EARTHSTAR

EARTHSTAR's debut is one of those albums that has never been re-issued and therefore fetches some crazy prices from collectors. It was originally released on Moontower Records in 1978, a Country music label based in Nashville. EARTSTAR was led by Craig Wuest, and the band was based in New York. He had been corresponding with Klause Schulze prior to the release of their debut. Klause suggested that the band would do well to move to Germany where he could help out, and where this type of music was more accepted.

So this six piece band released "Salterbarty Tales" before moving to Europe, and by all accounts this one is very different from the three studio albums that would follow. And it's so rare that it gets dismissed or overlooked. It's dominated by synths and piano with some flute, violin, bass and percussion sprinkled throughout. There is no mellotron or the rare birotron on this one. And I find it to be very inconsistent. No sequencers or the variety of keyboards that would follow.

The band moved first to France where they would start to record the next album "French Skyline" and that title is based on their brief stint in France. Moving then to Germany, Klause Shulze would get heavily involved, co-producing that record and playing keyboards on it. So basically half of it was recorded in France, and half in Germany. A much more intense album by all accounts where mellotron, birotron, sequencers dominate, yet these sounds were completely absent on the debut.

The opener "Splendored Skies And Angels" is a nice start where synths dominate throughout. The next track "Serindego" is over 9 minutes of nothing but grand piano throughout. Maybe 2 minutes would have worked. The next two short tracks are similar sounding with "Salterbarty Overture" having an orchestral vibe and the latter "Wee Voices Touch" featuring some flute. "Broken Chain Of Euphoria" ends side one, and it's my favourite. I like how experimental it is early on, almost like free jazz in the sense that each musician seems to be doing their own thing. Percussion on this one too, then it turns spacey with different flavours.

"Canyon Nebula" is the 22 minute plus epic on here. A lot of ebb and flow when it comes to the synths. The one synth sound I like here sounds like a distant helicopter, and it will come and go throughout. I will say that the next tune "Night Tones" is quite interesting with those jagged-like synths that pierce the spacey atmosphere. Piano before 2 minutes and this isn't nearly as good. More piano, sounding classical on the short "Sunsets" that I'm not a fan of before the one minute closer that is much better.

I clearly got the wrong album as "French Skylines" sounds so much more like what I am into when it comes to electronics. Obviously the participation of the master Klause Schulze helps with that as well.

Earthstar, from Utica, New York was one of the rare examples of Berlin School of Electronic Music at the end of the '70s (Michael Garrison, based out of the very unlikely Bend, Oregon, was another example). In 1978 they released Salterbarty Tales which was released on Moontower out of Nashville, a place very well known for country music, but hardly the place to release albums by electronic acts. So many people were completely unaware of Salterbarty Tales due to its rarity, so most assume French Skyline was their debut. French Skyline certainly helped Earthstar get much more recognition, so naturally it's the Sky label albums that are obviously much easier to get a hold of than Salterbury Tales. Craig Wuest was the leader of this group, and he and the band moved to Germany and apparently wanted to get a deal with Innovative Communications, Schulze's label, but instead Sky took on their offer. Still Schulze helped by co-producing along with Wuest. Even part of this album was recorded at IC Studios (side two was recorded in France, hence the French Skyline title). "Latin Sires for the Wall" shows right away the heavy Schulze- influence, so much so that's why many assumed Earthstar were German and not American. It's full of tron choir, sounds exactly like Schulze's own Mk. V tron choirs you hear on the likes of Mirage or the Body Love albums, I wouldn't doubt if Wuest was using Schulze's machine here. He also uses so many keyboards that's easy to get lost. He, outside of Rick Wakeman, was one of the few artists to ever record with the 8-track-driven Birotron (Wakeman helped develop the machine). "Splendored Skies and Angles" and of course "French Skyline Suite" was recorded in France and pretty much sticks close to the Schulze template. I have to say it's a nice album worth hearing, but on the other hand, it doesn't add anything new to the table (aside from a small amount of sitar) you hadn't already heard with Berlin School electronic music. But it's still very good still the same, so even if it don't give out a lot of surprises, it's still very much worth owning due to it being a rather solid album.