Search - Michael Stearns :: The Storm

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