STAR MUSIC V
Cassiopeia

This recording project began in 2011, when I was running a large loop-based guitar pedalboard setup, which I constructed as a result of acquiring a Diamond Memory Lane 2 analog delay unit. Originally intended as a Procer Veneficus release, the initial mixes were lost (along with much other music) to a hard disk drive crash somewhere along the line.

The intent was to pick up the threads of earlier "star music" recordings I had made, further exploring the notion of using guitars to create out-of-body abstract music. Sonically I was departing from a blend of post-industrial Coil records, psychedelic snippets and interludes from Kyuss jam tracks, and My Bloody Valentine's ever-present relentless waves of white noise. This winter I revisited the master takes and used them to construct all-new mixes, this time with a more recent minimalist dub influence.

When I look to the stars and consider the nature of our universe, I am stunned by the implications of the laws of physics and the absolute bizarre reality these laws have constructed. Through a domino-like chain of events and reactions, stars are the primary engines through which these laws express themselves. Because stars are centers of energy, they literally warp the fabric of reality around them, altering time and space irrevocably, bringing into existence phenomena which would otherwise lie latent in a silent frozen void. Nearly everything we witness is present because of this incredible warping power of stars. Every chemical combination on our planet, every living being, every thought and emotion we experience as sentient animals are a byproduct of material which has been either created or altered (likely both) by the continually firing crucibles of the stars which surround and cradle us. The more I study aspects of the natural sciences here on Earth, the more inclined I become to see them simply as strange ripple effects created by the presence of stars.

It seems to be in our cultural or psychological nature to reflect on the beauty and meaning of the stars. But scientific insight and understanding has given us the opportunity to stretch our sense of wonder far beyond anything our ancestors may have imagined, and reality is even more strange than we can conceive of it now.

This musical recording is one of many of my attempts to use the palettes of sound which fascinate me most (guitars, amplifiers, synthesizers, signal processors) to illustrate a journey through the temples of the stars using our power of imagination. It is my hope that a small echo of my personal feeling of completely overwhelmed wonder and enchantment can be heard in these imagined sounds and star musics.

May all beings be happy and free.