Michael Stearns
Lyra
A concept I have heard of before is one of Sound Sculptures but it still seems like rather an odd idea to me. The particular device in this instance was created by Michael Stearns and George Landry. The sculpture was designed and built by George and engineered for sound by Michael. They called it Lyra, thus the title of this CD.

Lyra is a stringed instrument / sculpture consisting of 156 wires stretching 15 to 20 feet from floor to ceiling. Each wire is toned separately and connected to pickups. The recorded sound consists of electrically generated as well as acoustic sounds.

Apart from on the last track and a couple of choruses everything you hear was created by Lyra. But what does the result sound like? Very ambient in the traditional sense would be the answer. Dark drones abound, some of these drones are incredibly deep and bass laden which will shake the foundations of the house like an earthquake, this is particularly true on the opening track 'Arrival'.

To me the album sounds like a cross between Tangerine Dream's 'Zeit' and Walter Carlos' 'Sonic Seasonings' (but without the real atmospheric sounds). If you like either of those albums then I would give this a try. The one different track on the album however is the final one 'Return' which also uses a conventional synthesizer. This is a much more dynamic track and is by far my favourite but will probably be the track fans of the rest of the album will like the least. (DL)

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