MICHAEL
STEARNS MICHAEL
STEARNS It’s true, however, that Stearns is one of the originators – certainly on this side of ‘the pond’ – of a new genre of music that emerged in the 1970s, a contemporary instrumental form that has, over the years, been dubbed space music, new age, or simply electronic music. Stearns won First Place and Grand Prize in the international Roland Synthesizer Tape Contest of 1984 such was his affinity with the instrument. Nowadays, of course, synthesizers and electronics have become so musically prevalent – from everyday TV commercials to electronica in its dazzling array of guises (techno, house, hip-hop, trip-hop, et al) – that electronic music has inadvertently become something of a generic term.
For Stearns, though, even in its infancy, the synthesizer always represented more than simply a means to an end. “Up until 1973, guitar had been my primary musical instrument,” he reveals. “I was performing six nights a week in a local band. Musical influences up to then included romantic classical composers, early Pink Floyd, and the sound worlds of Ken Nordine and Edgar Varese. I was into creating montage with sound, and still am. The first synthesizer recordings from the likes of Walter Carlos and Emerson Lake & Palmer were like doorways to other musical worlds – musical metaphors for what it might mean to be human outside of our cultural context. They resonated deeply in me.”
Yet this naturally inquisitive musician could only remain passive for so long. “In that year, I enrolled at Pima College in Tucson, Arizona, and began studying synthesis and the physics of acoustic instruments,” continues Stearns. “At that time, there were no formal classes in those areas. But it was a small school and several teachers were willing to set up an ‘invented-on-the-spot’ curriculum for me. I had a small, four-track studio at home, and started making my own style of electronic music. I borrowed all sorts of instruments. Much of my music was in the form of musique concrete.”
Alongside developing that compositional style, during this period Stearns also produced jingles and commercials for local radio and television. Two such jingles – for Schlitz Beer and Greyhound Bus Lines – were nationally released. Little did he know that technological developments would eventually put music technology beyond his wildest dreams at his fingertips, technology that would one day lead him into the lucrative music-to-picture scoring business – ultimately on his own terms, as we shall see.
“The original studio in Tucson was in a bedroom of the house that I rented,” recalls the composer, with a hint of pride. “Sometimes it took over the living room! In those days, the TEAC A3340 was the workhorse four-track machine for the financially non-endowed composer. At one point I owned two, and used to run the tape off of one deck and over to the other to create immense tape loops – way beyond anything one can do digitally today. Of course, they were noisy! We were always imagining what it might be like to have better equipment, or equipment specialised for our musical and sonic experiments. There were 16- and 24-track machines available then – the early Ampex and Scully machines, but I couldn’t even afford an eight-track until Tascam came out with their 80-8 later in the ’70s. The console was also a TEAC – a Model 10 or Model 15, I think. It had four quadraphonic panners on it, which is why I bought it. Even in those days, I was headed into multi-channel sound.”
With the benefit of hindsight, one cannot help wondering if destiny played its part in Stearns’ crossing paths with the then-fledgling synthesizer, an unusual path that would lead him from his hometown to the bright city lights of LA, and ultimately onto the long and winding road to musical glory.
Stearns
recounts this important transitory phase: “In January of 1975, I met musician
Gary David at a workshop given by Emilie Conrad-Da’oud. I had been undergoing
something of a ‘spiritual crisis’ in my life, and had decided to sell all of
my musical instruments and apprentice myself to a local Sufi mystic. Somehow,
I heard about Emilie’s workshop and felt there might be a connection with her
work. Gary was playing a meditative electronic music background for the workshop
using a Minimoog and processed tape loops. It was the perfect connection. Two
weeks later, I had sold all of my encumbering belongings and moved to Los Angeles
to study with Gary and Emilie and perform for the classes at Emilie’s Continuum
Studio. Playing for those classes became the context in which I developed my
music. Along with Gary and myself, Fred Stofflet was performing for classes
using a large array of percussion instruments, Don Preston of Mothers of Invention
was there with a huge modular Moog, and Kevin Braheny soon joined the studio
and introduced me to his Serge modular system.”
No doubt encouraged by Braheny, who was working for Serge at the time, Stearns went on to buy an impressive, 12-panel version of this remarkable instrument. By his own admission, however, in the late-’80s he received a very generous offer and parted company with his beloved patch chord-encrusted modular system, moving on into the sleek digital world of sampling which has been the mainstay of his musical endeavours ever since. Stearns’ enthusiasm for all things Serge remains unfettered by the sands of time, however. Indeed, the trademark tones of a borrowed example is very much in evidence on the track ‘Seven’ on Stearns’ millennial Within • The Nine Dimensions album, the music of which had originally been commissioned by author Barbara Hand Clow in 1998, based on a system of nine dimensions related in her book The Pleiadian Agenda.
“The wonderful thing about the Serge is that one designs the layout of the modules across the panels one’s self,” Stearns posits. “So it’s a very personalised instrument – no two Serges are laid out in the same way. And beyond oscillators, filters and controllers there are a plethora of hybrid modules to choose from in the design of the panels. Into the design of the layout goes the way one thinks about synthesis, the flow of how one intuits electronically. So, by its fluid nature and open architecture, and the fact that the purchaser designs his or her own instrument, it certainly becomes a manifestation of one’s approach to electronic composition.”
Admittedly, Stearns’ 1977 recording debut was created on somewhat simpler wares, but its value should not be underestimated, acting, as it does, almost as a kind of precursor to his future sonic voyages outside the confines of stereo recording. “Initially, I was using my voice, a Minimoog and tape loops played back through a discreet quadraphonic system that I had designed,” smiles the forward-thinking composer.
1983 proved an important turning point in Stearns’ ongoing artistic development, a year in which he assisted infamous Hollywood composer Maurice Jarre on the Fire Fox and Dreamscape movie scores. Stearns picks up the story: “In 1978, Craig Huxley asked me to be his writing partner and work in his studio in Sherman Oaks, The Enterprise. This later evolved into his multi-room recording and filmscoring complex in Burbank. Craig and I had performed with percussionist Fred Stofflet in the free jazz trio Alivity in ’76 and ’77. Then, I went off to record my first solo LP, Ancient Leaves, and Craig got into film scoring. We got back together in ’78 to work on Schizoid, Motel Hell and other ‘exploitation’ films. Craig’s studio was filled with the latest gadgets, and is where I learned the electronic technology of recording to picture and also the musical technology. He introduced me to Maurice Jarre and other composers who came to work on film scoring projects there. With Maurice I would work intimately for three months at a time. One day we’d be recording a string section, the next would be entirely electronic keyboards. It was a great learning experience that lasted until 1983.”
It’s
fair to say Stearns’ present day reputation has been founded on the back of
his next music-to-picture project, undertaken in a solo capacity – a project
that enabled him to set up M’Ocean, his own Santa Monica-based multi-format
monitoring facility, arguably way ahead of the game. That project was director
Ron Fricke’s 1984 IMAX masterpiece Chronos, viewing
the evolution of western society through time lapse photography of both nature’s
sacred and mankind’s architectural monuments. Stearns rose to the occasion with
zest, his majestic, sweeping score sounding remarkably fresh – even by today’s
exacting standards.
“Ron had just finished working on Koyaanisquatsi and wanted to do a large format film,” recounts Stearns. “Evidently, my first LP Ancient Leaves had been used during the editing process of Koyaanisquatsi, and that’s how Ron had initially heard my music. I didn’t want to create the music in a stereo monitoring environment for a discreet six-channel surround film experience, and then take it to a stage to mix it in the appropriate format as an afterthought, so I opened a new studio in Santa Monica, installing a small version of an IMAX sound system so that I could create an architectural or spatial score for the music while writing the purely musical score. This was the first incarnation of M’Ocean Studio.”
Thereafter, the tables turned, with clients actively seeking out Stearns, such was the impact of the project in question: “After the Chronos project, I got a lot of work – not only scoring, but also producing and mixing soundtracks for IMAX and other discreet multi-channel films.”
Here
one is left with the distinct impression that Stearns is happy to let his success
speak for itself, but if proof is needed of the man’s not inconsiderable accomplishments
then a cursory glance at his impressive Website (www.michaelstearns.com)
will undoubtedly prove most illuminating – in more ways than one – with numerous
film format credits listed, including excursions into 15/70 (IMAX/OMNIMAX) and
8/70 (iWERKS), surely a steep learning curve? Bravado momentarily gets the better
of the composer. “Actually, it hasn’t been difficult at all,” he boasts, before
adding, “I’ve been one of the pioneers. It seems that as long as I’ve played
music and worked with sound, I’ve been intensely interested in its spatial presentation.
Back in the ’60s and early ’70s, when I performed in bands, I developed a stereo
panning pedal so that I could move my guitar playing from one side of the bandstand
to the other. Starting in the mid-’70s, all of the music I created was originally
done in at least discreet quadraphonic. It always felt reductive to have to
mix it down to stereo.”
That said, taking Chronos as a prime example, Stearns’ score was originally designed to accompany its large format, and yet also released as a soundtrack album. Clearly the two mediums are vastly different, requiring a sympathetic ‘conversion’ process on Stearns’ part. “It’s something that I’ve become more adept at over time,” he maintains. “In the case of the Chronos soundtrack, I actually mixed the CD in a four-channel Ambisonic format back in 1985. If you look at the disc, you’ll see the Ambisonic logo. This also happens to play back quite nicely in stereo.”
Now on a role, there’s no stopping Stearns. “Baraka, the Ron Fricke film that I scored after Chronos, was originally mixed as both a discreet 70mm split surround track and a Dolby Stereo track,” he gushes. “The Dolby Stereo version was used as the soundtrack on the video and laserdisc releases, and also the CD release. But I remastered the split surround music and effect stems for the 5.1 DVD release. If you play back the Baraka DVD in stereo, the Dolby Stereo track has also been encoded.
“Because I actually compose most of my music monitoring through an IMAX or 5.1 system, a lot of thought has already gone into the spatialization process. If I’m tracking directly into Pro Tools, which I do most of the time now, I’m also spatializing as I go along. This allows different instruments to live and move in different physical spaces. Most of my music is already ready for release either in DVD-A, or DTS CD. The latter is a format I’m very interested in.”
Stearns pauses, briefly, before summating, “In fact, since 1984, most of my commercial productions have been for discreet multi-channel projects – IMAX and beyond.”
And beyond IMAX came Stearns’ involvement in rides and shows. “The two most complex projects that I’ve done, on every level, are Back to the Future – The Ride – 12-channel surround – for Universal, and Star Trek – The Experience – 15-channel surround – for Paramount,” he asserts. “Reading technical articles by those proclaiming to be, or being represented as, the new surround gurus always gives me a chuckle! Some of us have been doing this for years.”
Asked to expand upon this thrilling aspect of his commercial work – projects where, one assumes, there is usually an awesome amount of research and development involved, and Stearns’ contributions, both in terms of music and sound design, are far from simply being the audio icing on the fantasy cake, but rather a crucial part of the desired overall ‘out of this world’ experience – the composer readily obliges: “Working in special venues, each project comes with its own set of creative challenges. Unlike theatrical or IMAX soundtrack builds, where the parameters of the presentation space and sound system are known in advance, most special venue attractions are unique ‘one of a kind’ installations. Hardware manufacturers have now developed specialised technology to deal with them.
“I get involved in special venue projects in different ways. If I’m lucky, and the client is really thinking ahead, I’ll get called in right from the beginning, at the conceptual stage. This is what happened on Back to the Future – The Ride, where I was involved in testing the concept and helped design the overall hardware installation, as well as the soundtrack, so that there was actually some thinking that took place around their integration.”
So where does Santa Fe and, more specifically, Earth Turtle Studio come into this ‘sticky’ equation? Some shallow souls might deem Stearns’ decision to head out west as a suicidal move. After all, the US motion picture and television industries so obviously revolve around LA. Yet his clear-cut reasoning makes for disarmingly refreshing reading in the cut-throat world of his chosen specialist field. “Toward the end of the ’80s, I began to feel the squeeze to move out of Los Angeles,” Stearns muses. “I had several experiences that were downright scary. I had reached a point in my career where I had enough of a clientele and a reputation that I thought perhaps it would be possible to live in a healthier environment and still work in film and the music business. Having grown up in the Southwest, I took a trip there looking for a city that I might relocate to. I had film industry friends living in Albuquerque and Santa Fe that I visited on that trip who encouraged my move to New Mexico. At the time, I was getting ready to start work on the IMAX film Tropical Rainforest, and I knew that I would be scoring Ron Fricke’s Baraka immediately after that. As soon as we finished the final LA screening for Baraka, I moved! It was September of ’92, two weeks after the LA riots.”
A timely move, then, certainly one which has subsequently paid off as was Stearns’ want, with a heavy commercial workload continuing unabated: “Santa Fe is close enough to LA that you can be there in several hours if you need to meet with someone or work on a soundtrack. In fact, I sometimes fly to LA for the day just for meetings. Most of the time, approvals can be handled via Fedex or electronically via the Internet. My ftp site gets a lot of use for that. I’ve just finished a commercial for a producer in London, and we did the soundtrack entirely via the Internet.”
And Santa Fe itself has proven attractive to some of Stearns’ clients, too. “Last month, I scored and mixed a ride film for Volkswagen’s new Autostadt complex with the German clients here in the studio,” he affirms. “On several feature films that I’ve been involved with in the last two years, the directors have come here to edit in one of our local Avid suites and we’ve posted and mixed the soundtracks here. It gives them a break from the high stress environment of LA and lets them get more creatively involved with fewer distractions. Along with my facility, we have a foley stage and editing suites. High bandwidth, real-time Internet connections are opening up even more possibilities.”
Comfortably ensconced in Earth Turtle Studio, Stearns is gearing up for meeting those exciting possibilities head on. “Earth Turtle today is based around Pro Tools,” he imparts. “We have MDM recorders and even two-inch machines with Dolby SR. But, with the new multi-channel panning plug-ins for Pro Tools, the reasons for going through a console, or even leaving the hard drive, are fewer. There are two monitor set-ups in the studio – one for stereo work and a discreet multi-channel surround set-up configured for IMAX/OMNIMAX and 5.1. In addition, we have a number of extra monitors for reconfiguring the room for special venue custom configurations. Star Trek – The Experience was pre-mixed here two years ago, and that installation featured 15-channel discreet surround.”
Stearns
changes tact: “The gear in the studio goes through various transformations every
year. The entire studio can be seen as a ‘modular synthesizer’, with different
pieces of equipment – not just the synthesizers and samplers – interacting with
each other sonically and via MIDI.”
It’s that Serge fixation thing again. For Stearns’ more earthbound musical journeys, the back of the room is set up with MIDI-controlled synths and samplers. There is a separate room with acoustic instruments. At the mixing station, there is a MIDI keyboard controller that pulls out for remote performing on any of the instruments in the rear.
Explaining one’s working methodology is never a straightforward proposition, however – even more so for Stearns. “I tend to arrange ‘moments’ of my music using MIDI, rather than virtual track entire pieces,” he says. “I don’t like composing to the digital clock all of the time. Where the ‘musical logic’ comes from is part of the mystery of the musical process. It’s certainly not something that I approach in an intellectual way. As I work, it’s more like finding one of many solutions to a musical puzzle. Certain sounds and notes resonate within me and beg to be combined with other sounds, or in some relation to them – melodies emerge. It feels like weaving a musical tapestry.”
Unsurprisingly, the studio’s unusual appellation is a reflection of its owner’s admirable outlook – above and beyond the call of music: “The Earth Turtle came to me in a dream the night that I started work on my first studio here in Santa Fe in ’92. In the dream, I was standing in the studio space and began sinking through the floor until I was in a subterranean cavern. From behind a giant rock, a huge tortoise emerged and stared at me. The Earth Turtle is also a sacred symbol that many peoples around the world use to represent planet Earth.”
This leads us neatly on to another of Stearns’ passions: outside of music technology, travel and musicology have played equal parts in shaping his sound, exotic places and cultures being evident on a lot of commissions and recordings, such as Singing Stones, Stearns’ 1994 collaborative effort with Ron Sunsinger, and 1995’s The Lost World album, to name but two. In 1989 Stearns travelled to Japan to record the taiko drum troop The Fire Drummers of Sakurajima, and then on to Indonesia, travelling across Java and Bali, recording indigenous music and the sounds of erupting volcanoes for the IMAX film, Ring Of Fire. 1995 saw him in Costa Rica, recording location sounds for Tropical Rain Forest – the list goes on.
“Travelling and recording in remote locations is something that I started in the mid-’70s,” proclaims Stearns. “It really feeds me creatively to visit far away places and immerse myself in foreign cultures. There’s always a DAT and microphones with me. I never know what will get woven into a piece of my music or a soundtrack. Sometimes those places are literally in our own backyards. The American Southwest is one of my favourite places to explore and record.”
Indeed, judging from the nature of many of the music-to-picture commissions Stearns has accepted over the years, the composer appears to actively seek an affinity with the visuals he is often asked to support and enhance. I put this observation to Stearns, who, after careful consideration, concurs, “I definitely seek out projects with which I feel an affinity, whenever possible. If I resonate with the visuals, all the better. It’s important to be happy in one’s work – when one can! It’s what Joseph Campbell called ‘following your bliss’. Sometimes it’s not the focus of the project or the visuals, but rather the collection of creative people and collaboration that makes a project worthwhile. Within every situation, there’s always something to be learned.”
Perhaps
it’s this willingness to embrace both the new and the unknown that sets Stearns
apart from the scoring pack, guaranteeing an enviable and deserved longevity
in an age of increasingly disposable music. Earlier, Stearns mentioned that
there is a room of acoustic instruments within Earth Turtle Studio. More often
than not, these are of a somewhat ‘esoteric’ nature, perfectly in keeping with
Stearns’ creative wanderlust, and include a self-built version of The Beam,
a 12-foot long instrument, strung with 24 piano strings. Lyra
Sound Constellation, his fifth solo album, released in 1983, was composed
and performed on George Landry’s enchanting instrument of the same name, a gigantic
room-size harp, over 30 feet wide and 20 feet high, with 156 strings tuned to
microtonal pitches, amplified via custom pickups through a quadraphonic speaker
array – one such performance with this instrument being filmed and featured
on ABC’s Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. 1994’s Singing
Stones, meanwhile, unsurprisingly makes much use of Native American singing
stones, though here Stearns is additionally credited with hand rubbed stones,
rainstick, druid bell and Hopi flute. Again, the list goes on.
“These instruments speak to the composer,” Stearns posits. “They beg to be played, often in ways that are not traditional. With The Beam, Lyra, or the singing stones, who’s to say what traditional is? That makes the exploration even more inviting and fun! Within our culture, we live in such a narrow spectrum of what it means to be human. Usually our cultural musics and instruments are no more than reflections of that. We live with cultural blinders on, musically and otherwise. So, anytime there’s a newly invented instrument, a tuning system that’s not equally tempered, or something unusual that makes a noise, I want to be first in line to play it! That’s probably reflected in my music.”
So, what does the future hold for Micheal Stearns? What does he want to achieve musically, both technically and composition-wise? The composer’s conclusion is touching, just like his music: “I would love to keep working from Santa Fe, or some place equally powerful, yet benign, and be able to travel, raise my family and publish my music, and, most of all, be supported for doing it. I know there are new musical doorways to open, new musical metaphors of what it means to be human beyond our cultural straight jackets, and I hope to have the chance to do it.”
© Jonathan Miller (September 2000)
STATE
OF INDEPENDENCEFollowing several successful years spent recording for the renowned new age Hearts Of Space label and its Fathom imprint, given the composer’s prolificity, it’s unusual that there were no Michael Stearns releases between 1996 and 1999. His is an all too familiar story, however: “The needs of the record labels and my own were no longer harmonious – too many disappointments on both sides.”
Aided and abetted by the possibilities of the Internet, Stearns decided to go it alone and subsequently launched Earth Turtle Music earlier this year with no fewer than three simultaneous releases. More are on the cards, including Sorcerer, a tribute to Carlos Castineda, co-written with Ron Sunsinger. Music currently being composed for several planetarium show soundtracks may also make into the public domain, courtesy of Earth Turtle.
“I had had a Website for five years,” declares Stearns, “but it was very simple in its design – more of a PR thing. My wife, Karen, and I decided to have the Website redesigned from the floor up with a shopping cart area, free MP3 downloads, an expanded biographical area and photo galleries. And we decided to start a new label specifically for my music and Web sales. It took six months to get the new Website online and get all of the bugs out. Then it took another six months to package the new music and get it released. Part of the reason that things went so slowly is that I usually have a fairly heavy commercial project load. Another reason is that we’ve started a family and now have two young boys – a time-consuming proposition!”
SYNTHS/SAMPLERS: Korg Triton • Korg Wavestation SR • Roland S-760 x2 • Roland JV-1010 • Roland MC-303 • Yamaha FS-1R
DAWs/SEQUENCERS: Digidesign Pro Tools Mix Plus • Doepfer MAQ 16/3 • Emagic Logic Audio • MotU Digital Performer
MIXERS: Mackie 24:4 • Mackie 1604VLZ • Yamaha O2R (with SP02 panner)
OUTBOARD: BASE • Boss VT-1 • Digitech 2112 • dbx 120XP • dbx 263X • dbx 296 • Effectron • Lexicon 224XL • Lexicon PCM90 • Lexicon Alex • Lexicon JamMan x2 • Roland SRV-330 • TC Electronic FireWorx
TAPE RECORDERS/MDMs: Fostex D-20B DAT • Otari MX5050 (eight-track, with dbx NR) • Panasonic SV3700 DAT • Sony APR24 (24-track, with Dolby SR/XP rack) • Tascam DA38 • Tascam DA78 • Tascam DA88 • Tascam DA-P1
POWER AMPS: Hafler 9505 • Threshold S150
MONITORS: EV • Mackie HR824 x6 • Genelec 1030 • Genelec 1031 • Tannoy
VIDEO PLAYBACK: ProScan 16x9 34-inch/20-inch • Sony SVO 9600 • Sony VO 5600
Behold Hawaii (MacGillivray Freeman Films)
Boar Pigs (Tom Huggins)
Challenge (MacGillivray Freeman Films)
Chronos (Canticle Films)
Dead Fish Working (Michael Lee)
Homeland (MacGillivray Freeman Films)
IMAX Slitscan Logos (Graphic Films)
Indonesia Indah 3 (MacGillivray Freeman Films)
Island Child (MacGillivray Freeman Films)
Mt. St Helens (Graphic Films)
Race The Wind (MacGillivray Freeman Films)
Ring Of Fire (Graphic Films)
Sacred Site (Canticle Films)
Seasons (Canticle Films)
Siegfried & Roy • The Magic Box In 3D (L Squared)
Thrill Ride (N Wave Pictures)
Time Concerto (MacGillivray Freeman Films)
To The Limit (MacGillivray Freeman Films)
Tropical Rain Forest (Shedd Productions)
Gunma (Graphic Films)
Shimane (Graphic Films)
Back To The Future – The Ride (Universal Studios)
Beyond Chaos (Xaos)
Dolphins – The Ride (IMAX Ride Film)
Earthquake (Universal Studios)
Journey To Technopia (Boss Films/Goldstar)
Panorama Tour (iWerks
Scuba Dog (Boss Films/Taito)
Silver Legacy (Circus Circus)
Star Trek – The Experience (Paramount)
Top Secret (Catalyst Entertainment)
Race The Wind (MacGillivray Freeman Films) 1989
Eureka! La Passion Por Conocer (MacGillivray Freeman Films) 1991
Journey To Technopia (Boss Films/Goldstar) 1993
Isuzu (Goodby, Silverstein and Partners)
Power Gen (Great Guns)
Spec Savers (Julian Hanford)
Umbro Soccer (Goodby, Silverstein and Partners)
Advice On Lice (Disney Films)
Landlight (Cinubia Productions)
Paha Sapa (HBO)
Spirits Of The Voyage (Triton Films)
The Getty (Moutainair Films)
The Mystery Of Chaco Canyon (PBS)
Volcano Rescue (BBC/Discovery Channel)
World Of Explorers (ABC)
3-D Ahead Of Time (Sony Pictures)
Time Out Cafe (Kong Productions)
187 (Warner Bros)
A Passion In The Desert (Roland Films)
Baraka (Magidson Films)
Doe In The Headlights (Mountainair Films)
Sound Man (Mountainair Films)
Temptress (Paramount)
Titanic (Paramount)
The Abyss (James Cameron)
Brave Heart (Mel Gibson)
Vampires (John Carpenter)
Desert Moon Walk (Continuum Montage) 1977
Ancient Leaves (Continuum Montage) 1977
Sustaining Cylinders (Continuum Montage) 1978
Morning Jewel (Continuum Montage) 1979
Planetary Unfolding (Continuum Montage) 1981
Light Play (Continuum Montage) 1983
Lyra Sound Constellation (Continuum Montage) 1983
M’Ocean (Sonic Atmospheres) 1984
Chronos (Sonic Atmospheres) 1984
Plunge (Sonic Atmospheres) 1986
Floating Whispers (Sonic Atmospheres) 1987
Encounter (Hearts Of Space) 1988
Sacred Site (Hearts Of Space) 1993
The Lost World (Fathom/Hearts Of Space) 1995
The Light In The Trees (Amplexus) 1996
Collected Ambient And Textural Works 1977-1987 (Fathom/Hearts Of Space) 1996
Collected Thematic Works 1977-1987 (Fathom/Hearts Of Space) 1996
Within • The Nine Dimensions (Earth Turtle) 2000
Spirits Of The Voyage (Earth Turtle) 2000
The Middle Of Time (Earth Turtle) 2000
Desert Solitaire (Fortuna/Celestial Harmonies) 1989 – with Steve Roach and Kevin Braheny
Singing Stones (Fathom/Hearts Of Space) 1994 – with Ron Sunsinger
Kiva (Fathom/Hearts Of Space) 1995 – with Steve Roach and Ron Sunsinger
Sorcerer (Spotted Peccary) 2000 – with Ron Sunsinger
Dali – The Endless Enigma (Cariolis) 1990
Baraka (Milan) 1992
Deep Space (Omni) 1994
Musique Mechanique (Celestial Harmonies) 1995
Storm Of Drones (Sombient) 1996
Celestial Journey (Rising Star) 1996
