Sorcerer

Michael Stearns

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 12, 2000)
• Original Release Date: September 12, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Spotted Peccary
• ASIN: B00004WKBS
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #71,846 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Little Smoke

2. Flyers: The Landing of Inorganic Life

3. Portal

4. Between Parallel Lines

5. Journey to the Underworld

6. Realm of Magical Beings

7. Sendero

8. Eagles Emanations

9. Humito Final

10. Cicharisca: Finding the Path With Heart

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

After six years without any new recordings, pioneering ambient artist Michael Stearns has unleashed a torrent of music with three releases on his own Earth Turtle label and this CD with Ron Sunsinger on Spotted Peccary. In a way, Sorcerer is an extension of their 1994 album, Singing Stones, but Sorcerer is an even more abstract and experimental work. Inspired by the spiritual writings of Carlos Castaneda, Stearns and Sunsinger create a dark and perilous world. On an album that's more sound design than music, they mix electric and acoustic sounds from prepared guitar to bowed metal with environmental recordings. Electronically processed, reversed, and otherwise distorted, they emerge with a surrealism that makes Dali seem like a hardcore realist painter. There are no rhythms to grab onto and no melodies to speak of until the very last track, when Peruvian shaman Don Augustine Rivas sings an Ayahuasca Icarro song. Until that respite, it's a tableau of demonic groans, shuddering metal on metal, and turbulent free falls, all orchestrated into a shifting, enveloping, and precarious soundscape. --John Diliberto

Alternate Music Press

I praise Spotted Peccary for releasing this album...far above the achievements of many current instrumental releases.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible atmospheres, one of Stearns' best ever, December 6, 2000

By	dronecaster (Baton Rouge, LA USA) - See all my reviews

The most significant recording in ambient/space music since Steve Roach's 1996 masterpiece "The Magnificent Void", the Stearns/Sunsinger collaboration "Sorcerer" also gets my vote as the best recording of its kind of 2000. What we have here is not only a sonic tribute to the late Hispanic anthropologist Carlos Castenada, but also what is perhaps the most ingenious recording of ambient tribal experimentalism yet produced. "Sorcerer" is a follow-up to their 1994 work "Singing Stones" (on Fathom Records) and while in spirit it seems to be a large-scale offshoot of Stearns' contribution to the "Storm of Drones" compilation called "Reky into Dark Territory", it transcends that track with superior thematic development and sheer psychological and emotional depth.

Perhaps part of the reason why both artists waited so long to record this music (they had read Casteneda's books during the early 1970s) may be due to waiting for the right developments in sound recording technology to come about. If this is in fact the case (as I believe) then it was one of the wisest decisions for both artists, but for Stearns in particular, "Sorcerer" contains some of the most significant music of his entire career, the sheer power of which is only matched by "Lyra", "Chronos" and "Encounter".

Utilizing everything from synths, prepared electric guitar, and bowed metal instruments, the disc effortlessly slides from near quiet contemplation ("Flyers: The Landing of Inorganic Life")to an unsettling form of ecstasy ("Portal") to a grating soundscape that resembles some of the early efforts of guitarist Jim O'Rourke ("Journey to the Underworld") to unearthly majesty ("The Realm of Magical Beings").

An uncharacteristic yet inestimable addition to Stearns' list of recordings, "Sorcerer" will inevitably go down as one of his most inspired and important efforts ever.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!! Michael & Ron did it again!!, September 28, 2000

By	A. P. Marquez "redshore" (Tallahassee, Florida) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is one of the most impressive CD's I've ever heard. At least since "Stalker", by Robert Rich & Lustmord. And I have listened to a lot of ambient and dark, electronic stuff. I completely agree with the previous listener. "Sorcerer" is a deep, dark and compelling jounrney into Castaneda's writtings. But, besides, it's a fascinating collection of dark soundscapes, rich in textures and amazingly powerful in execution. This work is even more abstract and complex than previous efforts, like Kiva (w/ Steve Roach) and Singing Stones. I strongly recommned this CD to anyone interested in dissapear into the music...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Aurally Engrossing, October 10, 2000

By A Customer

First Michael Stearns Cd I've listened to. Found the CD overall dark,aurally adventuresome,powerful. Take time out to listen to it relaxed in a dark room. Very interesting! Will certainly take one on an aural journey.