''Planetary Unfolding'' (1981) 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 composer and keyboardist

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 considered a classic of ambient music.

Overview

Michael Stearns became a resident composer/musician at Emily Conrad's meditation classes in 1975. He initially composed and performed on a

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

and various electro-acoustic instruments. In 1979 he was introduced to 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 ...

Kevin Braheny Kevin Braheny Fortune (born Kevin Braheny, 1952) is an American musician. He composes and performs quiet ambient music, often more melodic than other music of this kind. Biography Kevin Braheny was on the early design team of Serge Modular, a ...

who owned a 15-panel system (dubbed "The Mighty Serge"), which he used on '' Morning Jewel''. He then built his own 12-panel Serge. With this he performed electronic music that was evocative of space. ''Planetary Unfolding'' was recorded around 1981, when Michael left Conrad's Continuum Studio. The musical ideas that Michael had been performing on the Serge were combined and developed, giving birth to 52 minutes of music divided into two parts, each part featuring three segments. The album was first released on Stearns' own label, Continuum Montage. It was reissued on CD from 1984 to 1991 by Sonic Atmospheres and was long unavailable, until April 2022, when a reissue appeared on Projekt Records. It is also available as a high quality download from Michael Stearns' page https://michaelstearns.bandcamp.com/.

Track listing

# "In the Beginning..." – 8:00 # "Toto, I've a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore." – 6:20 # "Wherever Two or More Are Gathered..." – 9:19 # Life in the Gravity Well – 6:55 # As the Earth Kissed the Moon – 9:55 # "Something's Moving" – 5:19

References

{{Authority control Michael Stearns albums 1981 albums Instrumental albums Space music albums by American artists