Pondering galaxy-sized questions, Cosmic Ground entered the concert hall. Compiling performances from two 2016 events (E-Live & The 9th Psychedelic Network Festivals), Dirk Jan Müller and Horst Porkert have realized the album Cosmic Ground Live (77'49"). The four tracks where made in the heat of the moment, as these conditions are known for revealing the creative spark, and finds both musicians and their listeners experiencing the music together in the act of being made. The trick is for neither to become too lost in the process. Cosmic Ground Live begins broodingly downbeat, with dark forms rising from out of dark corners of the mind. Bass laden drones try to swallow a melodious Mellotron flute solo, which lilts blessedly above a maelstrom of writhing timbres. Wrapped in a luminous halo of reverberation a string section rises from the deep dense rumbling electronic tempest, before the introduction of Müller's signature breathless tone patterns - which mount, repeat and seem to echo out across eternity. A demon behind the sequencer, he occasionally observes the audience - who will always tell you which way to go. Each new ascent presents the classic sound of one or another vintage synthesizer, and a shivery reverence that defies explanation. Weeping choirs and full-throated waveforms endow this release with greater passion. The compression that comes from these reprieves of stillness intensifies feelings found in the passages of acceleration. With each set, our Spacemusic mystics manage to conjure a stimulating atmosphere of mystery, adventure and motion. Once inside this expansive zone, we may travel to the place where lives our dearest hopes and dreams. Cosmic Ground Live glows with mystery and possibility, pushing through the outer limits of mainstream constraints. This is the music we may turn to whenever we need proof that further possibilities for representing innovation, mystery and drama in music still lie out there; in an ever-receding possible elsewhere. These kinds of live concerts are a spectacle of wires, electricity and wits - something that trusts all who hear it to think.
Please tune in to STAR'S END this weekend for music from Cosmic Ground and the release Cosmic Ground Live.
Cosmic Ground (featuring Sunhair): Psychedelic Network Festival - 27 November 2016
Jason Sloan: Live on STAR'S END 07.23.17
The music of Jason Sloan moves somewhere through the world, but by no means shows any attachment to it. Gesturing toward profound themes his realizations are a premonition of a coming darkness - a retreat from its mounting inundation. In beautifully calibrated performances Sloan manages a slow acceleration. His concerts arouse in us a theater of the mind - generated by the machinery of the brain. Disassembled forms are charged with electronic expression, and slowly shift in a haze of hovering tones. Ethereal synthesized melodies gradually move the listener into a pensive space, while crackling short wave radio clips faintly emanate from some hidden realm. The occasional appearance of soft rustling rhythms provides a rather muted, twilit, dusky feel - elegantly simple, yet lit with a benign foreboding.
Please tune in to the 07.23.17 broadcast of STAR'S END as Jason Sloan returns for another live on-air radio concert of innovative music.
Projekt Records is planning an October 2017 release for Journey to Aktehi, the proposed album collaboration between Flutist Mark Seelig and Electronic Musician Sam Rosenthal. This exclusive deluxe edition presents three deep spacey tracks over the course of its approximately 50 minute duration. Journey to Aktehi promises to be an album of trippy, hallucinogenic ethno-organic-electronic music. The primary ingredient is Seelig's Bansuri Flute and harmonic chanting, with a touch of Rosenthal's electronics and processing. The listening experience goes for an altered-state-of-consciousness feel. On a psychedelic sonic journey for flute, shamanic chants lead the listener in its aural journey through the mind.
Please tune in to STAR'S END for music by Mark Seelig.
This project hopes to be funded through its Kickstarter campaign (through 2 August 2017)
For more about the Journey to Aktehi Kickstarter campaign, please Click Here
King Britt: Sound Out - July 2017
Over lunch this month King Britt and I filled in the events and revelations of the intervening years since our first brief meeting a long time ago, planned his live-to-air STAR'S END session of 07.30.17 and went deep into his new album After... with his project Fhloston Paradigm. While making ready his upcoming live shows in support of After..., King took time to take part in this interview for our monthly Sound Out feature. I hope you will read through to the end my interview with King Britt. The world knows much about his beat/groove driven work, but here we learn about the man's more serene side, his texture, and how deep his skills and feelings go. Thanks! -chuckv
Robert Rich Sleep Concert: Broadcast Live on the 06.04.17 - Midnight to 8AM
A Robert Rich Sleep Concert was aimed at the nebulous territory that exists in our minds when we are hovering between awake and asleep, and still aware of our environment - yet detached, as the half-sleeping psyche wanders into the realm of hypnogogic images and dreamlike non-linearity. The music at one of these events may be found to act as a trigger for these flowing thoughts, and the activation of the surrounding environment can help listeners skate around the edges of sleep, with part of us in the dream world, and part in the physical space where we are sleeping.
The Robert Rich Sleep Concert of Sunday 4 June 2017 was not a typical installment of The Gatherings Concert Series. The remarkable location of this one time special event is The Rotunda Sanctuary, in Philadelphia, PA. This space does not offer any conventional seating whatsoever. Each attendee provided their own sleeping apparatus, which will be used to recline or sleep upon.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the STAR'S END radio program on public radio station WXPN in Philadelphia, the Robert Rich Sleep Concert of Sunday 4 June 2017 was broadcast in its entirety live throughout a special expanded edition of STAR'S END from Midnight to 8:00AM. Thanks to everyone who turned up, tuned in and helped out.
For more on the Robert Rich Sleep Concert of Sunday 4 June 2017, and the 25th Anniversary of The Gatherings Concert Series, please access: www.thegatherings.org
STAR'S END on The Internet
The Listening List - Recent Album Reviews From STAR'S END
(Please Click on an Album Cover)
June 2017 Top 15 STAR'S END Releases - Alphabetical
Have you ever been looking for something on this website only to become bogged down by the massive size and enormous content? Now you can find what you are seeking somewhat easier. Searching the STAR'S END Website has become much easier. Look for info on artists, albums, track names, labels, etc. via a Google "site search" - now part of the STAR'S END Website.
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Pondering galaxy-sized questions, 
The music of 
Projekt Records is planning an October 2017 release for 
A 
Have you ever been looking for something on this website only to become bogged down by the massive size and enormous content? Now you can find what you are seeking somewhat easier. Searching the STAR'S END Website has become much easier. Look for info on artists, albums, track names, labels, etc. via a Google "site search" - now part of the STAR'S END Website.
Have this update emailed to you as a newsletter once a week by joining the STAR'S END Radio Group at Yahoo Groups. Whether it's a review of a new spacemusic release, an artist interview or news about an upcoming in-studio concert, receiving the newsletter is a convenient way to keep informed of the music featured on STAR'S END Ambient Radio each week.
