Planetary Unfolding

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Planetary Unfolding (1981) is an album of electronic ambient music by U.S. musician Michael Stearns. It is considered a classic of ambient music.^[2][3]

Overview

Michael Stearns became a resident composer musician at Emily Conrad's meditation classes in 1975. He composed and performed at first on a Minimoog and various electro-acoustic instruments. In 1979, he was introduced to the Serge modular synthesizer by Kevin Braheny, who owned a 15-panels system (dubbed "The Mighty Serge"), which he used on Morning Jewel. He then built his own 12-panels Serge. On this one, as he already did with Braheny's system, he performed electronic music with a strong feeling of space.

Planetary Unfolding was recorded around 1981, when Michael left Conrad's Continuum Studio. Musical ideas that Michael performed on the Serge the previous years were put together and developed and gave birth to this 52 minute piece of music, with two parts each cut in three tracks.

The album was given a first release under Michael Stearns' own label, Continuum Montage, in 1981. It was reissued on CD from 1985 to 1991 by Sonic Atmospheres and is since unavailable: as of June 2009, it hasn't been reissued on Stearns's 2000-launched label Earth Turtle.

Track listing

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

References