (2005) and Outpost (2001), as well as new works conceived especially for their first outing. As with their previous releases, React does not merely occupy the middle ground between two talented musicians. It is a surreal, fanciful and at times intense work that provokes and impresses with its conceptual complexity. Rich's intoxicating glissando guitar and echoing flute melodies inhabit the ether while Boddy produces deep rumbling and neuron disabling effects across a shifting digital terrain. Ravaging his keyboards, sounds stretch inside out as intricate rhythms assemble, build and change. From space-tribe drumming and wet bassline punch, to soft moonlit chords and floating synth atmospheres, this work is panoramic yet detailed. Rich and Boddy move through an interior landscape with a unanimity that usually comes with years of experience - and ask the listener to stop reacting to the external world, and to explore the internal one.
• Lithosphere - single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Surface Tensions by Surface 10 | ||||||
Surface 10 is an amplification of the personality of Dean De Benedictis and Surface Tensions (65'58") is the bracing antidote for the prefabricated electronica of his era. The album presents 11 detailed works seemingly whipped out of reality's raw ingredients. His music exists in an eternal present, always fresh, and not locked into the era of its creation. Liberated enough to be proudly accessible, the up-beat, high-energy tracks possess a lyric quality and communicative ability. De Benedictis plays melodic lines, not just isolated notes, from the orientation of an outsider - a welcome element in an often-antiseptic field. His slick drum arrangements, urgent pacing and calming leads put forth a level of craft yet yields music not glossy enough to sound manufactured. Alongside this unremitting rhythmic intricacy are pieces just as restless and in flux, but minus the heavy pulse-quickening grooves. As oddity follows aberration, Surface Tensions provides various surreal ambient realms every bit as detailed as the more approachable tracks, but with an emphasis on timbre and the combining of a limitless palette of sounds, textures, distortion and glitches. Music and the brain have co-evolved. The music of Surface 10 occupies an intriguing point along this continuum.
• Surface Tensions - single CD $75.00 Credit Card Pledge | ||||||
| Conundrum - Arcadia Borealis - 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 | ||||||
| Art of Sacrifice by Dbkaos + Praposition by Subsonic Experience | ||||||
 
Bernhard Wostheinrich and Thorsten Niestrath are the duo of Subsonic Experience. Their CD Praposition - a rough snapshot of intuitive improvisation at work - is the result of a weekend recording session in late 2000. The music was all played live on mostly cheap synths and abandoned floor effects pedals. Most notably is Niestrath's amazing synth organ work. His wonderful lead lines and colourful organ clusters are found on all tracks of the album. Wostheinrich's duties on the other hand levitated toward keeping the sequencers running, generating endless variations of tones and textures in real time. Recorded with very basic means, but mixed and mastered using state-of-the-art technology, Moire is the perfect amalgamation of musicianship with a traditionalists feel for early EM, all overseen by modern production techniques.
• Praposition - single CD $75.00 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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