Where the Earth Touches the Stars

Recensione album

Navajo flautist A. Brent Chase and composer Gerald Jay Markoe formed a special bond of friendship ("love at first sound") when Markoe vacationed in Sedona in 1994. They decided to collaborate on an album, and for Markoe especially, this album marked a vast departure from his Baroque-flavored Pleiades/Angel series. Here Markoe plays synthesizers and a number of world percussion instruments, while Chase plays the traditional Native American flute. The sensuous drumming often strays beyond the 4/4 beat, venturing boldly into trance-dance territory. Markoe's musical settings walk the line between space music and ambient, and the steady hypnotic rhythms are always appealing. At other times, Markoe provides expansive plains of unfolding sounds or swirling eddies of music simulating galaxies overhead.