A musician, a builder, and, most importantly, a dreamer, Chas Smith releases striking works of enigmatic proportions. Fully invested in making its own kind of magic in its own time his album Three (48'50") fills the air with an unremitting expressive force. As this music's innate surrealism fully flowers, we venture into the musical terrain of a unique innovation. Listeners will need to be brave and just jump into this metalized universe. Conversing using, not any established language, but rather through the sheer manipulation of steel sound, Smith thoughtfully and purposefully bows, bangs, taps, raps, rubs and otherwise manipulates his hand-fabricated ferrous instruments. Producing a range of sustaining burnished tones - which mingle and layer into everything from imaginative soundscapes and floating textures, to thought zone drones and nightmarish metal fields - we sense a tremor of floating lustrous shapes in disconnected geometries. When the product of this metallurgic encounter surrounds shuddering, steel strings electric, the unsettled meditation grinds with an industrial intonation. Humming over the shifting shapes and expressive shades of sound,trivial tones reside alongside the apocalyptic in such proximity that they combine - and point toward something beyond itself. In what furnace did these dreams forge? Behind the toll of no earthly bell Smith's Three goes on into its own vibrating wilderness, and invites the listener along on the journey. Traversing distances of thought, we follow the drama, where we may meet the spirits of Harry Bertoia and Robert Rutman - and their proclamations from the deep.
Please tune in to the 10.24.21 broadcast of STAR'S END Ambient Radio for music from Three, the latest album from Chas Smith
Chas Smith - Brilliantly Experimental Recordings for the Hi-Fi Curious
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STAR'S END - WXPN's Archived Stream
Beginning with the 10.07.18 edition, an archived stream of each broadcast of STAR'S END will be available through the WXPN website. To listen anytime, please access: tinyurl.com/starsendarchive
STAR'S END on The Internet
The Listening List - Recent Album Reviews From STAR'S END
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September 2021 Top 20 STAR'S END Releases - Alphabetical
WXPN 2020 Online Auction - STAR'S END Fan Experience - Item #104
Electronic Musician, Concert Organizer and STAR'S END Host Chuck van Zyl has taken part in WXPN's 2020 Online Fundraising Auction with the offer of a unique listener experience. The winning bidder of Auction Item #104 will receive a one-on-one workshop with Chuck van Zyl covering synthesizer basics, followed by a private salon spacemusic concert for the winner and ten friends at WXPN's World Cafe Performance Studio.
WXPN's 2020 Fundraiser Auction ran from 8:00AM on 6 March 2020 to 6:00PM on 26 March 2020. Sincere Thanks to winning bidder Jim Causey for taking part! Your support is sincerely appreciated!
Produced by Public Radio Station WXPN, Chuck van Zyl:Live on Star's End 08.26.18 (63'36") is not a commercial release. It is available only as a "Thank-You" gift to those making a donation to WXPN/STAR'S END.
This album is a conventional silver CD featuring over 60 minutes of the Chuck van Zyl live electronic realizations made in the WXPN performance studio during a private Salon Concert (for Tony Masiello) and live-to-air broadcast of 25/26 August 2018. Its four parts each offer passages of improvised in-the-moment sequencer manipulations, amidst the ethereal yearning of synthesized harmonies and cresting lead lines. The listener is invited inside, to float away as the patterns and textures envelope them - tumbling in circles, spirals and pinwheels, beneath unfurling ribbons of creamy synth melodies and modulated, chirping effects.
Chuck van Zyl:Live on Star's End 08.26.18 may seem more like a spiritual expression than an exploration of a musical form. This work has mysterious power purely on a sonic level. But the miracle of this release is that every time we listen to it, our minds will hear something new - and will so find a different album. Absorbing the full tapestry of the Electronic/Berlin-School experience, and the ideals of live improvisation, we can easily imagine every concert outing serving as a mystic portal for this musician's own spiritual journey.
Whether channeled from the astral plane, or just the transformation of electricity into sound, Live on Star's End 08.26.18 is for those seeking a deeper examination of tone and mood. Anyone in love with Spacemusic and its very specific poetry will want to own this recording. While this musical form may have been established in the 1970s, Live on Star's End 08.26.18 feels made-today fresh. A ceaselessly inventive work, its history begins now.
This edition of The Signal includes notes on five releases from the Projekt Records label.
Please listen in as host Chuck van Zyl reviews:
Phase IX by Lorenzo Montana
MantraSequent by Jeffrey Koepper
Following the Ether Sun by Forrest Fang
Different Spaces by Erik Wøllo
Spiral Revelation by Steve Roach
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Selected Ezines - Online
STAR'S END - Site Search
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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A musician, a builder, and, most importantly, a dreamer, 
Produced by Public Radio Station WXPN, 
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.
