Michael Stearns - Collected Ambient & Textural Works (1977-1987)

This CD compiles the best of the first ten years of Michael Stearns' "ambient and textural" material, all long out of print or previously unreleased. Stearns anticipated the now-fashionable use of ambiences and exotic location sounds years before the Aphex Twin. The late 1970s was a very exciting time for me, both in terms of personal growth and laying a new musical foundation. I had been playing guitar since I was about 14 (1962), first in surf music bands, then backing up concert artists such as The Lovin Spoonful and Paul Revere and the Raiders, later evolving to acid rock, and finally, in the mid 1970s, playing in a Las Vegas style revue. In 1967 I began to evolve my own personal music and explore musically in non-traditional ways, starting with compositions for guitar, organ, voice, and processed tape. These early sonic explorations were musical hieroglyphics for the inner and outer changes I was experiencing. At first, the only frame of reference my audience had for my private mu