Michael Stearns Live at SoundQuest

Michael Stearns performs a set for SoundQuestFest. Ambient music pioneer, Steve Roach revived and organized a three-day livestream event to an audience of thousands from all over the globe during the Covid 19 pandemic. The festival was billed as an "international gathering of sonic innovators and ambient architects, bringing live-streamed performances and audio-video wonder worlds." Steve Roach opened the show that featured Michael Stearns and other international contemporary electronic music masters including Ian Boddy, Robert Rich, and Erik Wollo as well as other electronic greats who also graced the livestream stage. The performances ranged from ambient space music to Berlin School style jams to microtonal soundscapes, and featured a huge variety of electronic music gear and other instruments played in creative ways. “The event was a groundbreaking moment for this genre of music,” notes Roach. Michael Stearns and Steve Roach's music collaborations started in the early 80's with their collaborative album, Desert Solitaire which included Kevin Breheny. In the early 90's they went on to co-create the album Kiva with Ron Sunsinger. Their most recent collaboration album, Beyond Earth and Sky, was released in 2022. Michael Stearns opens his set playing electric guitar, adds his breath through Native American flute and adds instrumentation over multilayered and richly textured analog, digital and modular synthesis. He weaves his own field recordings with some from Ron Sunsinger's recordings of shaman, Don Augustine Rivera, chanting and whistle guiding during a sacred ayahuasca ceremony. During the performance, Michael plays a segment with "the beam", a legendary stringed instrument originally created and designed by John Lazelle. Michael performed live to "Village Life" a movement from the score of the film "Samsara"produced by Mark Magidson and directed by Ron Fricke. Gratitude for Steve Roach and the SoundQuestFest team for making this event happen. Special thanks to my wife, Joy, for her creative eye, production design and her ongoing support. I want to acknowledge Colin Hauenstein for his camerawork and video production as well as David Aubrey from Lightningwood Pictures for post-production. I want to give special shout out's for Kevin Breheny, Ron Sunsinger and Don Augustine Rivera.