This episode of the Ambient Soundbath Podcast features something that I haven’t done before here, a remix/remaster of sorts in the form of reworking the music for Geoffrey Chandler’s 1980 synthesizer space recording, Starscapes.
Who is Geoffrey Chandler, I don’t know. Did he do other recordings? I don’t know that either, except I can’t find any. I don’t know anything about Geoffrey Chanlder or Starscapes or the Unity Records label that released this on vinyl and cassette in 1980.
What I can tell you, is this is a fantastic recording with great music. Starscapes and Geoffrey Chandler belong to a canon of electronic (and maybe, New Age) music that came on the scene in the mid 1970s through the 90s, and somewhat died out just before the advent of the Internet, which meant it was also sort of lost to the current digital era. There were a ton of indie and self-released recordings coming out. The fidelity of synthesizers and the decreasing cost of home studios meant that more people were making and releasing music than ever before. There’s a great collection called I am the Center that chronicles this era and brings together some of the more well-known artists of the period. There are a lot of recordings from this era that have a warmth, purity and vibe that I’ve found myself drawn to. Often, what these recordings lack in fidelity they more than make up for in timbre, originality and character. Also, many of these recordings are out of print, with defunct labels and no trace of the artists. For a long time I lamented these sad facts, but then I realized that you and the listeners of the Ambient Soundbath Podcast could benefit from these recordings and perhaps we could breathe new life into the music.
So, today, I offer the first of these: Geoffrey Chandler’s Starscapes in its entirety, featuring a seamless, remixed version of Side A and Side B of the original cassette.
Enjoy.
p.s. If you are, or know, Geoffrey Chandler. We would love to hear more of the story behind this recording and others — Please get in touch.
I wrote to Geoffrey Chandler to order a copy of this cassette in 2003 or so, when we both lived in San Francisco. He included a nice note with the tape and I think a clipping or two. I should rummage in my file cabinet for those. I wish I’d asked to meet him!