Search - Michael Stearns :: Lost World

Poetic acoustics in the rainforest

Laurent COUQUIAUD | Lagny, France | 04/23/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When sound technology meets tribal poetry immerged in the lush green world of the rainforest, haunting but majestuous atmospheres unravel themselves from "The Lost World". Undoubtedly, this is the richiest CD from Michael Stearns for its acoustic form and musical fabric. Stearns is an expert at interweaving complex synthetizer layers and natural soundscapes. "The Lost World Theme" is probably the most profound experience of this sonic journey into the heart of the rainforest. The laments of Keri Rusthoï's voice amidst the rainforest symphony conveys a sharp sadness, a longing for Eden. In a few words, this superb synergy between Pemon chants, on-site acoustics and synthetizer harmonics communicate a deeper yearning: a Unity with a World of an elusive beauty. If you like mystery, melancholy, poetry, textural soundscapes and ominous atmospheres, you are ready for "The Lost World". Your heart may stay there..."

Compelling Ambience from a Master

06/15/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Arguably the best CD yet from this vastly under appreciated artist, this incredible disc takes us on a actual journey to the center of the rain forest. Using real world sounds recorded on location mixed with state of the art recording methods, the sonic quality is unmatched. Musically, this is textured music - a mind trip for those with an active imagination. The sound is so subtle it brings your home theater alive with the electricity of jungle life. Please consider this as audio art and not your average popular music recording. Try and buy."

Haunting and often very intense

K. Swanson | Austin, TX United States | 03/31/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"4.5 stars



I'm surprised there aren't more reviews of this here, but then again it doesn't really fit into any simple category. It's ambient...but almost beat-free. It's New Agey...but with passages of sheer sonic terror and power. It's nature sounds...but with all sorts of tribal and technoid edge.



Above all it sounds truly awesome, in the deepest sense of that misused word. I have a pretty serious stereo, with Carver Platinum speakers that weight 110 pounds each with eight 12-inch woofers, and few of my vinyl or cd slabs can shake them (and my house!) like this album. There are passages with live recordings of monster waterfalls plus keyboards that absolutely astonish the ear, not just with sonic pressure but with walls of sound that lie on the vertiginous edge of music and white noise. Then it will all fade into bits of bliss, birds and streams and weird indigenous instrumental sounds.



It is, in short, a challenging listen on many levels. And I suppose many listeners want their sounds/music to be soothing and not confronting them (hence the relative obscurity of this little masterpiece 15 years after its release). This cd does both and much more. It's not something I listen to much, maybe thirty times since 1999, and hearing it loud in the dark can be quite frightening, actually. I've listened to it in a howling storm at 12,000 feet in the Rockies and it about blew my head off. But, I like my mind to go to new places. That was certainly one of them.



What's perhaps most interesting here is the success with which all of the sounds are combined, especially the exceptional binaural location recordings made in the Venezuelan jungle. Binaural sounds so good as it's exactly how our ears hear, so one can hear behind as well as in front. Listen to St. Francis here and those birds will circle your head, which certainly adds to the overall effect of being submerged in the jungle, and the feeling of being in Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World. When combined with Stearn's ambient keyboard mastery (many Vangelis-like touches here, a major compliment as I hear it), and occasional swathes of wailing human voice, the binaural sound becomes a true sonic adventure.



For those listeners with adventurous ears who don't mind their mind going many places in a very short time, The Lost World is one of the most interesting and intense listening experiences you will ever have.



It will also make your sound system do things it's never had to do before.



In short, if you've read this far, you probably need this cd.



Kudos to Michael Stearns for this most unique meld of natural/manmade sounds."