''M'Ocean'' is an album of electronic

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...

by the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

musician

Michael Stearns Michael Stearns (born October 16, 1948) is an American musician and composer of ambient music. He is also known as a film composer, sound designer and soundtrack producer for IMAX, large format films, theatrical films, Documentary film, document ...

. It is a collection of seven pieces, either live performances or studio engineered tracks, produced between 1978 and 1982. The album was given a first release under Michael Stearns' own label, Continuum Montage, in 1983, with the title ''Light Play''. It was reissued as ''M'Ocean'' on CD the following year by Sonic Atmospheres, after Stearns signed to them. It has been reissued in 2000 along with much of Stearns' early works on his own label ''Earth Turtle''.

Overview

*"Sirens" was entirely composed on an Oberheim OB8 synthesizer, one of the first digitally controlled analog synths. Stearns composed the piece just after having set up the synthesizer. *"Marriage Chords" was composed for Stearns' wedding with Susan Harper in 1980. The piece is actually the live recording performed by Stearns for the ceremony on the

Serge modular synthesizer The Serge synthesizer ( Serge Modular or Serge Modular Music System) 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 (then called "Tc ...

. *"M'Ocean" is a sequencer driven with whirling scales of notes that give a hint of the track ''escalators'' that would come up with the album ''Chronos''. The title "M'Ocean" stands for "My Ocean" and "Motion". *"Lightplay" is a more ambient track with massive and multi-layered chords. *"Vicki's Dance" was performed and recorded live at the Continuum studio, during Emily Conrad's classes. It's en early Stearns' piece, that reminds previous works such as '' Ancient Leaves'' or '' Morning Jewel''. *"Fireflies Delight" is a sequencer driven track that sounds a bit like the track "M'Ocean". *"Walking Song" is a short

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

piece that Stearns transcribed for the synthesizer.

Track listing

#"Sirens" – 5:04 #"Marriage Chords" – 9:40 #"M'Ocean" – 6:40 #"Lightplay" – 7:11 #"Vicki's Dance" – 5:25 #"Fireflies' Delight" – 9:38 #"Walking Song" – 2:21

References

Michael Stearns albums 1983 albums 1980s instrumental albums {{1980s-electronic-album-stub