Stearns, Michael

Artist: Erik Wollo &Michael Stearns
P: 2020
CONVERGENCE ranges from slowly-evolving contemplative and reflective tracks like “Somewhere in the distance” and “Subterranean Canyon” to hypnotically pulsing rhythmic movements in “The Nomad’s Journey” or the “The Herald.” The album is a subtle interplay between these two pioneering artists’ mystical and emotional sonic styles, developing an inner resonance of expressive reveries that venture into dark mystical terrain as the album progresses.

Artist: Michael Stearns & Larkin
P: 1985
Flute music with hupback whale sounds with low synthesizer tunes played by Michael Stearns.

Here the last copy!

Artist: Michael Stearns + Ron Sunsinger
P: 1994
After years of simulating their sounds in synthesizers, Michael Stearns set out to find the recently discovered decorated rocks found in secret Native American locations. Sunsinger and Stearns recorded the sounds of these rocks, as well as "vibrations of the Earth near volcanoes." Combined with electronic and natural ambience, Lakota flutes, ocarinas, rainsticks, a druid bell, sampled voices, a smorgasbord of other fascinating instruments, and with the ubiquitous final reverbed synthesizer touches, Stearns and Sunsinger have created twelve very interesting tracks that are, surprisingly, completely independent of one another.
Stearns outshines his partner in every way. While both offer collaborative tracks, Stearns's solo compositions are more complex in their aural stone latticework. Most of Sunsinger's work seems more "filler" in idea and are both simple and unimpressive in nature.
The album kicks off with Sunsinger's finest effort: The Ringing Desert. He plays a haunting tune on a Lakota courtship flute (which will only be out-haunted by Stearns's Hopi flute theme on the last track). Invocation continues the dark Native themes with stormy winds and hawk cries. Stearns's Shadows & Light starts off lethargically with stone samples; these will eventually morph into synthesized chord progressions accompanying Native vocals that will send shivers down the listener's spine. The fourth track, Petroglyphs, is described in the booklet as such: "Just stones played on-site[...]." It is of interest only to those who enjoy samples. There is no cohesion, and a good set of headphones reveals loop splices.

Artist: Michael Stearns + Ron Sunsinger
P: 2000
After six years without any new recordings, pioneering ambient artist Michael Stearns has unleashed a torrent of music with three releases and this CD with Ron Sunsinger. In a way, Sorcerer is an extension of their 1994 album, Singing Stones, but Sorcerer is an even more abstract and experimental work. Inspired by the spiritual writings of Carlos Castaneda, Stearns and Sunsinger create a dark and perilous world.
On an album that's more sound design than music, they mix electric and acoustic sounds from prepared guitar to bowed metal with environmental recordings. Electronically processed, reversed, and otherwise distorted, they emerge with a surrealism that makes Dali seem like a hardcore realist painter. There are no rhythms to grab onto and no melodies to speak of until the very last track, when Peruvian shaman Don Augustine Rivas sings an Ayahuasca Icarro song. Until that respite, it's a tableau of demonic groans, shuddering metal on metal, and turbulent free falls, all orchestrated into a shifting, enveloping, and precarious soundscape.
CD mixed and mastered at Earth Turtle, Sante Fe.
Music composed and produced by Michael Stearns and Ron Sunsinger.
John Bartlit - prepared electric guitar on Cicharisca and percussion and bowed metal instruments on Journey to the Underworld
Don Augustine Rivas sings the Ayahuasca song Cicharisca
Norm Toy backup synthesizer on Cicharisca
Butch Hall - Native American flutes
Ross Barrable - wind harps.
Incredibly Visual, Completely Visceral, Overwhelmingly Powerful.
Dedicated to, and inspired by the books of Carlos Castaneda.
Stearns and Sunsinger plunge to undiscovered depths, unlike anything ever experienced before, in this profound and surreal tribute to the late author Carlos Castaneda. Masterfully crafted soundfields, realized from the deepest recesses of Human awareness, shift the listener into a state of dreaming, and breathe life into an incredible world of power and knowledge. Not for the casual listener, this is the world of Don Juan with all of its magic and intensity.

Artist: Michael Stearns
P: 1992/ 2005
In an age where music is more manufactured than envisoned, "Baraka" is a refreshing and magnificent collection of organic tones, and ethnic beats.
Baraka is an incredible nonverbal film containing images of 24 countries from 6 continents, created by Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson, with music from Michael Stearns and others. The film has no plot, contains no actors and has no script.  Instead, high quality 70mm images show some of the best, and worse, parts of nature and human life.  Timelapse is used heavily to show everyday life from a different perspective.  Baraka is often considered a spiritual film.

Artist: Michael Stearns
P: 1992/ 2005
In an age where music is more manufactured than envisoned, "Baraka" is a refreshing and magnificent collection of organic tones, and ethnic beats.
Baraka is an incredible nonverbal film containing images of 24 countries from 6 continents, created by Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson, with music from Michael Stearns and others. The film has no plot, contains no actors and has no script.  Instead, high quality 70mm images show some of the best, and worse, parts of nature and human life.  Timelapse is used heavily to show everyday life from a different perspective.  Baraka is often considered a spiritual film.

Artist: Michael Stearns
P: 1984 / 2022
The remaster of Michael’s X-86 Stereo Ambisonic mix; this mix was originally used on the CD and LP at the time of the film’s release and is Michael’s favorite.
A soundtrack tuned to the timescales and rhythms of human life on earth
In Greek mythology “Chronos” is the personification of time. On composer and electronic musical visionary Michael Stearns’ 1985 album, Chronos serves as the tempo of a cascade of celestial movements, terrestrial sonic luminance, and morphic electronic harmonies.
Composed as the soundtrack for the IMAX film by cinematographer Ron Fricke (previously of Koyaanisqatsi), these 8 tracks combine to form a continuous 43-minute pandimensional experience, a sensual sound voyage with stops throughout the ancient and modern worlds.
Scored as the film was shot, Stearns’ Chronos leads us through earthbound and aerial spaces, the long plains, the cosmos, the big cities and the tracing of the spiritual and corporeal lights which inform each movement. The symphonic and majestic main theme in “Corridors of Time” hints at vast spaces and soulful longing flowing with cosmic poetry. The track reaches a powerful crescendo resolving in ghostly atmospheres, driving escalator steps and whispered voices. It returns half an hour later weaving into the themes of the swelling incandescent tapestry of the final two movements.
One of the best soundtracks ever made by Stearns and his Serge Modular System, with a very unique sound.
Taking the familiar conventions of time-lapse cinematography to a transcendent level of artistic achievement, filmmaker Ron Fricke circled the globe to make Chronos, a stunning 70-millimeter time-lapse tour of natural and man-made wonders. The entire film has the enhanced, hyper-realistic quality of a laser-etched photograph, and by using special cameras and motion-control photographic techniques, Fricke and his technically expert crew were able to create mesmerizing images guaranteed to spark any viewer's sense of awe and wonder. Accompanied by the hypnotic music of Michael Stearns, this visual journey takes the viewer on a tour of over 50 locations on nearly every continent of the world, including explorations of Paris, the Vatican, the Egyptian pyramids, the African veldt, and many more stunning vistas. The cumulative effect is the feeling that the world--from the busiest metropolis to the most serenely remote wilderness landscape--is dictated by "chronos," the rhythm of time to which all living things must submit. Like Koyaanisquatsi and Baraka, this is one of those eye-candy films that was conceived according to its specific theme, so it's not only a soothing visual experience but a thought-provoking study of our fascinating planet.

Artist: Michael Stearns
P: 1985 / 2004
Taking the familiar conventions of time-lapse cinematography to a transcendent level of artistic achievement, filmmaker Ron Fricke circled the globe to make Chronos, a stunning 70-millimeter time-lapse tour of natural and man-made wonders. The entire film has the enhanced, hyper-realistic quality of a laser-etched photograph, and by using special cameras and motion-control photographic techniques, Fricke and his technically expert crew were able to create mesmerizing images guaranteed to spark any viewer's sense of awe and wonder. Accompanied by the hypnotic music of Michael Stearns, this visual journey takes the viewer on a tour of over 50 locations on nearly every continent of the world, including explorations of Paris, the Vatican, the Egyptian pyramids, the African veldt, and many more stunning vistas. The cumulative effect is the feeling that the world--from the busiest metropolis to the most serenely remote wilderness landscape--is dictated by "chronos," the rhythm of time to which all living things must submit. Like Koyaanisquatsi and Baraka, this is one of those eye-candy films that was conceived according to its specific theme, so it's not only a soothing visual experience but a thought-provoking study of our fascinating planet.

Artist: Michael Stearns
P: 1996
This CD features a select compilation of music from the early albums "Desert Moon Walk" (1977), "Ancient Leaves" (1978), "Jewel" (1979/1985), "Lyra" (1983), "M'ocean" (1984), and "Floating Whispers" (1987). During the recording of the earliest of these works, "Vicki's Dance" and "Desert Moon Walk", I was playing live at the Continuum Studio. The source material for these pieces was taken from those early live performances. "Ancient Leaves" and "Elysian E" were two of my first composed pieces released on LP. With "Morning" in ‘79, I began weaving ambient recordings made during my world travels into the fabric of the music. And, there are three pieces from "Lyra", recorded with sculptor George Landry's gigantic electronic harp. Some material has been edited. All have been meticulously digitally re-mastered. A full 74 minutes of music.

Artist: Michael Stearns
P: 1996
This CD features a select compilation of music from the early albums "Ancient Leaves" (1978), "M'ocean" (1984), "Plunge" (1986), "Floating Whispers" (1987), and several previously unpublished tracks. "Ancient Leaves" was recorded in the spring of 1977 and was performed live in August of that year at the "7-7-77" festival in Ocean Park. "Marriage Chords" was performed live entirely on the Serge Synthesizer for my wedding in 1980. "Three Faces of the Goddess" was created for a performance series with dancers, and the pieces from Plunge and Floating Whispers were created in between film projects. Some material has been edited. All have been meticulously digitally re-mastered. A full 74 minutes of music.