Starseed And The Pleasure of Doing Nothing

Rasa, Ma, and Bastian (Starseed) have produced what strikes my ears their best work to date.  Called Entering The Ambient Temple, it is everything Starseed seems to have been conceived for.  It comes as close to Ma's artwork as may be possible with vibration.  Rasa's sitar virtusosity, always downplayed to fit the group consciousness rather than make him the lead, is much move evident here than in previous works -- yet nothing is unbalanced.  Bastian coaxes from his synthesizers breathtaking shivers -- like a double-E waterfall all over my back -- and captures sublime moods of awe and reverence beautifully in music.  It's obvious that he's spent many hours laboring over the most minute details in the overtones of his sounds.  The result is an unworldly voice that roots the music firmly in Earth while always reaching toward Heaven.  My personal favorite of the album's pieces, Dolce far Niente (The Pleasure of Doing Nothing) celebrates Sat-Chit-Ananda (Being - Awareness - Bliss), the perfection of consciousness in which nothing remains to be done; now and forever are identical; all wants and needs either satisfied or irrelevant; and one walks in the glory of perfect grace.  I do not normally review music, but, upon hearing this, my need to write about it became irresistable: for here, truly, is beauty within beauty, and depth that passes understanding.

Bastian's synths, which literally ground the music are unobtrusive, almost subliminal -- unless you break the fundamentally integrated nature of the music to focus specifically on them.  Then you will hear extradordinarily complex voicing and textures that fade one into the other as if in telepathic contact with the others.  In some cases, Bastian is even clairvoyant: an upcoming shift in mood is heralded by the sudden swell of chords that had been playing so long that their emotional tone had gone deep into the unconscious.  It's important to realize that Starseed uses no overdubbing; indeed, they never even allow themselves a second "take" of a piece.  Their method is centered around the creation of a group consciousness from their three seperate consciousnesses by means of a long period of meditation, after which they enter one of their several studios (depending on where in the country they are) and perform live, entirely improvised, for however long seems appropriate.

Their newest studio is the Tower at Rasa's home: a spiral staircase ascends to an austere, shrine-like room -- exactly 12 feet square and ten feet tall -- rising above the roof of the house. A pyramid shaped meditation room sits directly above the tower. All four walls are windows. The cabling for the synthesizers, as well as the recording equipment, is so well hidden that one can't find it even upon close inspection. Through the windows, breathtaking views of the Berkshires and the Holyoke range are visible.

Ma's tanpura, the most subtle of the instruments, is so uniquely her that it is uncanny.  A breeze, a playful muse, and a pulse (though more like the waves of the wind, or the breath, or the tides, than any kind of drum) at once, it sends continuous waves and shivers of ecstasy through the music.  And, sound and vibration aside, her presence manages to make a powerful mark on the music.  Starseed's tempo is in no way fixed, but moves, lives, and breathes, like the nature it draws from.  Ma's approach to her instrument can only be called unorthodox: although, except for the synthesizers, these are Indian classical instruments, Starseed's music is definitely not Indian music.  The pieces have various forms, but none has the structure of a rag (to be fair, such a structure could not truly be executed without tabla -- and tabla is close to unthinkable in Starseed's music).

Rasa has a way of making his sympathetic strings literally sing that is unlike that of any sitarist I'm familiar with.  Part of this is his insistence on utterly meticulous tuning, and part of it is his willingness to give the instrument its chance to speak, rather than simply imposing his thoughts on it.  It is astounding how long his sympathetics will continue to ring out for; how rich the overtones he finds simply by letting the instrument speak.  In his hands, this preternaturally responsive instrument will bring you into spaces you had no idea existed.