[.ca] The Storm

From Amazon.com:
Michael Stearns spends a lot of his time creating sound design for films, which is often more about texture and mood than melody or rhythm. Much of the music on The Storm is drawn from these film scores. Given their disparate origins, it's striking how well the pieces hold together as an album. The Storm is an excursion into deep, often unrooted ambience. Stearns can completely transform a space with his swirling layers of sounds. Environments cascade atop each other as the Balinese "Ketjak" chant emerges from a white noise of rain and barber-pole glissando, but he also leavens The Storm with welcome respites of minimally drawn melody. "The Last Feeling" is a techno-tribal trance work of plaintive flute melody and hypnotic hand percussion, while "The Light in the Trees" illustrates the deep melancholy Stearns can evoke with just a few well-placed chords. It's a place he should return to more often. --John Diliberto

Very Good:
This is not the most captivating of Michael Stern's work. But miles ahead of the other ambient artists. Michael, like Steve Roach and Robert Rich or Lustmord always put out very good atomopheric ambient music. This Cd is more subdued than his other recent works.

Took Me Away...Far, Far, Away:
Unlike the two previous reviewers, I found this CD to be mesmerizing and one of my favorite ambient CD's. It is a great one for doing quiet meditation in the dark, or just as background "sound" while creating. I highly recommend it, especially to other artists who need inspiration.

Not the best Michael Stearns album:
"The Storm" was disappointing to me, and I am indeed a long time Michael Stearns fan. This recording felt disjointed to me from the very first listen, and never really got better. Ambient albums work best (and are the most impressive) when the entire recording is successful in building intricate layers of sound texture, and maintain complimentary dynamics from one piece to the next. "The Storm" failed to take me anywhere, and from Stearns I have come to expect a nice sound journey! The best Michael Stearns album is unfortunately also one that I cannot find anymore! It is called "Planetary Unfolding" and it is also one of the best ambient recordings in history, up there with the very best of Rich, Eno, Roach, etc. Each movement of music builds upon the previous one to create amazing layers of passionate and warm sound, and the synthesized choral textures are amazing. If you find "Planetary Unfolding". . . BUY IT!!! It is not clear where M.S. wanted to go with "The Storm", but he failed to create any blissful, relaxing, or engaging responses from this listener, and it now sets on the bottom of my ambient collection. : (

• The Storm
• The Dream
• The Gathering
• Hantu (Ghost Or Spirit)
• Distant Train, Distant Thunder
• The Path Between
• Cenote
• The Light In The Trees
• From The Cradle
• The Last Feeling
• Surrender
• Bajan