| Planetary Unfolding | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1981 | |||
| Recorded | 1981 | |||
| Genre | Space, ambient, new-age | |||
| Length | 47:31 | |||
| Label | Continuum Montage (1981), Sonic Atmospheres (1985), Projekt (2022) | |||
| Michael Stearns chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
Planetary Unfolding (1981) is an album of electronic ambient music by composer and keyboardist Michael Stearns. It is considered a classic of ambient music. [2] [3]
Michael Stearns became a resident composer/musician at Emily Conrad's meditation classes in 1975. He initially composed and performed on a Minimoog and various electro-acoustic instruments. In 1979 he was introduced to the Serge modular synthesizer by Kevin Braheny who owned a 15-panel system (dubbed "The Mighty Serge"), which Stearns used on Morning Jewel . He then built his own 12-panel Serge. With this he performed electronic music that was evocative of space.
Planetary Unfolding was recorded around 1981, when Michael left Conrad's Continuum Studio. The musical ideas that Michael had been performing on the Serge were combined and developed, giving birth to 52 minutes of music divided into two parts, each part featuring three segments.
The album was first released on Stearns' own label, Continuum Montage. It was reissued on CD in 1985 by Sonic Atmospheres and was long unavailable, until April 2022, when a reissue appeared on Projekt Records. It is also available as a high quality download from Michael Stearns' page https://michaelstearns.bandcamp.com/.
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It is often "peaceful" sounding and lacks composition, beat, and/or structured melody. It uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual", or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer.
Geir Aule Jenssen is a Norwegian electronic musician and composer who records as Biosphere. A resident of Tromsø within the Arctic Circle, Jenssen is well known for ambient and ambient house pieces, often inspired by Arctic or mountain settings, and his use of loops and peculiar samples from science fiction and natural sources. His 1997 album Substrata was voted by the users of the Hyperreal.org website in 2001 as the best all-time classic ambient album. He has also composed several film scores.
Steve Roach is an American composer and performer of ambient and electronic music, whose recordings are informed by his impressions of environment, perception, flow and space. His work has been influential in the trance and new-age genres.
Robert Rich is an ambient musician and composer based in California, United States. With a discography spanning over 30 years, he has been called a figure whose sound has greatly influenced today's ambient music, New-age music, and even IDM.
Desert Solitaire is a collaborative album by American ambient musicians Steve Roach, Kevin Braheny, and Michael Stearns. This album was conceived as a follow-up to Roach and Braheny's 1987 collaboration Western Spaces.
Chaim Moshe Tzadik Palestine, known professionally as Charlemagne Palestine, is an American visual artist and musician. He has been described as being one of the founders of New York school of minimalist music, first initiated by La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Phil Niblock, although he prefers to call himself a maximalist.
Peter Baumann is a German musician. He formed the core line-up of the pioneering German electronic group Tangerine Dream with Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke in 1971. Baumann composed his first solo album in 1976, while still touring with the band, and embarked on a solo career in 1977. He founded the record label Private Music. Since the early 2000s, Baumann has devoted his time to studying and promoting initiatives in science and philosophy that shed light on the human condition.
Drone music, drone-based music, or simply drone, is a minimalist genre of music that emphasizes the use of sustained sounds, notes, or tone clusters called drones. It is typically characterized by lengthy compositions featuring relatively slight harmonic variations. La Monte Young, one of its 1960s originators, defined it in 2000 as "the sustained tone branch of minimalism." Music containing drones can be found in many regional traditions across Asia, Australia, and Europe, but the genre label is generally reserved for music originating with the Western classical tradition. Elements of drone music have been incorporated in diverse genres such as rock, ambient, and electronic music.
Cluster were a German musical duo consisting of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, formed in 1971 and associated with West Germany's krautrock and kosmische music scenes. Born from the earlier Berlin-based group Kluster, they relocated in 1971 into the countryside village of Forst, Lower Saxony, where they built a studio and collaborated with musicians such as Conny Plank, Brian Eno, and Michael Rother; with the latter, they formed the influential side-project Harmonia. After first disbanding in 1981, Cluster reunited several times: from 1989 to 1997, and from 2007 to 2010.
Jonn Serrie is an American composer of space music, a genre of ambient electronic music, and New Age music. He has recorded at least 18 albums and worked on projects for Lucasfilm, IMAX Corporation, NASA, the United States Navy, Hayden Planetarium, Expo Seville, and CNN.
Space music, also called spacemusic or space ambient, is a subgenre of ambient music and is described as "tranquil, hypnotic and moving". It is derived from new-age music and is associated with lounge music, easy listening, and elevator music.
Constance Mary Demby was an American musician, composer, painter, sculptor, and multimedia producer. Her music included new age, ambient, and space music styles. She is best known for her 1986 album Novus Magnificat and her two experimental musical instruments, the sonic steel space bass and the whale sail.
Michael Stearns is an American musician and composer of ambient music. He is also known as a film composer, sound designer and soundtrack producer for large format films, theatrical films, documentaries, commercials, and themed attractions.
Kevin Braheny Fortune is an American musician and composer of ambient music, producer, engineer, and session musician.
M'Ocean is an album of electronic ambient music by the U.S. musician Michael Stearns. It is a collection of seven pieces, either live performances or studio engineered tracks, produced between 1978 and 1982.
The Serge synthesizer is an analogue modular synthesizer system originally developed by Serge Tcherepnin, Rich Gold and Randy Cohen at CalArts in late 1972. The first 20 Serge systems were built in 1973 in Tcherepnin's home. Tcherepnin was a professor at CalArts at the time, and desired to create something like the exclusively expensive Buchla modular synthesizers "for the people that would be both inexpensive and powerful." After building prototypes, Tcherepnin went on to develop kits for students to affordably build their own modular synthesizer, production taking place unofficially on a second floor CalArts balcony. This led to Tcherepnin leaving CalArts in order to produce synths commercially, starting in 1974.
Sky Records was an independent record label specializing in krautrock/Kosmische Musik and electronic music. They were based in Hamburg, Germany. Some of their releases could be classified as progressive rock or art rock, experimental music, industrial, ambient, or new age. No new releases appeared after 1998.
Erik Wøllo is a Norwegian composer and musician, guitarist and synthesist. He has a background in various genres in music. As a solo recording artist, he is most known for his electronic and ambient musical soundscapes. Music that can be classified in the genres of space, drone, new age, and electronic music. Through his many albums he has gained recognition for his unique sound and style. Using guitar as the primary instrument in a highly imaginary and emotional music, building a bridge between grand symphonic realms and gentle, minimalistic and serene atmospheres.
Novus Magnificat: Through the Stargate is the fourth studio album by American musician and composer Constance Demby, with additional contributions by Michael Stearns. It was co-produced by Demby and Anna Turner and released in 1986 on Hearts of Space Records. In its original form, the album features a single 54-minute piece divided into two parts.
Charleene Closshey is an American stage and screen actress, musician, composer, and producer. She is known for her starring roles in the romantic-comedy feature No Postage Necessary (2018) and the holiday film An Evergreen Christmas (2014). Closshey made her Broadway debut in the musical Once. Closshey has also produced No Postage Necessary, the first film released via blockchain technology, with writer-director Jeremy Culver.
