Very excited to have been turned on to the excellent electronic soundscapes of Michael Stearns, an American composer whose brilliant work has unfortunately slipped into the gluttonous aether of 80's obscure self released "New Age" recordings (much of which is haplessly disposable).
Basically, the dude was like the Bob Ross of synthesizer music, blending a cosmic tonality and expansive approach similar to Klaus Schulze or Roedelius with an uncanny melodic underscore and pleasantly graceful atmosphere. Take for example Stearns' 1985 LP Planetary Unfolding. Like Ross' gentle commentary and lackadaisical painterly handiwork on his famed public access show, Stearns makes the music as simple to listen to as it seemingly would be to play, never mind the complex network of patch cables and ensemble of keyboards it took to create it. Stearns enables the listener simply to drift off into the astral plane with the closing of ones eyes. He even kinda looked like Bob Ross!
Thanks to Bryan Lear for pointing this one out to me!
