Stardrive featuring robert mason - `74 , columbia records

ok , found this one recently & its so far out there i had to post it at the kosmos !
the moog obviously wasnt good enuff for this guy , he had to build his own synth & he named it "STARDRIVE". AND he sure knows how to play it : prog fans delight , synth fans delight , space rock fans in general delight ; this one smokes... hang on tight .


found this info on the web , ha !




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STARDRIVE IS A ROCK GROUP.
It is named for the power that propels a moving body to the speed of light -- the velocity at which matter ceases to be matter and becomes pure energy.This energy is the source of STARDRIVE's musical aesthetic.
And at the center of STARDRIVE's energy is a man and a machine bonded in an organic relationship that signals the future for us all -- a time when machines are true extensions of our feelings.
The man is Robert Mason.
The machine, which he built, is literally the most advanced keyboard instrument in ex­istence. It is an electronic synthesizer that combines the infinite musical possibilities of studio systems like the Moog, the Arp, and the Buchla, but with one very important dif­ference .......... Mason's machine has an incredible, real-time, live performance capability. And when man and machine play perform, they are one.
STARDRIVE's idiom is rock unlike anything ever performed before.
It is wailing and pounding and flowing and ebbing and ethereal and hypnotic........ with brilliant, sensuous whirlpools of light and color and texture. It is basic and emotional, almost a tactile thing. And it is very hard to forget, once you've experienced it.
When STARDRIVE begins to play and you begin to listen---sit back and really listen. You're taking the next step outward...... a journey where time takes on a new dimension. A journey through the infinite possibilities of music.

about robert mason

His formal musical background began at the prodigious age of twelve. He studied piano and composition at the Mannes and Julliard Schools in New York City, at the same time studying privately with several contemporary composers. During these years, he compos­ed and conducted a lot of music - a remarkable feat, but unsatisfying for Mason as an ef­fective means of musical expression.
He graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory, with a bachelor's degree in composition, and began exploring outward, composing tapes at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Later, he worked with Morton Subotnik at the New York University Electronic Music Workshop, playing with composers Steve Reich and Paul Bley. It was around this time that he began searching for something beyond the musical limitations of the Moog, Arp and Buchla synthesizers.
Each step along the way he added something to his musical insights and sensibilities: mixed-media concerts at the Electric Circus, arranging for rock bands, joining Free Life Communications (a collective of New York's top instrumental musicians), and collabor­ating with several dance groups at the Space for Innovative Development in New York. It was at this time that Mason completed the major developments of his performance synthesizer, and started assembling the personnel for a group.
STARDRIVE is the culmination.
What also brought him to this point is the persistent feeling that "electronic music has been limited in its development on one extreme by the dry hand of intellectualism the on the other, by musical hacks looking for a gimmick to suck in a pop audience. They don't play electronic music any more than my instrument can play without me".
What really makes Mason different from anyone else in music today - pop or so-called 'pure electronic' - is that he is equally at home in the European musical tradition, the rock and blues idiom, and the world of electronic music.
He also believes that "electronic music will grow more in an emotional climate, because human beings can have energy relationships with machines. Right now, it's an all or no­thing situation for me. Either I can use what I presently have - a direct linkage of my fingers to electronic infinity- or else find a machine that responds directly to my thoughts. Do you know how fantastically spontaneous that would be - to have a telepathic instead of of mechanical relationship with an instrument?"
"Maybe these notions are 21st century ideas. Who knows, they'll probably seem anti­quated to a 22nd century musicologist. But tfiiat's show biz."'

Hornplayer TREVOR KOEHLER doubles on soprano and baritone sax, as well as flute and brings to STARDRIVE a rare dynamism and versatility. He was voted ##1 (baritone sax) in the 1970 Jazz & Pop Critic's Poll. And his range of experience extends from country and western to the outer limits of musical expression. Most recently, he has played with the Gil Evans Orchestra and the Insect Trust.
Guitarist STEVE KHAN has worked with people like Tim Buckley, Paul Anka, the Friends of Distinction and the Jazz Crusaders. He's a perceptive and forceful player with a fluid style that wastes no effort.
Drummer, BARRY LAZAROWITZ is a seasoned studio musician who's played with Chuck Jackson, Peter Thom, Janis Ian and James Moody, among others. His fantastic energy output is channeled into a remarkably articulate precision sound.
JOHN MILLER is not only an extraordinary bass player, he's one of the best known in New York. Equally at home in rock, jazz and even classical music, he's played with Tim Buckley, Dreams, Pete Seeger, Chico Hamilton and Richie Havens


STARDRIVE is THE ELECTRONIC MUSIC BAND.
We are building toward a higher future, one in which music will be ultra-tech­nological and yet truly human. The path is clear - man's collective knowledge is immense and continues to expand - unless we make music with it, it will only serve itself and stifle our joy - and without this joy a future harmony of men and machines is impossible.
The music of STARDRIVE is truly a music of all races and cultures. Not an eclectic tapestry of styles, it is a unified sound-form that cuts through social barriers and cultural categories. This sound will eventually communicate to the entire planet. It is the music of Marshal McCluhan's global village and of Buckminster Fuller's spaceship earth.
Perception of time is the most revealing aspect of a man's total philosophy. The West's constant urge for recapitulation, the East's embrace of the aim­less flow; these are the polar opposites that conflict in the conscioussness of every man. The music of STARDRIVE expresses both these time-perceptions simultaneously; the listener's conscioussness becomes a balanced composite. This is the normal frame of mind for the citizen of the future.
Electronic sound is the key to these changes of music and mind. After thou­sands of years, there finally exists a new sound vocabulary capable of profoundly re-arranging our thinking processes. The electronic equipment STARDRIVE uses is the most advanced of its kind; never have machines been so attuned to muscular responses, never before have mind and body come so close together.

STARDRIVE, THE ELECTRONIC MUSIC BAND, is aware of all this. We are continually projecting our largest and smallest dimensions through the har­monious rhythm of sound.
- Robert Mason



Stardrive featuring robert mason - `74 , columbia records
all trax from wax by akashaman - 2010 -
MP3 @ 320kbps
includes high rez cover scans !

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1. Funkascensions
2. Ballad I
3. Jupiterjump
4. Pulsar
5. Ballad II
6. Air Sauce
7. Ballad III
8. Journey

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